I guess you could say we're pretty hard on seatposts. After the awfulness that was the removal of Lorena's seatpost from her now-deceased cross bike, I decided to take my own advice and start pulling and greasing all of the seatposts in all of our bikes.
When I tried to pull the seatpost from my Gunnar mountain bike, it didn't want to budge. This bummed me out because I really didn't want to cut a Thomson seatpost. To avoid cutting, I tried various other methods involving heat, cold, beating on it, and various penetrating fluids. I also clamped the head of the post in my bench vise and tried to use the frame as a lever to break it loose. The post was so stuck that the vise rotated on its base despite tightening the vise base with the assistance of a hammer. This was not an encouraging sign.
On Friday evening, I took the frame up to the bike shop because they have a more substantial vise. I clamped it up and tried twisting it again with the frame. A few tugs and I heard a loud 'Pop'. The glimmer of hope quickly turned to horror as I realized the popping noise was the seatpost cracking.
Obviously, the post was ruined and now I didn't feel so bad about cutting it. Within about 30 minutes on Saturday morning I had cut the post off and made a radial cut through its wall. I was then able to crush it in enough to twist it out with some Channel-Locks.
Oh well. Just another lesson learned and it certainly bears repeating that everyone should GO PULL AND GREASE ALL OF YOUR SEATPOSTS RIGHT NOW!
Nobody should ever have to cut a Thomson seatpost. Ever.
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