Redshift ShockStop PRO Endurance Suspension Seatpost
Redshift has recently released a new Suspension Seatpost as part of its offering to enhance comfort on the bike. Called “PRO Endurance”, it can be placed as a happy middle-ground between the “Endurance” and the “PRO Race” seatposts.
I have been riding for over a year with a Redshift ShockStop Suspension stem, and have used it on all sort of rides and terrains. Paired with a rigid gravel bike, it has accompanied us on long rides (up to 275km) on off-road British events such as Calder Divide Trail and BearBones200, where terrain is anything but gentle and one gets stared at with disbelief for taking a drop-bar bike to a gun fight. The stem has served us well on multi-day events such as Memory Bike Adventure, with over 4 days of riding on alpine gravel, rocky singletrack and tarmac. It never missed a bit, and kept our hands comfortable.
Considering the positive experience with the Redshift Shockstop Suspension stem, and with plans for more multi-day adventures in the future, I have been keen to try a Redshift Suspension Seatpost for a while and got pretty excited when Redshift sent me one for testing.
The ShockStop Seatpost line-up
A suspension seatpost is a specially designed bicycle seatpost featuring shock absorbing construction that helps smooth out bumps in the terrain and reduce the impact to the rider. They are best suited for gravel riding and bikepacking applications but are also used on road bikes to help riders stay in the saddle through rough roads.
The Shockstop suspension seatposts feature a proprietary parallelogram design, which allows for the suspension to remain active even when you're seated and pedaling. This means that you can benefit from the suspension's smoothing effect even when you're putting down power, unlike some suspension seatposts that become rigid when you're pedaling.
Suspension Seatposts can inmprove comfort by absorbing shocks and vibrations, and therefore improving control, efficiency and reducing fatigue.
It is worth touching on the differences between the three seatposts offered by Redshift, and how the PRO Endurance fits between what were the two options on sale up to this point:
The Endurance Seatpost: a 35mm travel seatpost with dual springs, providing an “Active Plush” ride feel;
The PRO Race Seatpost: a lightweight 20mm travel seatpost with interchangeable dual spring + elastometer, providing a “Damped Race-Tuned” ride feel.
The PRO Endurance provides a “Damped Responsive” ride feel thanks to an adjustable dual spring working in combination with an elastomer. It is made of aluminium and provides up to 35mm travel. The only downside? It adds roughly 200gr to your current set-up, depending on the seatpost it replaces.
Installation
My bike mechanic skills are non-existent, and I easily managed to install the seatpost after reading the instructions and watching the helpful Redshift video tutorial.
I am a 90kg rider, using a gravel bike using 29” tyres between 50mm and 2.25” width. When setting up the seatpost, Redshift provides recommended stiffness settings based on the weight of the user and type of riding. My weight placed me well in the highest firmness group. I therefore replaced the green/soft elastomer with the red/medium elastomer included in the box, and I tuned the coil springs to low/medium stiffness as a starting point. As recommended by Redshift, I set my saddle slightly higher than usual to compensate for some compression and settlement of the seatpost while in normal use.
The Redshift recommended settings are a good starting point based on their testing and experience, it is definitely worth fine-tuning the seatpost to achieve one’s desired configuration and level of “bounciness”. In my case I ended up not changing much as I found the seatpost comfortable and would not want it any less stiff. You might want to experiment with different settings, especially if your weight puts you between group.
I carry a spare tube and repair tools in a small saddlebag. This attaches to the seat rails and to the top of the seatpost: exactly where the parallelogram is. I haven’t noticed any issues with the saddlebag, all I had to do was keep the seatpost strap a bit loose and make sure the seatpost was able to compress and move.
First impressions
For my first ride with the ShockStop seatpost, I planned to ride the Mary Towneley Loop. Originally created as a horse riding route, the Mary Towneley Loop is a 75km (47miles) circular route through the Pennines of East Lancashire and West Yorkshire. Starting from Manchester and joining the loop in Rochdale, that becomes a 120km ride on a mixture of tarmac, canal towpaths, cobbles, packhorse trails, singletrack and bridleways. If there's one varied ride this is probably the one, and with 2.500m of climbing it is not a walk in the park either.
I was a bit distracted when I first got on the bike, I felt the saddle going down and instantly tought I just had a flat. I couldn’t believe it, the ride had not even started! Only that it wasn’t a flat tyre, it was the seatpost sagging under my weight (obviously!). Having accepted the fact that my bike now had some real “bounce” at the rear, I added a few psi to the 2.25” Schwalbe Racing Ralph tyre to make sure I was using the shock absorbing properties of the seatpost rather than suppleness of the tyre. This would also get me a bit faster on-road I thought, and so I set off.
Just like the Redshift suspension stem, one gets quickly accustomed to its presence and does actually not notice the seatpost working while riding. I forced myself to pay attention to it, especially off-road, and I was quickly positively impressed. On the cobbled flat sections along the Rochdale canal, I could immediately feel that I didn’t need to get off the saddle as I normally would to spare my lower back from excessive vibration. I fought the habit of getting on the pedals and stayed seated and the seatpost took care of the bumps. Not only that, it also allowed me to keep pedalling without breaking my cadence.
Final thoughts
Can one live without a suspension seatpost? Yes of course. Just like MTBs did not have suspensions and my monster gravel bike is comfortable enough on its own relying just on tyre pressure. However, in my experience and for my type of use, I can see a lot of benefits with the ShockStop Suspension Seatpost and I cannot see me taking it off the bike anytime soon.
On a particularly rough stretch of gravel, one could simply get off the saddle and stand up on the pedals until the worst is over - if it is a short stretch - or reduce the speed on a longer stretches to maintain control. On rough climbs, one has no other choice than getting off the saddle, although being careful not moving the weight forward to keep enough pressure/grip on the rear tyre.
The ShockStop suspension seatpost introduces not only additional comfort - which on long events translates into speed - but also allows one to stay seated on rough climbs. That for me was one of the major advantages of the seatpost. Staying seated, I am more in control of the bike, I do not have to slow down when going over small bumps and it is easier to keep the weight on the rear tyre. Similarly, on flat ground I can keep pedalling from the saddle hence maximising efficiency which is crucial on long events.
Obviously when compared against a standard seatpost, the ShockStop seatpost is heavier. Once on the bike, I am just not a strong/experienced enough rider to notice a change of 200gr. The rides I do can be fairly hilly, with long rides exceeding 3000m of climbing, so I do have to keep an eye on weight of components but I don’t let that drive my gear choices. Comfort is king for me, followed by cost and durability.
Maintenance-wise, I rode my bike with the ShockStop seatpost in awful weather conditions and haven’t done any cleaning beyond a normal post-ride bike wash. I cannot see the post needing any particular maintenance, nor I can see much going wrong with it while riding.
