The Deda Superleggero is lightweight, elegant and expensive. It’s seemingly the coveted trifecta when it comes to high-end carbon seatposts and in this rarefied air the Superleggero holds its own. It features clean lines and a subtly stylish finish. It offers a well-cushioned ride and at 175 grams is among the lightest in class. Throw in a decent clamp and you have a seatpost well worthy of any road bike upgrade. But then there's the price...
Reasons to buy
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Stylish looks
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Super lightweight at 175g
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Adds comfort on less-than-perfect roads
Reasons to avoid
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Expensive at over £200
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Adjustment wheel isn't the easiest to operate
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Deda Elementi have a long history of making sleek looking components that have found their way onto many a high-end road bike, including those ridden in the professional peloton. Its Superleggero carbon seatpost is one such product, featuring Italian styling and a sub-200 gram weight.
Deda Superleggero seatpost - the constaruction
The Superleggero seatpost is part of the series of the same name that includes a handlebar and stem. It’s finishing kit that focuses on low weight and high performance.
With regards to the seatpost that means it tips the kitchen scales at an ultralight 175g for the 27.2mm diameter, 350mm post that’s reviewed here. Having tested a few carbon posts of late, the Superleggero certainly wins the battle when it comes to the lowest weight.
To achieve this, the Superleggero seatpost is built using a full unidirectional carbon construction. Forgoing a larger alloy clamp undoubtedly saves a few grams; instead here you just have the alloy plates, compatible with oval shaped rails up to 7x9.5mm, and the titanium hardware.
The clamp uses what Deda describes as a one-bolt system but in reality it uses two. You have a 5mm hex bolt in the rear and then another at the front that works via a wheel mechanism. The idea is that the front bolt is used to finely adjust the angle of the saddle while the rear bolt does the tightening.
(Image credit: Luke Friend)
I found it pretty straightforward to get on with. The wheel did allow me to adjust the saddle’s angles in small increments. The drawback is that it's not so easy to get to with the saddle in place. Overall, it's a decent system that allows for fairly easy assembly and a good degree of fine tuning but leaves you wondering if the wheel design is really necessary?
Unlike some brands Deda doesn't make any claims about the post's superiority when it comes to comfort and compliance. Instead it focuses on its low weight, which Deda says doesn’t come at a cost to its strength or reliability.
Perhaps the most striking feature, other than the post’s weight, are its looks. While aesthetics are subjective it would be hard to argue against Superleggero post’s clean lines. Coupled with the use of both matte and gloss finishes and you’re left with an elegant post that really catches the eye.
Deda Superleggero seatpost - the ride
The Superleggero post did a stellar job of absorbing the chatter from both roads and trails. I did a couple of longer rides when this was particularly noticeable, delivering plenty of comfort on less than ideal road surfaces. It's probably worth noting that this was achieved in conjunction with the higher volume tyres I was running; a reminder that bike parts rarely, if ever, work in isolation.
(Image credit: Luke Friend)
When reviewing seatposts in the past I’ve touched on the somewhat tricky job of assessing their performance compared with other similar posts. Of course, switching from a cheap alloy post to a high-end carbon one will deliver a noticeably plusher ride. But when you’re comparing with other carbon posts, or even high-end aluminum ones, the differences are often negligible with regards to ride quality.
And so too here. The Superleggero is an undeniably comfortable post, comparable to a couple of other expensive carbon posts I’d ridden lately, most notably Enve’s carbon offering. On performance alone these two posts would cross the finish line hand in hand and I’d be more than happy to run either of them on any road or gravel bike.
Value
The Deda Elementi Superleggero seatpost costs £219.99 / US$263.99 making it an expensive piece of kit for sure. Enve's carbon seatpost is even more costly, with an RRP of £290 / US£275 and weighs approximately 25 grams more. Zipp's Service Course SL post has a lower RRP of £164 / US$163 but does weigh a little over 50 grams more.
Verdict
The Superleggero sits favourably alongside the best carbon posts I’ve ridden. It performs as you’d hope a seatpost that costs over £200 would, helping to absorb the impact of rougher roads while in general offering a comfy ride. But I suspect that for potential customers looking at this price point, performance isn’t everything.
A post such as this is usually bought as an upgrade that will both help to lower a bike’s weight and make it look better in the process. On both counts, the Deda post delivers.
It’s good looking and incredibly light - there’s a high chance it’s going to be close to 70, 80 or even 90 grams lighter than many posts that come as stock on complete bike builds. And while those numbers aren’t perhaps significant when viewed against the substantial weight saving you can make in switching wheelsets, for example, they aren’t to be sniffed at either. Marginal gains, as we well know, can end up counting for a quite a lot.
Luke Friend has worked as a writer, editor and copywriter for over twenty five years. Across books, magazines and websites, he's covered a broad range of topics for a range of clients including Major League Baseball, Golf Digest, the National Trust and the NHS. He has an MA in Professional Writing from Falmouth University and is a qualified bicycle mechanic. He has been a cycling enthusiast from an early age, partly due to watching the Tour de France on TV. He's a keen follower of bike racing to this day as well as a regular road and gravel rider.
