1250 seat was comfortable - not anymore...

[GS Bloke]

Hi
GS1250 Adv, '21.
When I bought this bike it had 700 miles and I could easily do all day in the saddle, 500 mile days were easy.
The bike now has 13k miles and I don't know what's changed but I can barely do an hour and my coccyx starts to hurt and lifting my arse off the seat really hurts.
I tried a Wunderlich seat but that was worse.
Using a Cool Seat cover helps but then I can't use the heated seat.

I'm thinking about getting the seat modified, memory foam and all that but worried that won't help either.

What's changed, has the seat gone past it's comfortable stage (then at least I can get a new seat) or is it me?

Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks

 

[Santa-2512]

So youve give a detailed history of the bike over that time

Now do the same for yourself

whats changed ( your age obs )

weight, overall fitness , work ??

bigger picture to consider

 

[Vern]

My 1100 seat was great to start off with, but then it became awful after a couple of years. I took the cover off and the foam had just broken up and collapsed. It was so gradual that I never noticed. New seat fixed the problem like having a new bike. I have a sargent seat now, but that has gone the same way after a good few years.

 

[GS Bloke]

So youve give a detailed history of the bike over that time

Now do the same for yourself

whats changed ( your age obs )

weight, overall fitness , work ??

bigger picture to consider

Yes, sadly I'm a year older.
Weight is about the same.
It seemed to start after I joined a gym so I wondered if that was it, so I stopped about 6 weeks ago but still the same.

 

[Deleted account 250319001]

Piles ?

 

[Santa-2512]

Piles ?

How to make friends and influence people

but yes one i hadn't considered

 

[Mr Craig]

Sarcopenia


Unless you have injured yourself with the bit of gym activity you mentioned its possible that old father time is playing a part. Also I am not a Dr so please feel free to ignore my suggestion.

 

[hawkeye]

I suspect your gym activity may (possibly) have caused issues - I had similar a few years back and after trying a couple of physio's, visited a chiropracter and haven't looked back since. Spent a few weeks straightening me out (I have back issues) and now have regular "maintenance" but have to say since I did that, now find I can do long days in the saddle with no problem at all. The only other things I've done (which has helped) is fit Wunderlich up and back risers and a Wunderlich seat (which I personally find quite comfortable - and its a low seat as well).

Possible its not the bike, but you that may need a bit of maintenance?

 

[bosnjo]

Maybe I can help with my own experience.
I have had the same problem and now it's 99% solved. Few years back, I could sit or sleep on any surface for as long as I wanted, without any pain. In my case, I first started to have pain in both hips when I was laying on my bed and bottom pain when I was sitting. I didn't full myself, I knew it was because of my age. At that time, my GS was one year old and just like you, I couldn't ride more then 1 hour without stopping to aliviate some pain. So, I decided to fight it. First, it was with exercises. The result was equal to zero. No improvement. At the time, I was sleeping badly as I couldn't find the position in my bed without hips pain. Then I started to analize everything I do during a day, thing by thing. Tried sleeping on my sofa that is very soft to see if hips pain changed but after 2 weeks it was still the same. Then I had an idea. Is my desk chair the problem and not my bed? I do spend more time sitting at my desk working on computer. In later years my work gets done more on computer. I went and bought one of those "gaming" chairs and made a pillow of hard foam to put on top of it. The first night I felt some difference when in my bed. But just a little.
Here is important piece of information. If you're on the way to get better, it takes months.
In my case hips pain disappeared completely after 5 months. But I still had bottom pain when riding longer rides. Then I decided to investigate the OEM seat. It is very soft. When you sit on it, you feel the softness. But, as time passes, you start to sink in it. My guess was that the pain was because the foam has compressed completely and my bones were pressed against the bottom of the seat. So I decided to go for new seat. I purchased Wunderlich Standard. At the beginning, there was no difference in pain. It would still appear after one hour in saddle. What I felt was the firmer foam that wouldn't let me sink into it. I was sitting in higher position, although the seat was the same hight as the OEM one (I even measured it). The seat was very firm. I even had to adjust my mirrors because my sitting position had changed. After about one month, I felt that my bottom bones hurt less every time.
It's now 3 months since I purchased the Wunderlich seat and the pain still comes back after one hour but I hardly notice it and no need to stop to aliviate it. I firmly believe that after three more months all the pain will be gone.
So, try to change the things and be patient. It takes at least 6 months to get better.
And the foam? My conclusion is - the firmer the better (at least for us, older ones).

 

[GSMarky]

Go borrow a new seat from a dealer for an hour and you'll know then!

 

[GS Bloke]

Yesterday I did exactly that, well - I spoke with the guy that sold me the bike and asked if he'd lend me a seat from their demo bike and he said yep, going to head over on Thursday.

 

[GSMarky]

Yesterday I did exactly that, well - I spoke with the guy that sold me the bike and asked if he'd lend me a seat from their demo bike and he said yep, going to head over on Thursday.

Should help resolve the conundrum hopefully & if you're lucky you'll get dry roads.