As the title explains, I have been in search of the most important bike mod, a comfortable seat. I have made some wonderful discoveries that I want to share with you. But first a little history.
I bought my Burgy a year ago. I have to say that this is the best bike I have ever owned, ever! What a joy it has been to ride. And ride it I do, every day and everywhere. It is my first mode of transportation, especially since I loaned my truck to my daughter to use. And Burgy and I do get around, including some lovely, long rides. With the range this bike has I can now enjoy my ride instead of looking for the next gas station.
But Burgy, as great as it is, has needed some improvements to be even better. I added led turn-signal lights to the mirrors (because I kept not seeing the little ones on the dash) along with little round convex mirrors to see better to the side, a trunk on the back (back rest removed), a cup holder, handlebar risers, and a back rest (conversion kit for the butt stop). All of these mods have brought great comfort and improvement to Burgy. But with all it's improvements, Burgy was missing the key ingredient, butt comfort.
Having owned several bikes made in Japan, I was fully aware of their conspiracy of inflicting pain and discomfort upon American consumers. I feel they do this out of envy. Since they live on little islands that can be ridden around in a matter of hours, they are envious of our thousands of miles of wonderful roads we have. They are also envious of the ample "padding" most Americans have as well. So they have turned their envy into evilness by building their bikes with seats that don't allow our "padding" to enjoy those thousands of miles of riding. (all of this is BS by the way...except the pain part) Fortunately, we padded Americans have overcome that evilness by our great ingenuity (a by-product of our padding by the way). Besides for those great American companies and fellow brothers in the struggle, Corbin and Mustang, we have learned how to defend ourselves against the pain and discomfort that has been pitted against us. This is the saga of one man's fight against that evilness. (Aka, another seat mod)
So, as most of you know our Burgy seat can be a real pain in the....well, the part that sits on it. Like most motorcycle seats, it's shaped wrong to begin with. It slants forward and is too small for me. On previous bikes (cruisers), I could just raise the front up to get a better angle. But as we know the seat pan is also the storage lid, so that mod is out. And as big as the seat is, it's still too small in certain places. I feel like I'm "perching" and not "sitting". Then there is that gravel based seat cover. If you are wearing anything but leather or heavy material it will chaff your skin on the long rides. Something had to be done.
First thing I did was look at the seats available for purchase. Ouch! More pain in the backside, where my wallet was being held. Corbin's are great, but the prices are high. Even higher are the custom built seats. I decided to try some DIY first before going the replacement direction. I've modded and rebuilt seats before, so I was afraid to give it a shot. I've always wanted to try some gel with a seat mod so I did some research and found something really exciting. It's called "Wondergel". It looked perfect, so I bought some. Here is the Amazon link to what I bought.
Wondergel (aka Intelli-gel) is made of gel cells, not just a flat slab of it. It works by the walls collapsing, instead of push back on you. So it spreads the weight out instead of creating hot spots. I'll explain the mod in more detail in a later post, but what I did was modify the seat using this as the primary padding. I put a thin layer of memory foam over gel pad to smooth and fill it in. It adds a little height to the seat, but the stock cover fits albeit a little snugger.
How does it feel? It takes a little getting used to because it feels at first like a plate of jello. After a minute you settle into it and conforms to you. It's different, but it is surprisingly comfortable. I gone on a few 1 hour rides on it so far and haven't had any "hot spots" yet. I'm hoping to go on a longer ride this weekend to really give it a test. I've noticed that if I feel a little pressure all I have to do is wiggle my butt a little and it feels good again. In fact, the longer I sit on it, the more comfortable it feels. I still need to improve the seat angle a little more, and the seat is still feels too small, but it's definitely not killing my but after an hour or two. I also want to replace the gravel cover with some nice smooth leather or vinyl.
I bought my Burgy a year ago. I have to say that this is the best bike I have ever owned, ever! What a joy it has been to ride. And ride it I do, every day and everywhere. It is my first mode of transportation, especially since I loaned my truck to my daughter to use. And Burgy and I do get around, including some lovely, long rides. With the range this bike has I can now enjoy my ride instead of looking for the next gas station.
But Burgy, as great as it is, has needed some improvements to be even better. I added led turn-signal lights to the mirrors (because I kept not seeing the little ones on the dash) along with little round convex mirrors to see better to the side, a trunk on the back (back rest removed), a cup holder, handlebar risers, and a back rest (conversion kit for the butt stop). All of these mods have brought great comfort and improvement to Burgy. But with all it's improvements, Burgy was missing the key ingredient, butt comfort.
Having owned several bikes made in Japan, I was fully aware of their conspiracy of inflicting pain and discomfort upon American consumers. I feel they do this out of envy. Since they live on little islands that can be ridden around in a matter of hours, they are envious of our thousands of miles of wonderful roads we have. They are also envious of the ample "padding" most Americans have as well. So they have turned their envy into evilness by building their bikes with seats that don't allow our "padding" to enjoy those thousands of miles of riding. (all of this is BS by the way...except the pain part) Fortunately, we padded Americans have overcome that evilness by our great ingenuity (a by-product of our padding by the way). Besides for those great American companies and fellow brothers in the struggle, Corbin and Mustang, we have learned how to defend ourselves against the pain and discomfort that has been pitted against us. This is the saga of one man's fight against that evilness. (Aka, another seat mod)
So, as most of you know our Burgy seat can be a real pain in the....well, the part that sits on it. Like most motorcycle seats, it's shaped wrong to begin with. It slants forward and is too small for me. On previous bikes (cruisers), I could just raise the front up to get a better angle. But as we know the seat pan is also the storage lid, so that mod is out. And as big as the seat is, it's still too small in certain places. I feel like I'm "perching" and not "sitting". Then there is that gravel based seat cover. If you are wearing anything but leather or heavy material it will chaff your skin on the long rides. Something had to be done.
First thing I did was look at the seats available for purchase. Ouch! More pain in the backside, where my wallet was being held. Corbin's are great, but the prices are high. Even higher are the custom built seats. I decided to try some DIY first before going the replacement direction. I've modded and rebuilt seats before, so I was afraid to give it a shot. I've always wanted to try some gel with a seat mod so I did some research and found something really exciting. It's called "Wondergel". It looked perfect, so I bought some. Here is the Amazon link to what I bought.
Wondergel (aka Intelli-gel) is made of gel cells, not just a flat slab of it. It works by the walls collapsing, instead of push back on you. So it spreads the weight out instead of creating hot spots. I'll explain the mod in more detail in a later post, but what I did was modify the seat using this as the primary padding. I put a thin layer of memory foam over gel pad to smooth and fill it in. It adds a little height to the seat, but the stock cover fits albeit a little snugger.
How does it feel? It takes a little getting used to because it feels at first like a plate of jello. After a minute you settle into it and conforms to you. It's different, but it is surprisingly comfortable. I gone on a few 1 hour rides on it so far and haven't had any "hot spots" yet. I'm hoping to go on a longer ride this weekend to really give it a test. I've noticed that if I feel a little pressure all I have to do is wiggle my butt a little and it feels good again. In fact, the longer I sit on it, the more comfortable it feels. I still need to improve the seat angle a little more, and the seat is still feels too small, but it's definitely not killing my but after an hour or two. I also want to replace the gravel cover with some nice smooth leather or vinyl.
