Cane Creek eeSilk+ Seat Post Aluminium

The Cane Creek eeSilk+ Aluminium Seat Post takes the excellent build quality and performance of the standard eeSilk, and gives you an extra 15mm of travel. If you want a subtle bump-taming solution whatever the terrain, this needs to be on your shortlist – especially considering the price drop.

Back at the end of last year Cane Creek announced an upgraded eeSilk range, and as Dave liked the original version so much, I was hoping the new models were going to perform as well.

The biggest change, though, is to the price. The original aluminium eeSilk was £319, while the new one is £224.99.

This eeSilk+ offers an increased travel of 35mm, versus the standard (nonplussed?) version with 20mm. Like the shorter version it retails for £224.99, while the carbon fibre version is £329.

This new price makes the eeSilk+ much more competitive against other suspension seastposts, such as the Redshift ShockStop (which also has 35mm of travel), which is currently £214.99. That's quite heavy though, despite being 27.2mm only: the 350mm version I tested weighed 545g, whereas this eeSilk+ is just 338g in a 31.6mm diameter.

The Cirrus Cycles Kinekt 2.1 doesn't look to be available direct in the UK at the moment, but is available on Amazon for around £245-£270, depending on size.

So, the eeSilk+ is well priced against the competitors and it's lighter too – that Kinect was 614g!

Shoulda put a spring on it

The performance is also great, in my opinion. I don't want to be able to feel that I've got a suspension seatpost on my bike. This might sound a little strange, but I like quite a firm ride and I especially do not want to be feeling the saddle bob around underneath me while I'm pedalling. The eeSilk+ achieves this.

It is so subtle in its action it is barely noticeable, and it just gently absorbs the little ripples and bumps without telegraphing its presence. It's only on the big bumps that you feel it use the available travel. It's also very smooth.

Most importantly for me, it doesn't react to pedalling efforts at all, even when turning them over hard. On the road it just feels to me like a standard seatpost; yes, it moves slightly in reaction to the roughness of the road, but it's pretty much undetectable.

The spring rate of the seatpost is controlled its elastomer, and that can be swapped for a softer or harder version than the default one to tune it for your weight. I found the standard one spot on, and after my usual three-hour gravel route I found I was noticeably more comfortable, and less fatigued too – I hadn't had to spend as much time out of the saddle when flying along the rough sections.

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The pivot design uses stainless steel axles (previous eeSilks used hollow aluminium) and IGUS bushes. As I've said, the whole operation runs very smoothly (even after plenty of wet weather abuse), and it's quiet too. There is a tiny bit of lateral play if you wiggle the cradle from the top, but it's not noticeable when riding at all.

This post is very well engineered and, as Dave mentioned in his review of the earlier eeSilk, he's been running the mountain bike equivalent (the Cane Creek Thudbuster) for the best part of twenty years with no issues. That bodes very well for reliability.

The aluminium eeSilk+ comes in 27.2 and 31.6mm diameters, and has an overall length of 387mm, with the bottom of the mechanism to the bottom of the saddle's rail measuring around 70mm. The rider weight limit is 113kg.

Saddle fitment is easy with a socket cap hex bolt at the rear and a regular bolt for adjustment at the front. I takes a spanner for adjustment, something I prefer to a thumbwheel design. The post is also Di2 battery compatible.

Overall

Dave was very impressed with the original eeSilk, and this eeSilk+ is just as brilliant to use – and better still, it comes at a much lower price too.

Verdict

Smooth and subtle solution to taming bumps in the roads or trails, now at a competitive price