How come my bike has such a short seat post? The bike is a 1983 Dawes Galaxy and upon trying the raise the saddle this morning, I found this stubby little thing.



Is this normal for bikes of this age? In either case, why so short?
For road bikes of that age, showing just "a fistful of seat post" was considered good frame fit and style. Otherwise the frame was likely too small for the rider. Of course that was before the advent of sloping top tubes. If the bottom bracket is not too high, stand over height of the top tube should be no problem even with such small seat post extension.