I bought a Thudbuster on Fleabay several months ago and it ended up sitting in my shed on my commuter bike since then. After throwing away my 5th cheap bike seat from bent rails I ventured out to throw it on my fatbike. I was completely blown away.

Nothing but the best for my butt.

On the commuter the Thudbuster was no big deal. I tried all 3 of the cushion springs (blue, gray, black), but I found that only the Blue ones were cushy enough for my buns of steel. Although they are designed for sub 150lb people and my ass weighs in at a hefty 205lbs the blue ones were still preferred. They provided a nice ride on the road and didn’t seem to bottom out too much. I liked it but wasn’t crazy about it, it just seemed like a necessary addition for a hard-tail going 25+mph on normal roads with 2.2 inch tires.

I had read that people really love this seat on their fatties and I didn’t really know why. There are very few full suspension fatbikes available for sale right now and the ones that are available are obscenely expensive. Although initally I really wanted to build and AWD fully suspended Fatbike, the more I rode, the more I thought it wasn’t really necessary. What was really needed was weight control and adding suspension components was going to make an already bad weight problem even worse.

Riding the fatbike with the Thudbuster was an amazing experience, I could safely ride about 5mph faster on the snowmobile trails than without. In places where the snow had bottomed out and there were deep potholes it became like a pump track. Going fast and having my seat rise up and compress down was like a really cool roller-coaster ride. I was hooked.

Wires not included. A must have for every Electric Fatbike.

It wasn’t until I hit the deep powder that I started to have my reservations. Usually when I hit the foot deep powder I have to lower my seat all the way down. It is really important to be able to put your foot down and catch yourself and the bike ends up riding pretty high up on the snow and you have to put your foot down and often it will sink down six inches lower than the bike is actually riding up on. My Boris X9 has a hydroformed seat and the standover height is much lower than my Bullseye Monster. Unfortunately Boris is out of commission right now with a bent chainring and adapter.

When buying the Thudbuster I advise getting the seatpost diameter that will fit your smallest bike (probably a 27.2mm) and then use a seatpost shim to mount it on your other bikes when you want it. You can buy a seatpost shim for most common seatpost diameters for about $5 on fleabay.

The Thudbuster adds several inches of height to your lowest seat setting and a little bit of weight, from the cane creek faq

The typical rigid seatpost on a mid-level XC race bike weighs about 350 grams. With the Thudbuster weighing about 575 grams (LT)/450 grams (ST) (exact weight depends on size), you will be adding only about 225 grams (LT)/100 grams (ST).

 

100 grams for no more baboon butt? I’m sold.

Ride On.

Update: Don’t use a Thudbuster shim with an alloy framed bike frame or you might end up breaking your frame like I did.