I'd like to fit a suspension seatpost but have only 9 cm between saddle and frame - is this enough? I'm 5'3&quot; tall and ride an XS size gravel bike. I have only 9 cm of seatpost between the saddle and the frame, and you can see there's no possibility of extending that! I find the aluminium frame quite harsh and would like to swap my normal seatpost for a suspension one. Is 9 cm enough room for this to work?
As Daniel R Hicks says, it depends on the seatpost.
There are some seatposts that offer &quot;passive&quot; suspension—they have no suspension mechanism, and rely on the flexibility engineered into the seatpost's materials (always carbon fiber, AFAICT). From what I've read, these don't do much good. The suspension effect with these will depend on the amount of seatpost sticking out (more material to flex), so even if they do work, they won't work as well for you.
There are a few &quot;active&quot; seatposts that do have suspension mechanisms. Cane Creek has one where the mechanism occupies 70 mm of seatpost length, so that should fit. Redshift sells one that is bang-on at 90 mm maximum insertion depth.