Tool to remove bike seat

Always use grease. For a carbon-fiber seatpost, see suggestions later on this page -- John Allen] The inside of the seat tube should be heavily coated with grease all the way 'round before you install the seat post. If you use enough grease in the seat tube, there is no need to grease the seatpost itself. When you make a peanut butter sandwich, you only need to put the peanut butter on one of the slices of bread.

The three rules of hammering seatposts: Never install a seatpost with a hammer. Never, never install a seatpost with a hammer. Never, never, EVER install a seatpost with a hammer! Do not install a plain "pipe-type" seatpost without having a saddle attached to it. They can slip down too far and get stuck where you can't reach them. Prevention is even more important with a telescoping or articulated suspension seatpost, which can easily be damaged by attempting to rotate it forcibly from above the mechanism.

If an oversized seatpost was forced into the frame, it will often make a noticeable bulge in the seat tube. Even if you cannot see this bulge, you can sometimes feel it by running your fingers up and down the seat tube about where you would expect the seat post to end. If a thin-walled seatpost has been deformed out-of-round by overtightening the seatpost bolt, this will usually be visible where the seatpost emerges from the seat tube.

If the seatpost is out-of-round, you should not expect to be able to get it to turn more than a few degrees from side-to-side. If you force it too far rotationally, you may jam it in even worse. Do not try to remove a seatpost by pulling on it with a pipe wrench, locking pliers or any other tool. Instead, use a saddle. Nothing gets as good a grip on a seatpost as a saddle, because it has the hardware designed specifically for the purpose.

If you are worried about damaging a good saddle, use one of the yellow BMX saddles you have in the cellar. At the first sign of difficulty in moving a seatpost, remove the seatpost bolt completely, don't just loosen it.

Sometimes this is all that it will take. The next thing to try is prying the ears of seat lug apart slightly with a screwdriver. This can permanently damage an aluminum or carbon-fiber frame.

Other times you may have better luck by inserting a large Phillips head screwdriver or Allen wrench into the bolt hole on one ear at a time and bending the two sides individually. Most repairs are easier if the bike is held in a workstand, and for some jobs it is helpful to have the bike partially disassembled. This is not the case with seatpost extraction. For the most recalcitrant cases, if the seatpost has a one-piece saddle clamp, you can mount the top of the seatpost in a vise, then twist and pull the bike or frame.

If you have an assistant handy, have one of you apply the force in a rotational direction, while the other applies force to pull the frame away from the seatpost. Normally, it is best to raise and lower seatposts straight up or down, without twisting them, because twisting can cause unsightly scratches on the seatpost. This does not apply when you are dealing with badly stuck post, however. With stuck seatposts, your first priority should be to try to turn the seatpost, even if it won't move vertically.

You can apply much more effective force rotationally than you can vertically, and if you can get the post to turn, victory is in sight. Once you can turn the seatpost, you can run oil in between it and the seat tube, and the twisting action will distribute the oil, completely freeing the post. You could clamp the tube of the seatpost in a vise, but you will ruin it unless you have cylindrical clamp blocks that fit it. Deforming the seatpost could damage the frame too and jam the seatpost in tighter, so clamp it up high.

Other possibilities, once you have decided to sacrifice the seatpost, are to drill a hole through it for a bar, or to bend it over, being careful not to damage the frame. If you don't have real penetrating oil, any light lubricating oil is better than nothing, but penetrating oil is made specifically for this purpose, and you should buy a can if you don't already have one.

Aluminum seatposts frequently become stuck by corrosion also, and penetrating oil is almost useless against aluminum oxide --which also expands the seatpost to a somewhat larger diameter..

Fortunately, aluminum oxide can be dissolved like magic by using ammonia. Drano drain cleaner in water also dissolves aluminum oxide. Leaving the frame upside down with the seatpost soaking in one of these liquids may possibly free the seatpost.

With the frame upside down, you might also run liquid down from inside as described in additional suggestions. However, Drano may east an aluminum frame -- su use it only with a steel frame -- John Allen] [Temperature-differential method, which is applicable to any seatpost material: Buy dry ice solid carbon dioxide, which melts at If you have access to laboratory supplies, you might also use liquid nitrogen, which is even colder, though its cooling effect is not as great because it boils, forming a shield of gas around itself.

Ordinary water ice also might work. Remove the bottom-bracket parts, cork the top of the seatpost if it is open, and with the frame upside-down and a saddle attached to the seatpost, drop chips of dry ice or pour liquid nitrogen down the seat tube into the seatpost. Then hold the saddle down on the floor with your feet and twist the frame.

You may also warm the seat tube by pouring hot water onto its outside. Wear waterproof winter gloves and boots and socks. Do not touch dry ice, the seatpost or other parts chilled by dry ice or liquid nitrogen, and don't let them spill on you. I thank John Newgard for this suggestion.

There may be corrosion still inside the frame. It is not recommended to hone or sand carbon frames, however. If it is a thin-walled post, it may be possible to mount another post inside the stuck post. Stems for threadless headset rarely become seized to the point that it becomes a major repair to remove them from the bike.

The quill stem, however, may become stuck causing major repair issues. Quill stems insert into a threaded steering column. The stem binder bolt that draws a wedge into the stem, jamming it against the steering column, secures the stem. Corrosion and rust may seize the stem to the column, making removal or changing height difficult. This bond between stem and column may in some cases be so severe that the stem removed without destroying it.

Prevent this bonding by keeping the stem greased inside the steering column. To begin removal of a seized stem, begin by double-checking that the wedge is in fact loose. Turn the stem binder bolt counter clockwise several turns, and then strike the bolt downward. Use a steel hammer for this, as a mallet may absorb too much energy. If the bolt was tight, attempt to twist the stem, pulling upwards. Make a mark on the stem to assist in tracking progress during removal.

When testing the stem, put the bike on the ground, with wheels installed. Grab the handlebars at the ends and hold the wheel between the knees. Twist stem side to side. NOTE : Keep an eye on any excessive flex in the fork legs. Extreme twisting of a stem can significantly twist and even bend fork legs of some forks. If flex and twisting appears to be a problem, the fork can be isolated using a bench vise. Remove the front wheel and use wooden blocks to grab the fork legs as close to the fork crown as possible.

This will keep flex from the fork ends, but it may take as assistant to hold the bike. It can also help to loosen the headset locknut. So you loosen the seatpost binder bolt and…. Uh-Oh your seatpost is seized, now what? Well that depends, how seized is it? First thing to try is just riding it around with the seatpost binder bolt loose.

If its not terribly stuck a few curbs and bumps can get it moving again. But no one is that lucky. So now what? Well most peoples first instinct is to somehow twist it out either by putting the seatpost in a vice or clamping a Vice-Grips on it and twisting with a cheater bar AKA a big ass pipe this is a bad idea.

First things first. You need to pull your Bottom Bracket, this will allow you access to the seat tube from the bottom bracket shell. After you have pulled your BB flip the bike over so the seatpost is facing the ground, a workstand helps here but is not essential.

Then, use a ziplock bag and rubberband to seal the opening in the top of your seatpost assuming there is one. Once you have it all sealed up pour the Coke slowly into the bottom bracket area and let it run down the seat tube. I let mine sit for something like 3 days. After letting it sit, drain the Coke and see if you can move the seatpost, supposedly it should be pretty easy to unstick by tapping on the seatpost with a rubber mallet or something of the sort.

In my case nothing happened, so I include this method in hopes that it actually will work for someone. Assuming your seatpost is not made of Platinum its a pretty easy decision to make, sacrifice the seatpost. Start by cutting the seatpost off leaving about an inch exposed above the seattube. Yes I know taking a hacksaw to an expensive seatpost is really hard to do but sometimes extreme measures are called for. Next, take a hacksaw blade and wrap some tape or an old tube around part of it to make a handle it will make this procedure suck slightly less.

Then slide the blade down the seattube and press in on the wall of the seapost and pull up make sure the teeth of the blade are facing up towards you so it cuts on the upstroke keep the blade as parallel as you can so it cuts evenly. Eventually you will have a cut like this, when I say eventually I mean it.

It will feel like eternity but really it will take min of sawing very slowly and carefully. Once you have cut all the way through grab your vice grips and crush that seapost. At this point it will be very satisfying to destroy it since your knuckles will be bloody and your hand will be sore as hell. If all goes well you should be able to close that gap you just made in the seatpost.

It may be that that is enough to free the seatpost and you will be able to twist it out right there.