That said, when you're riding it's barely noticeable and it's something we could definitely live with. One thing we noticed straight away was play in the head - we need to take it apart and re-grease the bolt to see if it solves the issue, but we're not surprised with the one-bolt clamp. While it's no featherweight, an extra hundred grams isn't a huge penalty and certainly not something you notice out on the trail. Cunning use of grubscrews and a barrel adjuster at the lever make it a hassle-free process.
The process maybe took ten or fifteen minutes, including a minor panic about making sure we'd cut the new cable (the old one frayed as we took it apart) to exactly the same length as the old one. We were impressed with how easily it went onto the bike, especially since our test bike had internal routing, so we had to completely disassemble and reassemble the cabling to mount it. Then we remembered the "budget" post cost a fair bit more than the Thomson. When we were initially installing the post we felt guilty for taking the stock Thomson Elite seatpost out of the test bike and replacing it with a "budget" post. It is fair to say that we would expect the ETen to have a shorter life than many of the more expensive posts, for the simple reason that it costs much less and that extra money you spend buys craftsmanship, materials and technology. Controlling it all is the same lever the use in their other posts, the difference here being that it's a cheaper version. It is because of the bought-in damper that the travel is limited to 100mm their own dampers are much shorter - with this one a 125mm drop would mean the post would be too long to fit many frames, so the decision was made to offer the single option. Being made of steel accounts for much of the extra weight in the post too. The dampers are sealed steel units, which rules out servicing the post yourself - if something goes wrong it's going to need to go back to the distributor. To keep the costs down, KS buy in a damper, rather than assemble one in-house. It's at the head where you can see that it's somewhat less refined, with the big, simple bolt to pull it all together, although it shares the same actuation mechanism as all of the earlier KS posts. The finish on the post is the same as you would expect on a much higher-end option, and we like the black anodising on the shaft. One detail we do like very much is the black shaft - we'd go as far as to say we prefer this to the gold finish on the more expensive Lev. At the head is a big, simple, single bolt clamp to hold the saddle in place - it's not the most sophisticated setup, but if you want refinement, it's gonna cost more. It weighs in at sensible 723g including the lever, giving up around 100g to the Lev. You are also limited on seattube sizes: 30.9mm or 31.6mm, although this shouldn't be a problem for most people. Where you start to see the differences is in the features available - it only comes in 100mm drop, where the Lev boasts 125mm or 150mm options as well. Combined with grooves on the damper, it's a system that is well-proven to keep the post running true for a long time.
Most important of all is the one-way bearing that helps eliminate play in the shaft. The ETen shares many of the same genes as the Lev (our post is a pre-production version branded here as ExoForm, which is what KS use for some of their slightly lower-end products in the Far East). Black anodized mast and head w/ hard anodized stanchion It definitely doesn't look like a cheap alternative.
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