Race Face Deus XC Seatpost
By James Sharp

Seat posts are one of those parts that you never, ever want to have fail on you. There are worse, granted -- forks and handlebars, for example -- but breaking a seat post will, at the least, be a major inconvenience. In addition to that, you want a seat post that doesn’t contribute to saddle rail breakage either. In short, you want a seat post that holds the saddle securely, is easy to adjust -- and stays adjusted -- and doesn’t weigh a ton. It’d be nice if it was inexpensive too, but that’s something that can be worked around. Race Face has such a post. They call it the Deus XC post and they’ve added a novel twist to the idea of holding the saddle in place.

On the Deus XC post, Race Face has separated rail-clamping duties from the tilt adjustment. This makes saddle adjustment a piece of cake. Once the saddle is clamped in place, you can adjust tilt without messing with the fore and aft positioning, and vice versa. The post comes in a 400mm length only, but has marks for cutting it down – it even shows you how much weight you will be saving per section cut off. The post is marked for height adjustment, a nice touch if you lower and raise your saddle often. Uncut the post weighs in at 240g and the head has 0.5 inches of offset.

I really like this seat post for the ease of set up. With infinite saddle angle adjustment, getting your saddle in the right spot is trivial. However, because the clamp, er… clamps from the side, not top and bottom like a normal seat post clamp, I can’t recommend it’s use on carbon railed saddles. Also, if you have an older saddle that has deeper sides than the modern thin designs, you might run into problems accessing the rail clamp bolt. Those two caveats aside, the post design is very stable and very easy to use.

Summary: Seat posts aren’t glamorous. They are, however, very important on long rides. No-one wants to end up standing for hours on end. Race Face has put together a simple, quality post that is easy to adjust, doesn’t creak, and is strong enough to handle the abuse normal mountain biking places on components. At $58 it’s not terribly expensive either. If you are looking for a new post I heartily recommend you take a look at the Deus XC post.

James Sharp is a contributing editor for GearReview.com.

For more information, contact:
Race Face Performance Products
100-100 Braid Street
New Westminster, BC
V3L 3P4
Phone: 604-527-9996
Email: components@raceface.com
www.raceface.com