Soldato
I've had my trusty 2002 Kona Lavadome for 3 years. I bought it new for £300 (half price) from a shop that was closing down in Crawley where it sat for a few days saying "Buy me, buy me, please Sir, buy me"! So I did.
It's taken me through many a good ride in its time, but alas no more.
It all started last summer, when I was looking to replace the seat post with something a bit longer (I'm tall you see, 6'4"). I undid the seat clamp, twisted the saddle, and nothing! The saddle moved, but the seat post stayed firmly stuck. I tried WD40, twisting, turning and even riding for a good 10 miles with the clamp undone. Nothing. I took it to a bike shop, and they couldn't help.
At this point I gave up, and thought no more of it. We spent another summer frolicking o'er vale and glade in the sunshine. It was a happy time.
Yesterday, I thought that maybe next year we'd do the London-Brighton, but in order to do this I'd really, really need to do something about the saddle height. So out to the garage I went, armed with my manly man size tool box full o' stuff and began to embark upon what was the final effort to remove the seatpost from the frame. This should've been simple, you see, because the frame is Chromoly and the seat post anodised aluminium, between which there is no chemical reaction. Also bear in mind that the seatpost WAS greased aswell. I twisted the saddle in the last attempt to remove it before I bought out the big guns. Nothing. I removed the saddle and used the largest adjustable spanner I have to lever round the seat clamp. Nothing budged. I even had my wife swinging off the spanner at the same time. Still nothing. After reading a guide by a mad cyclist guy called Sheldon, I decided the most practical, albeit invasive step to next take was to cut the seatpost 1/2" from the top of the seat tube and slot it down the inside with a hacksaw blade. The seatpost was engaged by 6". I finished slotting it out, grabbed my biggest pliers and sqeezed it to hopefully break the jamness. Nothing. I cut 3 more slots today, 90deg. apart and sqeezed them together with mole grips, working WD40 down the resulting gap. Nothing.
The seat post will not move at all. I fear there is nothing more that can be done for my frame, so I must now try to get through the grieving process and find a cheap, probably turd replacement second hand or otherwise frame. The Lavadome frame was just about the only good part of the bike, and I planned a few future upgrades to further improve my beast. New shocks, new rims etc. But alas no, the bike is no more
, with XTR front mech and a few other bits still bolted to it including a long seat post as I'm 6 foot'ish 
