round the world bike ,?

[kevingambrell]

The day my 06 1200gs arrived I sat on the bike and new the seat was going to be a problem. Now I say that but also it would have done the job if it had had too.
Most new bikes (new to me) seem to have a ridge along the middle of the seat making it feel to me like your on a horse saddle.
The most comfortable seat iv ever had was on a 1965 BSA, for me what made it comfortabel was the fact that it was basicaly a well padded flat plank. I did huge miles on that bike and never felt like I wanted to get off due to arse ache.
All I did with the 1200 was take the cover off the seat and remove a 2 inch thick layer of foam from the under side of the foam pad. Easy to do with a bread knife taking less than 20 minutes to remove, cut, and then re fit the cover. I can now do a lot of miles and not feel like my arse cheeks are parting like the red sea, which was the feeling before making the changes to the stock seat.
The chnage to the seat didnt have much effect on seat height as I only removed a section of foam down the middle of the pad about 5 inches wide. What it did was allow the pad to colapse a bit in the middle flattening the seat off a bit and giving more support area for my arse to sit on, It also took away the feeling that the inside of my legs were taking a lot of my weight on the seat. All in all it was well worth doing and as a side result I feel like I have better controle of the bike.
Loks wise you wouldnt know the seat has been cut about as the line on the vinyl cover still follows the

 

[Bendy toy]

The Kahedo seat is a lot firmer the the GS seat and appears to have the same chassis (pan?). The shape is a little more saddle style but I suspect the costs is 80% name and 20% better quality foam padding.

The most comfortable car seats Ive used were the Audi sports seats. Hard when you get in but comfortable for mile after mile. The 2nd most comfortable were a basic model Austin Montego. The latter had dual density padding but for sure would have had virtually zero development compared to the Audi. The very worst seats were any of the GM cars. Absolutely horrible.

Aa I said before its not rocket science. All the manufacturer has to do is actually ride their product. The long distance bike reliability testers don't count because they spend their lives in the saddle. Just as with running shoes they top guys will sit on (or run in) anything and be fine. Mere mortals however...

 

[Paul Wakefield]

I've always found the stock seat absolutely fine on the BMs I've had. I find it takes about a 1000 miles for bum and seat to work in harmony. Once done though it's good for very long days in the saddle.

 

[(RIP) Edvard Munch]

Spend a fair bit of time riding with fellow middle aged folk on all sorts of different bikes and watching 'em squirm, wiggle, stand up, sit down, hover over the seat etc on even relatively short journeys.

TBH it wasn't that much better back in the day but being a lithesome youth the onset of terminal Japanese flag syndrome took a lot longer.

The move from standard bikes to sportsbikes eventually took it's toll, tho' what a fecking blast it was while it lasted and my attempts to make a Busa more comfortable extended the whole experience for a few more years even though two up trips especially, became more and more tiresome for longer periods in between injections of adrenaline.

Interestingly, on a sportsbike, the seat was the very last of your problems comfort wise

Anyway I ramble.

Moved to a GSA, initially a bit disappointed with longer distance comfort, as mentioned before tilted seat up at front and down at back and added a pair of padded cycling shorts and can quite a few miles in decent comfort and the pillion with a bit of cheap sheepskin does the same for the pillion.

 

[TLSgazza]

I think some of us are too gentle on the bike makers. I don't mean refusing a new bike because the engine paint shades vary slightly but I do think they get away with a lot of poor design "because that's how it's done". Screens and seats seem to be the biggest areas for that.

The GSA seat is far too narrow and hard. Its ok for standing on the pegs moto cross style but how many target market owners do that for more than a minute or two?

The GS seat was too soft and a lump at the back dug into my coccyx. After 2 hours in the saddle I could feel that lump for the rest of the day.

The GSA screen caused me to get headaches from day one. It's not especially noisy but buffeting was terrible sort of fixed with a Touratech spoiler. At 5ft 8ins tall, I'm the "standard" motor industry median human proportions. The screen and seats should be all but perfect for my size body.

I went for a Kahedo seat because the Sargent didn't suit me. The Givi Airflow screen is as good as anyone can expect short of a barn door. Cost-wise its cheaper than a replacement GSA screen. So again it's not about the money.

The Yamaha Diversion 900 a budget bike contemporary with the 1150 had a far more comfortable seat yet it cost 50% of the BMW price. Nothing is perfect so I did try a used Corbin but found it too hard and the edges dug into my legs. The Yamaha screen was absolute c**p. Noisy and high frequency turbulent though it did keep rain off my visor. I never did manage to get that screen issue sorted.

My point is that manufacturers should be able to do a whole lot better. Its not about massive technical investment just some usability testing within the humungous test miles they do for every new bike.

Sometimes you don't make a lot of sense,.
I road my gsa for 40,000 miles on the standard seat, no real problems,
Then a pair of sergeant seats came up for sale, so I thought I'd give them a go,nothing to lose I could always sell then again.
a massive improvement, it made me realize that the stock seat is not perfect but adequate.
You're saying that manufacturers should listen to the public and then they could produce a better product, then you say you didn't like the sergeant seat and went for the kahedo, have sergeant got it wrong as well as BMW, not in my opinion, it just didn't suit you but it clearly suits many other people
Many others on here don't have a problem with the stock seat but it clearly has something wrong with it as it doesn't suit you.

 

[Bendy toy]

Point taken but I was aware of rambling.

Sargent suits lots of people but not me. At hundreds of pounds I was being very fussy. The Kahedo suited a lot better so that got the deal. Oddly the Kahedo/Touratech seat looks a lot like the OEM BMW so I do wonder why BMW don't just use Kahedo from day one and be done with it.

I HAD to do SOMETHING - the GSA seat was becoming unusable. I did a few thousand miles thinking it (or I) would break in and we'd get along fine. It actually got worse over time. The GS seat was 99% OK but being able to feel a pressure point on your coccyx for the whole day isn't fun - that 1% was a deal breaker. What the **** is that about? Changing the seat angle made no difference to coccyx issue.

My brother took it from me thinking how bad can it be? He sold it on and replaced with a GSA height Touratech (Kahedo made). That really is THE best I have used but just a bit too high for me.

Long distances?
Torquay to London City and return in one day. All I needed were unpadded cycle shorts. 500 miles in about 10 hours including the meetings.
Midlands to Oxford a number of times a week were nothing. Torquay to Oxford is quite common.
Silly distances on an MZ 250 not many years ago. I can't compete with Paddy Tyson who did London to Helsinki and Moscow on a Saxon 250 but 200 miles non-stop** was normal for me.
** maybe I needed to stop for fuel but nothing more.

 

[Cymru-Dave]

im a big guy, 18 1/2 stone, 6ft 5in and I've done a couple of 300mile days on my 2012 GSA, I've found the ergo's really good until well into the 200 mile marker where i start to get some fatigue, but because of my size i think this is probably inevitable, but as for comfort its about the best you're going to get id have thought, I'm standard everything.

As for the 'working the box' statement, this surprises me a lot, i have found this engine one of the least demanding from the rider putting effort in point of view, id say you could pretty much get around in 5th or 6th in most situations and let the torque do the work, unless your trying to scream the bollox off of it racing.