Two-Position Switchgrade Duo Review: Splitting the Difference – Travis Engel | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

The original Switchgrade tilt-adjust saddle clamp from Canadian manufacturer, Aenomaly Constructs offered nose-up, nose-down, and nose-neutral settings. But when Travis first rode it, he found the angles a couple degrees too extreme for his terrain. So today, he’s excited to share his review of the new two-position Switchgrade Duo, along with some of his signature soapboxing on saddle settings.

Very few cycling accessories require as much explanation as the Aenomoly Constructs Switchgrade saddle clamp. Everyone understands why you might want a water bottle or a tail light or a GPS unit. But not everyone understands why you might want to instantly—and drastically—change the tilt of your saddle multiple times per ride.

That’s why Aenomaly’s instagram account and advertising strategy are saturated with explanations on why the hell this thing even exists. It’s also why I’m going to open my review with an explanation of my own.

Saddles are most comfortable when they are horizontal. But mountains, by definition, are not horizontal. So, mountain bikers who spend most of their seated hours pointing uphill often opt for a nose-down saddle position. Unfortunately, this can lead to hand and shoulder discomfort on flat sections. This trade-off is familiar to any cyclist who’s ever adjusted a saddle. What may be less familiar is the nose-up position you might have seen on BMX bikes and gravity bikes. This configuration allows your saddle to meet your nether-region at a more natural-feeling angle. Your pelvis will tilt rearward as you sit down on a low saddle, and if the saddle is tilted to match, it’s more comfortable. Plus, the rear of the saddle is more out of the way, but any incidental contact will be better distributed and better cushioned.

At launch, the Switchgrade promised to put these three saddle positions—nose up, nose down, and neutral—right at your fingertips. It replaces the existing saddle-clamp hardware of just about any major two-bolt dropper post. You can swap between modes via a sleek switch, tucked neatly but accessibly under the saddle. But when I tried that launch-version Switchgrade, it just didn’t work for me.

Don’t get me wrong. The Switchgrade’s craftsmanship is top notch. It’s incredibly compact and satisfyingly “clicky.” It’s made in Canada and has the jewelry-quality fit and finish of a Trickstuff brake or Chris King hub. Every penny of its $245 price tag is up there on screen. And Aenomaly managed to create a clean, intuitive mounting system to fit dozens of slightly but meaningfully different posts. In fact, the Switchgrade’s execution deserves its own in-depth section in this review.

But I’ll save it for later because I think I should keep talking about why the hell the Switchgrade exists. Specifically, why the new two-position Switchgrade Duo exists. Because for my terrain, the three-position model’s tilt angles were just too extreme.

The nose-up setting is 12° above horizontal, which is fine. That’s pretty close to how I set up the DH bike I briefly owned. It was the 10° nose-down setting I had issues with. Most of my climbs just aren’t that steep. I’m usually on 6% to 9% grade (3.4° to 5.1°) fire roads or legacy hiking trails. Even when I’m sagged into the rear travel, the debut Switchgrade’s negative 10° angle still had me pushing on the bars to keep from sliding off the saddle.

I tried adjusting the bias more rearward to compensate, but that made the nose-up position much too extreme. And it rendered the neutral position no longer neutral. That kinda didn’t matter anyway, though, because the I thought middle setting was too difficult to find when swapping modes on the fly.

Quick Hits

Two-position version of the original three-position Switchgrade
12° difference between nose-up and nose-down setting
Made in Canada of 6061 aluminum
Available in seven configurations to fit most major-brand two-bolt seatposts
Black / gold “Gold Fusion” colorway
170 grams
Adds 5 – 15 mm of stack height, depending on your seatpost
$245 USD
Available for a limited time

Today’s launch of the two-position Switchgrade Duo is the answer to my prayers. There is a 12° difference between its two settings. And how you use them is up to you. If all this nose-up nonsense isn’t your bag, you can have an extreme nose-down climbing angle and a moderate flat-terrain angle. Or, if you want a neutral position most of the time, and a park position on your jump line, the Switchgrade Duo is your (lift) ticket. But I landed somewhere in between.

Switchgrade Duo Ride Impressions

My approach was hard to quantify because the surface of my WTB Volt saddle is so swoopy, but I opted for about -7° in the nose-down setting and about +5° in the nose-up setting. And it’s pretty perfect. That nose-down setting is right where I’m used to. It’s not great for flat ground, but I save flat ground for my touring rides.

On mountain rides, this position makes every climb feel like it’s just a higher-effort, higher-handlebar version of a lakefront bike path. I feel like I could write a whole Dust-Up defending the nose-down saddle position, but if you’re reading my Switchgrade Duo review, I reckon you’re already a believer.

Then, there’s my +5° nose-up setting. Not gonna lie, it’s flatter than I’d want if I were setting up a dedicated seat-down bike. My BMX saddle rests at an even +10°. So, when I’m chillin’ at the top of a descent, with dropper dropped and lockout unlocked, the Switchgrade Duo doesn’t quite offer that perfect fit like I’m chillin’ at the top of a quarter pipe on my 20”. But compared to perching my bony ass on the back rim of my nose-down saddle, it’s much more comfortable. And anyway, this isn’t about chillin’. It’s about descendin’. +5° is juuuuust enough to offer a noticeable advantage.

The effect is subtle, but it feels more natural to push the bike around with my knees when the sides of my saddle track slightly upwards along my legs instead of perpendicular to them. For lack of a better off-bike analogy, like leaning against a light pole versus leaning against the sharp edge of a table.

There’s another perk of descending nose-up that I can’t discuss with any real authority. I’m 6’2”, so I have access to more dropper-post travel than I could ever need or want. But if your dropper choice is limited by things like frame size, seat-tube bends, or seatpost stack, a Switchgrade will allow you to lower the back of your saddle by more than 20 mm in descending mode. Yes, the nose comes up, but it’s the wider, rearward-er part of the saddle that’ll distract you when it’s not low enough. Plus, if your default saddle position is nose-down like mine, you’re naturally forcing the rear of the saddle up. A Switchgrade can claw back some of that lost clearance at the push of a button.

And there’s yet another, more important perk for my approach to the two-position Switchgrade Duo. In my +5° descending mode, it’s not so nose-up that I dread raising my saddle if a downhill is interrupted by a quick pedaly section. That’s one reason the three-position Switchgrade was a no-go in my world. My local descents do have their steep sections, but they’re never steep from top to bottom. They contain multitudes. Sometimes I have to pedal. Sometimes I have to rest. Sometimes I have to shift gears, which is a good opportunity to both pedal and rest.

This would theoretically be a good application for the three-position version’s neutral setting, but I liked how my nose-up setting felt for the rest of these descents. If my saddle had to point +12°, I couldn’t sneak in any high-post pedaling without things feeling very, very wrong.

To be clear, this is not a blanket dismissal of the three-position Switchgrade. I’ve ridden in areas where it would be ideal. The steep ups and steeper downs around Fairfax, California would be perfect for it. Same with the blink-and-you-miss-it Laguna Beach descents, which are often reached via widowmaker climbs. And both of these regions have long canyon-bottom commutes to get from one hotspot to another. Nose-up, nose-down, and neutral settings each have their place.

Plus, there’s a feature to the three-position Switchgrade that I’m missing out on because nose-down is my default. When you tilt a Switchgrade nose-down, the part of the saddle that cradles your sitbones moves both slightly up and forward. The effect isn’t as dramatic if you slam your saddle rails forward like I do, but it still boosts optimization for short high-intensity climbs. So, the three-position Switchgrade is fine for some riders. I just think the two-position one is better.

Switchgrade Duo Installation and Build Quality

With that out of the way, let’s talk about how this thing works. Again, it is designed to replace the “guts” on two-bolt, micro-adjust dropper posts. You remove your post’s stock bolts, nuts, upper clamp, and lower clamp. When you order a Switchgrade, you choose from (at the time of writing) seven different configurations: “Type 1” through “Type 7,” which include one of three uniquely shaped Switchgrade devices and one of several specially sized hardware kits like bolts, washers, spacers, and shims.

The Aenomaly website has a detailed compatibility and setup guide outlining which type you’ll need for (at the time of writing) 65 unique seatposts. The guide covers installation tips like which of the two forward and two rearward barrel-nut cradles you are meant to use, and whether you will need any of your chosen Type’s included shims or spacers. There are a few notable omissions in the compatibility guide, but Aenomaly is always working on adding more, and all the major players are well represented.

Installation of a Switchgrade is arguably easier than installation of a fixed-position saddle clamp. There’s no puzzle action, trying to slide plates underneath your saddle rails. And once everything’s mounted, tilt and fore/aft adjustments are done independently. It’s a nice perk, seeing as buying a Switchgrade will mean a new paradigm for your saddle fit. Aenomaly’s approach makes it easy to fine-tune.

Also worth noting, it’s easy to find whatever angle you need. I’ve only tried two configurations of Switchgrade over the years, but both left ample room for angle adjustment. The Fair Drop Best offset augmenter I recently reviewed required a somewhat clumsy stack of shims for bikes with slack actual seat tube angles. Depending on your setup, Aenomaly may only require one. On my one-generation old Specialized Status, I had plenty of room to go even further nose-down than I already did despite its relatively slack seat-tube angle. So, I reckon you’ll find your fit just fine.

Once everything is installed, a Switchgrade clamp might add around 5 to 15 mm of stack height to your post. That’s not nothing, but it’s not that simple. Remember, the nose-up setting will drop the rear of the saddle by over 20 mm from flat. And the nose-down setting will raise it. So, you will likely end up with access to even more drop than you had, but do some careful math if you’re at the very bottom of your post insertion, and your post doesn’t have internal travel adjustability.

A less important number, in my opinion, is the weight. Most Switchgrade “kits” weigh about 170 grams, but since they replace the guts already on your post, Aenomaly claims the net gain is closer to 100 grams. I know it’s a slippery slope to ignore added weight as long as it brings added functionality, but given the functionality a Switchgrade brings, I’d call it justified.

And that weight is extremely impressive if you see how stout this little guy is. I can’t imagine how proud the folks at Aenomaly must be of the way it turned out. Look at their early prototypes, and you’ll see the function is there, but the form is concerning. They seemed complicated and fragile. That is not how I’d describe the final product, especially after using it for several months.

Granted, that use hasn’t been nonstop. I’ve tested multiple bikes over that time, and not all were compatible with the Type I chose for my shred sled. But it’s gotten a lot of miles. And not only is it still totally free of creaks, the action has retained its firm but smooth feel. It still takes force to move the saddle between modes. Not much, but enough that it gives me confidence that it won’t loosen up in a year like my soft-close toilet seat eventually did.

Activating the Switchgrade

Balancing that firmness is the actuation trigger’s satisfying tactility. The tension is perfect, the size is reasonable, and the positioning is intuitive. If you walk up to your bike and hold it by the saddle, I bet your middle finger will wrap underneath right where the Switchgrade trigger rests. I’m a bit of an outlier here because of my slammed-forward preference. Relative to the saddle, m trigger was tucked slightly more rearward than it probably will be for you, but it was always right there. When I switched between modes while rolling, I’d usually shift my hips to the left, lean the bike to the right, and reach back with my right hand to go for the tilt. Most users, though, will reach between their legs and actuate it like they’re actuating a non-remote dropper post. It’s so easy yet so hidden.

And that brings me to my main takeaway on the Switchgrade Duo. Although it drastically augments our most intimate touchpoint in ways no other component ever has, it’s remarkably unobtrusive. It’s simple, sturdy, and small. I wasn’t constantly thinking about what role it was playing on my ride, or whether it was worth its minimal weight or moving parts. I can use it when I want to, and not when I don’t. On the other hand, the three-position version demands a bit more attention.

I think that’s why it’s gained such a cult following. Its effects, for better or worse, are a lot more in-your-face. But the Switchgrade Duo is more subtle. And yet, it may gain a cult following of its own. Aenomaly says it will only be available for a limited time. So go get one, now that you understand why the hell it exists.