Syntace P6 HiFlex Seatpost

As a brand, Syntace may not pack the glossy marking punch of names like Race Face, Crank Brothers, Answer orEaston. Their website lacks exciting videos, stunning action photography and lists of pro riders who are paid to use the gear. Instead they include lots of technical information on their product and the why it is made in a particular way.

Take their handlebar stem specifications for example; rather than showing one sample weight in the shortest possible length, they list a separate weight for each incremental change in stem length. Not a big deal in itself but it shows where they are coming from; fanatical German design that’s done from an engineering rather than a marketing perspective.

Engineering Overload

The development timeline behind their new P6 Carbon HiFlex seatpost is a good example of how their design team works. There’s been a carbon post in the Syntace line-up for many years but it had an alloy head that was bonded to a carbon shaft and it weighed around 235g in a 30.9x400mm size. In 2009 I saw a pre-production version of the full carbon P6 post on display at theTaipeibike show—it was due for release shortly thereafter. The new post was around 30g lighter than the earlier carbon/alloy model yet possessed sufficient strength to uphold the 10-year warranty that Syntace provides with most of their products.

However, at the time the market was moving towards seatposts that were made to flex for added comfort—certainly a very desirable feature on hardtails. Observing this, and knowing that their post was strong but not exactly flexible, Syntace went back to the drawing board.

They got a number of ‘flex posts’ from other manufacturers and their SP-3 ‘Red Monster’ fatigue testing machine was put to work. What they found was most flex posts were correspondingly weak, with the ‘give’ occurring in one particular spot. Syntace turned their attention to finite element analysis, tested different lay-ups and employed load oriented material distribution as well as impact and fatigue testing on the SP-3. All up it has taken them three years of development to get this redesigned seatpost onto the market, not to mention the time and effort that was put into the original full-carbon P6 that never saw official production—can you say anal retentive?

The end product is said to pass all of their strength and durability tests whilst offering controlled flex that is distributed along the exposed length of the post. Being a ‘load oriented’ design it is actually made to flex in a fore-aft plane but not from side to side. Have a look up the inside and you’ll see the wall thickness forms an elliptical profile which contributes to this directional flex.

Level Headed

While all of this high-tech design sounds neat, the key feature remains the clamp. It’s the same design that Syntace has employed on all of their posts in years gone by. The twin-bolt head makes fine tuning the saddle tilt extremely easy, and unlike many similar designs, the seat rails can be fitted without removing the bolts. Compared to many featherweight seatposts, the Syntace clamp is solid and sturdy. It clamps the saddle with authority and offers 53mm of support to the underside of the rails—this means crashes and mistimed landings are less likely to lead rail damage.

The topside of the clamp is comparatively narrow (30mm), with a rearward offset. So while the P6 may look like a ‘zero-offset’ post, it offers greater scope for rearward adjustment than you might expect. It is also compatible with oval cross sectional seat rails up to 11mm in height.