PTW

My seat post had been stuck in my SuperGalaxy for 5 years, since I bought it in fact. Aluminium seat post in steel bike, it had corroded fast within six months, which is when I discovered I couldn't move it. I even tried putting the seat post in the bench vice and twisting the entire bike, but I'd been warned that the precious 853 tubes will give way first, not the seat post, therefore I gave up for another couple of years.

But no more. I resolved at last to use the hacksaw blade in a broom handle trick (number 12 on Sheldon Brown's site). This is the finished device:



Someone in CTC suggested this, and I said I'd give it a try. He replied "There is no 'try'. Once you start, you gotta do it". This did little to encourage me. Step 1: saw your seat post in half. Step 2: don't open your eyes and look at what you've just done to your bike. There really is no guarantee that the old post will ever come out, or that if you do get it out, you will do so without wrecking your frame.

However, two hours of sawing, drilling, banging, spraying and twisting later I managed to extract this:



In the end I had to saw two slots, 3mm apart, and keep going until the entire strip of aluminium between the two fell out. This took me a lot closer to sawing the inside of the seat tube than I wanted to go, but it seems to have survived. 853 is evidently much, much harder than aluminium.

And finally, a sight I wondered if I'd ever see again...


Never ever, ever, EVER let a bike shop build a bike for you

Holy bi-metallic corrosion Batman!

Been there, done that. About 16 years ago I bought an old Jeff Bruce 531ST in a PTW auction (remember them?) from one of the two pips (remember them?) and had the same problem. I was working in Aberthaw Power Station and had a lot of 'industrial' help to get it out. I think Jeff Tobin still has that frame...

I really liked an article in a bike magazine about this problem that listed suggested remedies and concluded with the 'time travel method' where you go back in time and grease your seat pin

bang tidy !!! i got a control teck alloy post stuck in my very first jeff bruce 653 frame which i was hoping to renovate back to its original glory but had the same problem so ill give that a try

There is no 'try'...