For years now, professional and recreational bikers alike have been using spring-loaded seat posts. They absorb the worst shocks, and make the ride more comfortable for the back. Still, for noticeably greater ride comfort, you have to dig deeper in your pockets. Fraunhofer researchers have just developed a functionally-integrated bicycle seat post from carbon fiber composite materials (CFRPs — Carbon fiber reinforced plastics) that is ultra light and extraordinarily effective. “A hardtail mountain bike with this new kind of CFRP seat post rides as if it were a full suspension bike,” says triathlon world champion Daniel Unger after a test drive. The professional cyclist means that the CFRP seat post can turn any mountain bike without rear-wheel suspension into a fully spring-loaded luxury vehicle. No surprise that in September, the component earned the Eurobike Award at the Eurobike 2009 trade show in Friedrichshafen and in Stuttgart, the high-tech post has been nominated for the 2009 AVK Award for Innovation.
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