custom seats or seat mods.

I'm running a BMW R100GS with a slightly modified solo seat
and am considering possible seat improvements.

What I have now is a stock seat with a gel pad added and
some foam rubber cushioning between the seat pan and frame.
I'd modified the seat mount to allow a little bit of extra travel
as the pan moves up and down.

Right now, I'm good for 300-400 mile days but would like to
increase my comfort level and distance abilities. It's also
very important to me to be able to get a foot down occasionally
for off-road riding, (29" inseam) so the seat has to remain
fairly narrow and low.

I think if I had my druthers, I'd start with a bare pan then build
it up and tear it down a few times using different materials
until I really got it right. Don't think I really have the time or
money for a project of this scope however, so it needs to
come out pretty good on the first try.

Anybody done any mods themselves, used any aftermarket
accessories such as Airhawk or had a custom seat made that
they're expecially happy with ?

Thanks for any thoughts on mods, shops or construction.

 

I have a Russell Day-Long seat on my Concours. It's pretty comfy
because it spreads the load out over a wider area. The shape is what
makes it work, not the softness of the foam.

How much do you weigh? Russell has a standard and a heavy-duty saddle,
the heavy-duty one is for folks over 225 lb IIRC, and has a built in
metal spring, whereas the standard saddle uses a plastic thingy to
maintain the shape. I could be misremembering all this.

I do remember what I paid, it was roughly $600 all in, including
shipping. Not cheap but when you're on a multi-thousand mile 10 day
trip you'd easily pay double that to make your butt-burn go away.

Anyway, what you need for ultimate comfort is something like an shaped
like an old-style tractor seat.

http://www.keynamics.com/images/Contoured-Tractor-Seat.jpg

Unfortunately that shape will work against you, with your short inside
leg measurement.

Lots of folks claim success having a local upholstery shop recover
their saddles for cheap, using better foam, presumably also carved to
shape. According to one person on the SV mailing list an electric
carving knife is perfect for cutting seat foam. I still have a couple
of large squares of very expensive Tempur-Foam that I bought for
re-doing my SV's saddle which I haven't yet gotten around to doing just
yet. If you do want to do you own seat building, 3M spray adhesive was
recommended to bond the foam to the cover.

 

What can you do to lower the whole bike? A Dakar certainly would have
no exhaust pipe dragging problems.

I had Hang2 cut down my GS1100 seat, they got rid of the annoying
crotch pad and lowered the seat 2 inches, but that changed the
relationship between the seat and foot pegs, making my hip joints
ache.

Otherwise the flat seat was good for 300~400 mile days, even though
half the padding was gone.

 

$600 for a Russel is about the most I could imagine paying,
though I like the spring idea. Not so sure about the Russell
butt wings though. Again, looks like it'd be hard to get a
foot down to stop a slide. I go about 200 lbs. I thought all
Russells used a spring seat.

I'd toyed with the idea of a tractor type seat as still found
(I think) on Urals, but shoehorning the spring mechanism
into my frame without raising the seat heigh would be a
littlle tricky. I could probably do it if I relocated the toolkit
and/or battery.

I'd already had a local shop add a gel pad to the stock
seat a few years ago. This was before memory foam
was popular. One think I could do, I guess, would be to
bring it back and have them throw another layer of stuff in.

I'd really wish I had a spare seat pan and the sewing skills to
be able to bang out a cover myself. I ready made seat covers
on eBay for ~ $45, but would need to have the seat shape
figured out to know if they'd be a match. A new cover made
locally sounds like the way to go.

Not really clear how much seat comfort depends on shock
absorbtion and how much on just getting a good contour to
your butt and a nice even load distribution.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll report back on anything I do.
If you do the Tempur mods, please do the same.

 

The bike's already lowered as much as I'd ever want it to be.
Even with a bash plate, the underside takes more bashing than
I'd like it to. I want to be able to do stuff like creek crossings
and singletrack with it and still be able to exceed 300-400
mile days comfortably.

 

The bike is slightly lowered by a shortened Fox shock
and tubes slid up in the yokes. This seems to have
the effect of stiffening the suspension a little, though
I haven't stopped to work this out on paper.

Even with a full travel suspension, bumps at speed
will be noticeable. Also, when you move around
on the saddle.

I think you're correct though that contour and contact
are the major factor. On long trips, I'll try to remember
to stand up on the begs occasionally. This seems to
help quite a bit.

 

I'm troubled a bit by sciatica in my right hip and soles of both feet, so I
worried some about comfort on a ride of 4,128 miles last summer, especially
because there's almost no seating option on my Wing. My butt fills the seat
with little movement allowed. So far as rider seat space is concerned, it
could be a much smaller bike. The real comfort room is for pillion.
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to suffer no discomfort whatsoever. I
didn't even unfold the hi-way pegs.

 

I like his deposit/exchange plan for stock seats.
I hate the idea of having the bike down while the
seat's being worked on.

As I understand it, Bill Meyer originally designed a
spring based seat which was then sold to Russell (??).

Bill eventually passed and his two sons, Rick and Rocky
began a feudin' and a fightin', starting two competing seat
businesses in Ojai and Redding, Ca.

I've heard various reports about the two brothers and their
businesses, but have never been able to keep them straight.
I see Rick's the one near Redding.

Thanks

 

I see no one has mentioned Mustang ... had a Corbin on my '76 FLH that was
good for about 500 miles/day . Last Mustang was on an '88 Sportster , and
it was easily a 600 mile seat . The Mustang on my current bike isn't broken
in yet , but I expect it to be good for at least 700-800 miles .
Sheepskin (real only , synthetic sucks) helps , warmer in winter , cooler
in summer .
--

Snag aka OSG #1
'90 Ultra , "Strider"
The road goes on forever ...
none to one to reply

 

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In 1986, I had Corbin customize one of his saddles to the seat pan
on my '81 XV920RH. I had met him at "The Great American Motorcycle
Show" (as it was called back then) in Dallas.
It worked so well that I promptly lost my sheepskin and other aids
to help me live with the horrible stock Yamaha seat.
Before the modification, fifty miles in the saddle would have my
legs and butt numb and lower back screaming for relief.
After the Corbin modification, I could regularly go past 200 miles
before stopping for fuel (drink, bathroom break, etc).
Fantastic seat!

A couple of years ago, while I was speaking with Mike (owner of
Mustang Seats) on the phone. I told him my "Corbin story".
He laughed, and said the he was probably the one who did the
modification of my seat, because he was working for Corbin at the time
and was the one who did the modification of that sort.
I sold a good many aftermarket seats during my ten years as a m/c
dealer, and never had a complaint about the Mustang seats. (The only
complaints I had about the Corbin seats were concerning the price.)



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'82 Husqvarna XC250
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