WANTED: carbon stock seatpost

[Ana]

Okay, so here's the story:

I just got my first road bike, a beautiful Tourmalet Women's, in May 2007 and love it I am, however, quite new at all things related to bikes and despite my best efforts to keep it in tip-top condition, I unknowingly overtorqued my Bontrager stock carbon seatpost and cracked it. The bike mechanic at my LBS found it when I took it in to get a new saddle and a tune up before spring and I feel just terrible!

Basically, I bought my bike during a huge sale and was therefore not fitted properly and so I kept making adjustments on my own (fore/aft, seat height, etc) until I FINALLY went in about 2 weeks ago to get fitted and it turned out that I needed a shorter stem (yay, back pain is gone!). I feel like part of the problem was that I was never fitted correctly and so I was excessively loosening and tightening the seatpost bolt to ease my back pain.

The mechanic promised to look into the warranty but I'm rather skeptical whether they'll offer a replacement even though he said that they would almost certainly have replaced it if it had broken while I was riding (yikes!). His estimate for a new one was approximately $100 which I think is too much for a carbon stock seatpost and am now looking for a used one or one displaced by an upgrade that is in good condition for less than $100.

He offered to replace it with an aluminum seatpost for $30 but I'd really like to replace the part with a similar one. So, if you have a stock carbon seatpost in good condition and are willing to let it go, please, please let me know! I would be very grateful I think mine is a 27.2.

I'm also thinking about investing in a torque wrench....

Thanks!!

Ana

BTW, I love the threads in this community--they've helped a LOT!