[csachs1]

Well after a ride this Saturday, I think I’d like to entertain doing something with my seat. I was going to just put the Utopia backrest on, when a less than 200 mile ride rendered terrible pain in my butt and hamstring area.

It seems the choices are a plenty.

1. Get it custom made locally (or do it myself)
2. Corbin which has actually two options and then an optional driver’s backrest
3. Day long as someone has mentioned. You send them our seat, and they custom make it for you.
4. Through a gel or other cover on there.

It seems most of these options can be expensive, and short of actually getting to test the configuration, I’m at a little loss as of what to do.

Corbin in Daytona has a close version there now, and if still there in March when I pan to be up there, will certainly give it a try.

But still, I wont have anything else to compare it to.

Is there anyone in the South Florida are that has made any of these choice that I might be able to meet up with?

I don’t think I can make it to scootercade on the stock seat, but that would be ideal to see what others have done.

OR am I going to have a certain amount of pain no matter what seat I choose?

I know long trips in my car seats also kill me. My BMW seat is so hard, I can hardly drive it for more than an hour or so.

 

[seatec]

I did my own work on mine and got it some better, tried the gel, did not like it, got an Airhawk but will have to wait for spring, i think it is going to be ok as it can be adjusted with air. Wayne

 

[Jim]

I did mine own work, one step at a time. Conturing the butt rest, then adding gel pads. What worked the best for me was adding soft foam to the front 1/2 of the seat. This puts less pressure on your tail bone and more on your thigh.

 

[Randy]

Someone on this forum (can't remember who) has made the remark that perhaps the seat it self -it's design -
is the main fault and it seems adding more stuffing or gel or even air seats just will not work.
I have added foam, even played with an air seat .Each helps -a little - but not what I am looking for.
I am almost at the point of trying a Corbin..
If that works then I will have to find out were Suzuki HQ is so I can throw my old seat at them. :evil:

 

[Rubble]

csachs1
This is in regards to a car seat, but your pain symptoms are the same as I was experiencing so this may be relevant.
I had pain in my tail bone and hamstring area that was so bad that I considered selling my car. I tried all sorts of products from foam and gel butt pads to lumbar supports all to no avail. I went to a back specialty store and found a device that cured it instantly. It is merely a foldable frame that looks like one of those portable stadium seats that keeps the back and legs in proper alignment. Granted this would not work for your application, but an adjustable back rest may do the trick by keeping you from curling the lower part of your spine and therefore keeping your hips in the right plain thus keeping your tail bone from contacting the seat.

Rubble

 

[roy_ryall]

Someone on this forum (can't remember who) has made the remark that perhaps the seat it self -it's design -
is the main fault

Randy and others, I recall that comment about the seat also. There have been similar comments by other Burgman owners who are having problems with seat. I would offer a little different explanation. I would suggest that some of the problems with the seat are some what dependent on the rider themselves. I have ridden +500 mile days on the stock seat (butt rest removed) without any problems. I would guess there are other owners have ridden long days on the stock seat. For me, the main discomfort I had from the stock seat was pressing my back/butt against the butt rest. I removed it and solved my problem. Is the seat the best one can get, no. But, it is not the worst either.

Rubble, interesting explanation and a good point. It may be one of many explanations of why some riders have difficulty with the seat and others do not.

 

[pauljo]

Just for my 2 cents, I've had many motorcycles with worse seats. The stock Burgman seat seemed actually pretty good for a OEM seat. The main issue I had was due to my long legs - I needed to sit further back. So I removed the butt stop and had the seat recovered. The results are satisfactory except on long trips (500 mile days), when I feel like I'd like to be even further back on the seat sometimes. If the Corbin seat had been available at the time I modified mine, I would have gone that route.

Seats, windscreens, and suspension components, seem to be the most frequently replaced OEM parts on most new motorcycles. Except for Harleys, where an outrageously loud exhaust is the first priority, and getting the engine to actually produce a bit of power is the second priority... :lol:

 

[JohnnyDeath]

If you remove the butt stop you must recover the seat and add a bit of padding. I made the mistake of riding sans butt-stop and hit a bump and landed my tailbone on the metal plate. Very ouchy for about five to six weeks (didn't stop me from riding though). I had the padding placed over the metal and seat recovered and have never looked back.

 

[pauljo]

Others have mentioned that too. But I rode mine for months with the butt stop removed and before I had the seat recovered. It never bothered me from a comfort standpoint. It just looked ugly - and that bothered me.

 

[JKerstinJ]

Charles,

Janine here. Next time we ride together try my Airhawk seat cushion. Two weeks ago we went on a 370 miles day trip with the South Florida Riders Club and I used the Airhawk for the entire ride. I could have gone another 370 miles with no pain and I am one who lives with much back pain. It's worth every penny ($150) and then some. I have the new Medium Cruiser size cushion and it fits perfectly.

Janine

 

[lycheed]

csachs1

I hear you with the BMW seat. It’s the same with VW and Audi. That’s one reason why I stopped driving German cars and moved over to Japanese cars. I’d recommend the G35 Coupe - performance and elegance, as well as comfort. Not to mention the orchestrated noise – just like a V12.

650 seat
Pre-purchase, I took a 650 out for a one day test ride. Loved the motor, brakes and road presence - hated the hard seat. It is significantly harder than the SilverWing’s and the Pan-European, FJR1300 and R1150RT. It’s about 5 times harder than the wonderful seat on my Reflex 250 ABS :shock: - the most comfortable bike I have ever ridden, whilst having extremely good handling on tight roads up to 50mph. Furthermore, I felt that the pillion was dangerous for passengers shorter than 5ft10ins without the backrest fitted, as the width makes it hard to grip on to against the torque of the motor. :x

I looked at options myself – one of which was fitting the gel seat from the Anniversary black model.

Once I purchased it and took it out touring a few times, I found that the key factors are:
1. Position of the backrest
2. Matching rear shock Pre-load your riding style and weight
3. Getting a comfortable foot position/leg elevation
4. Discipline with keeping your back straight when riding.

With those four factors addressed, as stock it’s a pretty comfortable long-touring bike for 5ft7ins - 5ft10ins riders. Fit the backrest and it’s comfortable for passengers even of smaller proportions, too.

Those larger than 5ft10ins often find a slight discomfort riding any machine this side of a Harley or a R1150GS in stock trim. The Japanese and Italians are not the largest of peoples… :wink: Aftermarket seats, screens, and suspension and a bit of trial and error is the route to cure this.

Good luck.

 

[csachs1]

Janine:

Thanks for your input as I've been thinking more about the Airhawk option. Where did you buy it?

I'm just not sure that spending for this and then another $200 for the Utopia backrest is worthwhile. I may look to buy the Corbin seat as some say you don't need the backrest and it is only $420 from Oneida

 

[Jim]

csach1,

Maybe I didn't see it, but how tall are you?

If your around 6' maybe all you need, or help a great deal, would be to modify the butt stop. The stock configeration, I feel is sloped too much, reducing the legroom and putting pressure on the tail bone. By changing the slope to near vertical, it moves the pressure point farther up closer to your belt line, and you will gain about 1" or better in legroom. If you still need more back support than you can still add an aftermarket backrest

I'm 6' 2" and by modifying the butt stop, I'm ok with the legroom, and back support.

I didn't really want to spend the money, if this would be enough. As it turned out in my case, it was. I did add gel pads, but they were more for absorbing shock on bumpy roads.
The butt stop was the biggest improvement, then adding soft foam to the front 1/2 of the rider & passinger position and top of the face on the butt stop, then the gel pads.

 

[Dennis Gross]

corbin seat from onidea

I spent a lot of money trying different seat fixes and each one was a little better than the last and all were better than the orginal. I now have a corbin seat that is the very best thing that I have tried. It is the standard seat and actualy gave me to much room. I am 5'8 and I had to add a backrest to make it just right for me. A corbin seat and backrest are my choice, and if I had started with one I would have saved about $400 that I spent on other backrest, gel pads, costom foam seat, air pad. The air pad was good but it kept going soft and was hard to inflate. If you ever ride over to the west cost of Florida, or maybe we could meet up somewhere in the middle and you can try mine out before making a decision.

 

[Randy]

There is another advantage to the Corbin as I see it. when you sell the bike you should be able to sell the seat separate and recoup a couple of hundred..

 

[JKerstinJ]

Charles,

I purchased the AirHawk from RL Motorcycles. Here is their link:

http://cyclesaddles.com/home/default.htm

Since you are not as tall as some of the respondents the back rest may not help. Dennis has one but says it has to be set with the butt rest in the back position. The Corbin seat is nice, however from what I have read, it molds to your form. When selling the bike, will you need to find the person that has your exact butt match to sell :? :lol:

Janine

 

[pauljo]

The Corbin seat is nice, however from what I have read, it molds to your form. When selling the bike, will you need to find the person that has your exact butt match to sell :? :lol:

Janine

Janine,

I have not found that to be true. My first two Corbin seats were already on pre-owned motorcycles that I bought, so they had been used by someone else before me. They broke in for me rather quickly. The seat conformation is not even visible to the eye - it is not like a significant dent ends up in the seat.

 

[Evelyn]

Seat Choices

Hey Everyone,

When I mentioned getting a close Corbin seat for my future Burgie to my motorcycle group, one of the members said indignantly why would you ever spend that much money for a seat? He recommended buying a Sargent seat (the factory is located in Jacksonville, Fla?) because they will mold the seat exactly to your body configurations. Is this true and has anyone tried this on their B 400?

Evelyn

 

[roy_ryall]

Evelyn, I can not answer your question about the B400, but I had two PC800s at one time, one with a Sargent and one with a Corbin. I sold the Corbin and kept the Sargent. I found the Sargent much more comfortable.

 

[pauljo]

Ha! I bought a Kawasaki Concours that came with a Sargent seat and a Corbin seat. I hated the Sargent and loved the Corbin. The prior owner of the bike bought a new Concours a year later. I swapped him the Sargent seat (which he liked) for his new stock seat.

Here is one big difference though. The Corbin is a complete new seat. You get to keep your original seat, which might be useful at resale time. Sargent doesn't make seat pans like Corbin does. So they usually rework your stock seat. That means you don't have a seat to ride on while they are working on it - and it also means you can't go back to stock. They do buy up seats from wrecked bikes, etc. sometimes - so if you own a very common bike they might be able to provide you with a complete new seat. But our Burgmans are unlikely to fall into that category. And even though the Concours has been around for 20 years, the prior owner of mine did have to send his stock seat in to them for rework. They did not have a used Concours seat at the time.