Nitto S83 Seatpost: World's Best Seatpost

The Nitto S83 is perhaps the finest seatpost ever made. There’s only a few reasons to get any other seatpost, but they’re mainly relegated to color (this only comes in silver or super limited edition black) and size (this only comes in a 27.2mm diameter normally, if you ask super nicely sometimes we can score it in 26.8!). So if you have a bike that takes a 26.8 or 27.2 seatpost, you are ok with silver or black, and you want the best seatpost going, get this.

Here’s why:

Cold Forged seatposts are the strongest. You can cast, machine, stamp and glue a seatpost together, make em outta steel, carbon or aluminum. But only cold forged aluminum is perfect for making a seatpost. That’s because when you cold forge something, you are aligning the grain structure of the aluminum in the shape of whatever you are making. So if you are making a seatpost, the grains that make up the shaft of a cold forged post flows into the head of the seatpost, like a tree trunk moves into the roots, smoothly, with no weird transitions.

Most seatposts are shafts that are bonded (glued) to a seatpost head. That glue eventually fails. It’s a known issue on a number of famous brand seatposts that cost as much as the Nitto post. Machined seatposts look great, but the even though the seatpost is all one piece, like a cold forged unit, the grain structure doesn’t flow, it’s just randomly arrayed. Imagine a bucket of wet sand, and you push a cookie cutter into it. The gingerbread man you cut out is no stronger than the rest of the sand, but it’s in the shape of a gingerbread man. Machined seatposts and stems and so on have a tendency to break. You can get around that by making whatever the part is really beefy, but really forging is a better way to make something strong. The famous seatpost that’s famously US made and costs more than a Nitto is machined, and I’ve seen more of those break than any other brand of seatpost.

The S83 post uses two bolts, and it’s the easiest to use two bolt post out there. Use a 6mm allen key to balance the tilt of the saddle, then tighten em down hard and you’re set. 19nm if you are using a torque wrench. Grease the bolts before you install the saddle. If you properly tighten the S83, the saddle can not slip. The bolts will not break. You can crash on it, hard, and get up and keep riding. If you worry about breaking things, this will be the one thing you can not worry about.

Made in Tokyo. Best finish in the business. 250- 350mm long depending on stock and such.