I just bought a '05 LeMond Versailles 49W (OX Plat./OCLV 120) for my wife. Towards the start of our first real ride, it looked and felt like she needed to adjust her seatpost slightly lower. (We'd been fitted in the shop, and test ridden it, but of course minor adjustments are to be expected once you start actually using a bike.) So I loosened the clamp ... and nothing happened. I gave it a little push, and still nothing happened. I pulled out the seatpost (Bontrager Carbon), and was surprised to see that it is a full length, 13+ in. post. (Really, why would a 49W road bike be spec'd with a full-length post, other than I guess to save Trek money?) It couldn't go any further into the frame because it was resting on the upper water bottle bolt. With that length, about 3 inches stay above the top tube at all times. I'm positive she's on the right size frame, standover is fine, reach is fine, really I just wanted to adjust the post down a couple centimeters-- and I should be able to.

Since my lbs is closed today and tomorrow, I decided to just remove the water bottle cage mounting bolts on the seat tube to allow the seatpost to go further down. But as I started to turn the bolt, the little metal washer-like thing between the frame and the bolt head started moving with the bolt! The bolt now spun freely in its hole in the seattube, and could not be removed. The glue attaching the threaded collar to the seattube appeared to have given way. Surprised again, I tried loosening the lower seattube bolt ... but again the same thing happened. I even tried one of the other bolts, on the steel downtube ... and it happened again! I was not using anywhere near excessive force, the collars were just ready to go. Now the bolts and their collars just spin and spin, I cannot remove them. Good thing my wife and I are horribly unfashionable and use Camelbaks, because there's no way we could attach any bottle cages to this frame!

I will, of course, show this to my lbs on Tuesday. I'll also ask them to try to remove the last remaining untouched bolt, on the steel downtube, to possibly replicate the problem. Until then, her seat is just too high and I don't have a shorter 27.2 post lying around.

So, has anyone else encountered this problem on LeMonds/Treks?

If you want to cut the seatpost you need to wrap it in tape and then cut it from both sides. Do not cut it all the way through from one side you will ruin the it.. But since you are having problems with the frame's water bolts I wouldn't do this, take it in and complain. It looks like you are going to get a new frame...