Happy International Twist Your Seatpost Day to all who celebrate! And that should include everyone who has a seatpost.

It’s very simple to play along:

• Loosen your seatpost clamp
• Twist your saddle side to side, and then re-center
• Tighten the clamp again

It’s important to do this on a regular basis — at least once a year — to avoid having the seatpost seize in the bicycle frame. Take it from someone who knows: it’s no fun when this happens. It’s most likely when the frame and seatpost are made from dissimilar materials — steel frames and aluminum seatposts are the worst combination — because of galvanic action, but any bicycle with a traditional seatpost is subject to the rule.

Things people have tried to resolve a stuck seatpost:

• Penetrating oil, or apple cider vinegar (said to work on aluminum corrosion)*
• Inverting the bicycle, standing on the saddle and twisting the frame, for more leverage*
• Removing the saddle, putting the seatpost in a vise, and twisting the entire frame (what worked in the end for me)*
• Dangerous chemicals such as lye to dissolve the seatpost
• Elaborate tools to either hack and saw out the seatpost, or enormous clamping mechanisms to fix the frame in place while pulling on the seatpost

* Things I have personally tried

In my case today’s undertaking was not strictly necessary: Hornsby’s seatpost was first inserted in May 2025 and adjusted in June, while for Kuroko the seatpost and saddle were replaced in November 2024 (OK, that’s more than a year ago). But if I want to lead a movement, I’m going to lead by example!

Hints and tips

Here are some things to keep in mind while ensuring your seatpost is mobile:

• Always use the proper tools: typically, a standard hex tool to loosen the seatpost clamp (unless you’ve got a quick-release clamp)
• A torque wrench to tighten the bolt again to the proper spec (don’t use the torque wrench to loosen the bolt) — especially important for carbon fibre frames / seatposts
• If the seatpost has not got a round cross-section (such as an aero seatpost), then slide it up or down a centimeter or two instead (after making note of the current position)
• If there’s any resistance to the twisting, remove the seatpost, clean it and the inside of the seat tube, and apply generous lubrication before reinserting it (or carbon paste as appropriate)
• For frames with integrated seat clamps, do not attempt to pry the clamp ears apart with a screwdriver or similar implement; if the seatpost is sticking, it’s likely to be a case of corrosion along the 10-20cm of seatpost inserted into the frame, and you’ll end up damaging the frame for zero result

Additional maintenance

While I was giving Hornsby’s saddle a twist, I realized I hadn’t got round to greasing the threads of the unused mounting bolts. There are a number of these on the frame, and so far I’ve only used the four that hold the two water bottle cages (which I greased when I did the build-up). So that was the second order of business today. In all, there were six on the rear triangle (for mudguards and a rack), of which I dropped one, and four on the fork (for racks), making a total of 14 for the frame (including the four for the water bottle cages).

I remember during assembly thinking, “Surely they’ve done that at the shop, right? But I should check.” And then it slipped my mind in the process of the build.

One of the bolts was right in the chainstay bridge behind the bottom bracket, requiring the removal of the rear wheel. I initially thought, “I’ll get that later, next time I have a reason to take the wheel off.” But, knowing myself, I’d forget. And so I removed the wheel, loosened the bolt (which took some doing given that my hand doesn’t quite fit between the chainstays) and replaced it after adding a dab of grease. In the process I discovered the bike was not shifting into the smallest cog — probably the aftermath of my latest derailleur adjustment — and so I spent a couple of minutes sorting that out by backing out the limiting screw a turn or two. In the process I checked two or three times to make sure the chain would not come off the lowest cog again, either into the spokes or onto the next-largest chain under the load of a steep climb.

The upshot of removing 10 bolts to grease the threads: I didn’t find any evidence that the threads on the rear triangle bolts had been greased at the shop. One bolt in fact was squeaking as I loosened it. For the four on the fork, on the other hand, I saw clear evidence of pre-existing greasing.