well i was sat thinking last night that i had just thrown £25 in the bin or i had a mission on my hands to get the seat post out, ( caustic soda sounds good ) but then i realised alls not lost, plan B is now to strip some of the low end parts off the bike and use them as a temperary solution to build my technium and get that finished and useable and as time goes on i can replace the parts as and when with the xt parts i had in mind for the build, and source another hack frame for a build using the carrera parts once the technium is finished