Control Tech are US brand with a big name in road and mountain bikes. They have a couple of BMX specific stems but haven’t really cracked the market yet.

I was given the new Control Tech Scandium seatpost a few months ago for review. bmxultra.com team rider Jonathan “Jon Jon” Hoare was also running the seat post. My first impressions were that it was light, very light, and looked slick with the matt black finish.

When installing the post I found it difficult to get the clamp over the rails but that’s typical with most seatposts these days, and my big clumsy fingers don’t help either. It was the clunk that the post made when I first tightened it right up that worried me. I thought I had over tightened the bolt, snapping it, but it was just the clamp settling into place on the seat rails. The clamp mechanism came loose a couple of times. I worked out that it was because I tried to tilt the seat angle back too far. The angle you can have the seat on is quite limited due to the design of the adjuster. If you have the seat angled too far back it rocks backwards and forwards as you sit down and stand up which eventually loosens the bolt. By tipping the nose down that was no longer a problem.

During the testing period Jon Jon managed to snap the bolt on his seatpost. It could be that he had over tightened it, but I think the bolt is more suited to road or mountain biking. A stronger bolt should be used to cope with the constant abuse that a BMXer would dish out. It wasn’t a big deal, if this does happen the bolts can be replaced and they are not very expensive.

Features and specs.

• 3D forged + CNC aluminium.
• Micro-adjuster seat clamp.
• Available in 26.8, 27.0, 27.2, and 31.6mm diameters.
• 250, 300, and 350 mm lengths.
• 4/5″ offset.
• Weighs 185 grams

Rating 14.5/20:

Comments:

• The Scandium seatpost won’t last as long as a seatpost built specifically for BMX. We had to replace the bolt for it during the testing period.
• Designed for road and mountain biking, the Scandium is light.
• I wasn’t impressed with the limited range of movement in the angle of the seat. I also had a lot of trouble with the mechanism coming loose at first.
• The matt black finish with the etched logo looks awesome.

For more information check out www.controltechbikes.com.