Since I now have my instant seat tilt adjustment system mostly working, and blabbed about it on BROL, I figured I should go ahead and start this thread on it. I'll update it as new things happen with the system.
Since a more upright and closed riding postion seems to be better for climbing, but a more reclined and open position the most aerodynamic for the flats and downhills, I decided to build a system that would let me make instant seat tilt adjustments on my Corsa. I call it the Quick Recline system.
The system uses small pneumatic cyclinders and springs on the seat stays, and a miniature pneumatic valve on the handlebar. Basically here's how the system is supposed to work: To lower the seat, I flip the valve toggle handle open, which lets my weight lower the seat. When it reaches its lower limit, I flip the handle back to lock the seat. To raise it, I flip the handle open, lean forward to unweight the seat and allow the springs to raise it, flip the handle to lock the seat, then lean back. All of it works well now, except for the valve. It will only lock the seat in one direction, so I lock the seat up, but when I want the seat down, I just leave the valve open and let my dead weight keep it down. I have a new valve ordered, which I hope will fix this last major problem.
If you want to read all about the technical aspects of the system, you can go to
my web page on it. For most, that is probably more than you ever wanted to know about it.
Here's a photo of the seat stays, showing the cylinders and springs.
In the next photo, the yellow arrow is pointing at the valve toggle handle.