Made it to Arizona on my RT Seat

[Lmar]

After 3 1/2 days and 3400 km I made it to Arizona on my 09 Rt seat. Stopped at Banff Alberta for a wedding on Monday and arrived in Arizona on Thursday afternoon.

 

Beautiful ride. The RT ran flawlessly. I love everything about the RT except the seat. After the first day my butt was sore. The more I rode the sorer it got. I had an Alaska Sheepskin over a small self inflating Expedition pillow to try to improve the comfort. By the second day my butt was saying loud and clear "Get rid of this $%&&en seat!

 

So what I think I am going to do is contact Sargent. Hopefully I can test ride one of their seats on my way back to Canada in early August.

 

Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Jerry_75_Guy]

I can't speak from direct experience, but my understanding from the cumulative wisdom here is that the definitive answer is to be found in the following four words:

 

"Russell Day Long Seat"

[Lawman]

By the second day my butt was saying loud and clear "Get rid of this $%&&en seat!

 

 

Wow! My butt's been sore before but that's never happened to me...thank goodness...

 

I now ride on a Corbin with a sheepskin pad but I would second the suggestion for the Russell..

 

BTW..I think you might be able to get on The David Letterman Show..

[RMOORE]

congratulations on the new rt.

in 2001 i purchased a new 02 rt and 7 days later rode out west on a 4500 mile journey with a friend.

words cannot describe the agony i went through due to the oem seat.

i even stopped at walmart and purchased pillows to sit on. i still

had sore butt syndrome.

when i got back home,(TN.)i called sargent and they fixed me up with a seat-no more sore butt. i still have it today.

when i got it,the price was 500.00 i think. at the time i thought that was ridiculous,but it was worth it.

ronnie moore

[Lmar]

Poster: Jerry_75_Guy

Subject: Re: Made it to Arizona on my RT Seat

 

I can't speak from direct experience, but my understanding from the cumulative wisdom here is that the definitive answer is to be found in the following four words:

 

"Russell Day Long Seat"

I'm thinking quick solution. I will be going back to Canada around August 7th. I'm looking at a quick solution to get me back.

 

I may be able to get a Sargent seat quicker than a Russell. The concern I have with a Russell seat is that the seat is 2 inches higher than stock? I like my present seat height.

 

My thoughts are to try and get a Sargent Seat before I return to Canada. Test it out on a 3000 km ride. If it works, then great. Return the standard seat and get a heated one to replace my OEM. If it doesn't go to a Russell.

[Lmar]

BTW..I think you might be able to get on The David Letterman Show..

 

I have ridden for 36 years and I have never been that uncomfortable on a bike.

 

I wonder who did the quality testing on the bike. I would like to talk to the guy who gave the thumbs up on the seat!

[BeemerLover]

You can get a Sargent or Corbin seat quickly but, depending on your body type, there is a good chance you will want to turn it in for a Russell seat at some point. In my experience and the experience of those in my local MOA, it will depend on your weight and butt size (and to some extent your age as we lose butt padding as we age). Sargent and Corbin are mass produced and, while they are wider than the stock seat, they are much harder. If you are of a smaller build and do not weigh much then there is a good chance it will work out. A smaller guy in my MOA with a small butt loves his Sargent seat. I've tried several and found the Russell is the best, especially for guys with bigger butts like me. They will make the seat to your specs which can be as low as the BMW low seat. Just ask. They can also put a heating element in for you. Good luck with this, working out the seating arrangements has made my RT riding experience MUCH more enjoyable.

 

 

[steveg]

Bill mayer, He'll custom make it to your weight , butt size , riding posture

[10ovr]

I have a Sargent seat on my 07 RT and love it,,,If you want to try it for a day,,Let me know,,I well be gone till July 20th,But when I get back you can try it,,,,Im in Fountain Hills AZ,, Where are you ???? Tim

[randys]

Call Russell and see what their wait time is. This time of year, most people are out riding, so they may be able to get your order right in. Thats what happened when I finally ordered mine, called on a friday, they said ship your seat, and I had it back in 10 days.

 

Or alternative, set up a ride in appt for when you head back to canada.

[Tim Wilson]

Bill mayer, He'll custom make it to your weight , butt size , riding posture

 

+1

 

You could schedule a ride-in fitting on your return trip and they'll make it while you wait.

 

[bayoubengal]

I am 6' and about 210. You could not give me another Sargent seat. Mine was on the bike when I bought it. Previous owner liked it. He was probably 50 pounds lighter than me. Just another data point to add to your decision matrix...

[AZKomet]

BMW doesn't make an OEM seat worth a damn....

 

Get an aftermarket ASAP!!! Are you in Phx? If so and you got some time this week give me a PM and I'll buy lunch!!

[Charles Elms]

Advil will get you home. Just don't take more than the recommended daily dose. You will be amazed at how much it will help.

[marcopolo]

Mmm; I've got 80,000 kms (50,000 miles) on my R12RT equipped with the stock low seat (even less padding). I've somehow managed to survive. How did I do it?

[Bill_Walker]

Mmm; I've got 80,000 kms (50,000 miles) on my R12RT equipped with the stock low seat (even less padding). I've somehow managed to survive. How did I do it?

 

You're obviously a freak of nature.

 

Or else you're built like a typical German.

[Haynes]

There is so much understanding and empathy here when you say the word "seat".

I had my first R1150RT in 2001 and I swore I would break in the seat rather than spend money on a custom saddle. That bike went to god after I hit a kangaroo. The seat had not yielded after 40,000km. It was replaced by a new R1150RT and I had to start breaking in the seat all over again. After 39,000km on this one, there is still no relief.

BMW must have set designed these seats to be indestructable.

These seats are real "pile drivers".

[Lmar]

In response to:

Poster: marcopolo

Subject: Re: Made it to Arizona on my RT Seat

 

Mmm; I've got 80,000 kms (50,000 miles) on my R12RT equipped with the stock low seat (even less padding). I've somehow managed to survive. How did I do it?

 

I haven't heard to many positive comments about the RT seat. I knew that when I purchased the bike. I just did not realize how bad it actually is.

[russell_bynum]

Mmm; I've got 80,000 kms (50,000 miles) on my R12RT equipped with the stock low seat (even less padding). I've somehow managed to survive. How did I do it?

 

You're obviously a freak of nature.

 

Or else you're built like a typical German.

 

I put seat jacks on my R1100RT to raise the nose of the BMW "Comfort" seat up a bit. After that, I was good for as many full days in the saddle as I wanted...including several days over 1000 miles.

 

The key for me (other than the seat jacks) was the Master Yoda Riding Position, and just moving around in the seat a bunch as I ride. I've done 800 miles on my Tuono with it's granite slab of a seat, and I only stopped after 800 miles because I was at my destination.

 

Other stuff: bicycle shorts instead of underwear. The seams on regular underwear can be downright miserable after a while. Pretty much the only time I don't wear bike shorts when I'm riding is if I'm just commuting.

 

I'm not knocking aftermarket seats...the Russell Day Long's I've sat on are more comfortable than my fricken couch. But...there's stuff you can do that will make life much more pleasant without costing you a fortune and it might be enough to get you from "miserable" to "not too bad".

 

 

[DMilan]

BeadRider..

 

Huge improvement on my '04KGT / when equipped with an '04KRS seat.

Huge improvement on my '05RT with stock low seat. Much better than standard Comfort seat IMO

 

Some years ago named in Motorcycle Consumer News as a must have or best buy accessory.

I agree.

$40.00 ish

Feels strange at first.. give it a day or 2.

Allows for airflow underneath in the heat, spreads out pressure points, allows for easy body movement when cornering on "fun" roads, you sit above puddles on the seat in the rain or when mounting a bike that has been parked in the rain.

 

 

 

Dmilan

[Redbrick]

Call Russell and see what their wait time is. This time of year, most people are out riding, so they may be able to get your order right in. Thats what happened when I finally ordered mine, called on a friday, they said ship your seat, and I had it back in 10 days.

 

Or alternative, set up a ride in appt for when you head back to canada.

 

"Zacactly what I was thinkin'.......Ride to Shasta Lake when heading home, get measured at Russell, leave your seat and use one of their loaners for a day ride to Mt. Shasta, Lassen or wherever.......Pick yours up in the PM and ride home with a smile on your own a custom seat..

[10ovr]

Mmm; I've got 80,000 kms (50,000 miles) on my R12RT equipped with the stock low seat (even less padding). I've somehow managed to survive. How did I do it?

YOUR CHEEP

[Lmar]

Ordered a Sargent Custom seat this morning. Its in the production line and will be shipped on July 29th, 10 days before I hid back to Canada. I can't wait to try it out.

[rideaway]

I tried a Russell seat and was in such a hurry to get going I didn't test it out but just headed for the coast, boy was I sorry. It didn't work for me or my passenger, it actually put me closer to the foot pegs which really crippled me up and very uncomfortable when stopping. Nice seat good workmanship but just didn't work out. The worst thing was even though they said they couldn't make it work for me they still charged me 15%. I'm sticking with the stock seat and my new wife seems fine with the passenger seat also, for now at least.

[Bill_Walker]

BeadRider..

 

I tried one and found it painful. I don't have much padding on my backside. You?

[Nice n Easy Rider]

BeadRider..

 

I tried one and found it painful. I don't have much padding on my backside. You?

 

I just got a BeadRider a couple of weeks ago. Haven't done more than 200 miles in a day on it yet so I can't compare it to the AirHawk I was using which I hadn't done more than 350 miles at a time on. Hope to get some long distance in soon to make a final judgment on the BeadRider before I head to the UN. I can definitely tell that I'm getting air circulation under my butt with the BeadRider which I have to think will be useful in the heat or in the rain.

 

I don't have much padding on my backside either so it will be interesting to see if the BeadRider holds up on the long rides. I would think a plastic surgeon could do well moving beer belly fat to the rear of those of us who are posterior challenged.

[rglassma]

I recently purchased a Sargeant lowered seat on the forum and kept it for a week. I put about 100 miles on it and the piping around the edge drove me crazy!!!

 

I now use my BMW lowered seat with a gel pad .... It is much, much better ....

 

So, I am not sure of your size and weight charecteristics, but I would be very leary to just buy a seat and expect it to do what you want it to.

 

I personally wouldn't recommend that sargeant seat myself. The gel pad on the other hand, works well.

[Lmar]

Poster: rglassma

Subject: Re: Made it to Arizona on my RT Seat

 

I recently purchased a Sargeant lowered seat on the forum and kept it for a week. I put about 100 miles on it and the piping around the edge drove me crazy!!!

 

I now use my BMW lowered seat with a gel pad .... It is much, much better ....

 

So, I am not sure of your size and weight charecteristics, but I would be very leary to just buy a seat and expect it to do what you want it to.

 

I personally wouldn't recommend that sargeant seat myself. The gel pad on the other hand, works well.

 

I don't have much time, since I will be riding back to Canada in early August. Sargent was the quickest to get me a seat.

 

I only have 7800 km on the bike. Just bought it in May. On the third day of my trip to Arizona, I could not find a comfortable position. I had a sheep skin with a Expedition self inflating pillow. It didn't help. That day I made about 400 miles.

 

The nice thing about Sargent is that I can get a full refund, no restocking fees if I don't like the seat.

[SWB]

After 3 1/2 days and 3400 km I made it to Arizona on my 09 Rt seat. Stopped at Banff Alberta for a wedding on Monday and arrived in Arizona on Thursday afternoon.

 

Beautiful ride. The RT ran flawlessly. I love everything about the RT except the seat. After the first day my butt was sore. The more I rode the sorer it got. I had an Alaska Sheepskin over a small self inflating Expedition pillow to try to improve the comfort. By the second day my butt was saying loud and clear "Get rid of this $%&&en seat!

 

So what I think I am going to do is contact Sargent. Hopefully I can test ride one of their seats on my way back to Canada in early August.

 

Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Less than one (1) mile.

 

That's what it took for me to figure out that the stock seat was a torture device for my fat a***.

 

My used RT came with Sargent custom seats; looked nice, rode ok. I also had the stockers, and thought I ought to give them a try at some point. They LOOK and FEEL comfortable. I tossed them on one morning, headed off down the road to work (late, as usual), and about a mile down the road was pretty much hating life. I adjusted my seat position a half dozen times. Didn't matter.

 

The "root cause" of the discomfort is how BMW engineered the front/pinon seat match. There's basically a "crack" between the two, which is probably fine for the prototypical BMW factory rider (i.e. 6' tall, 180 lbs). For this prototypical >50 yr old 250 lb AMERICAN rider, uh .. nicht so gut. It pinches my rear end between the two seats.

 

The Sargent seats look nice and ride nice, but I'm thinking about sending the stockers out to have Russell build me a more "traditional" custom leather seat. My 21 year old son (i.e. the one who's the Ducati 748 rider, and who has put 1500 miles on my RT in the last week, and hasn't brought it back home yet from his summer vacation) thinks I'm nuts. He said every time he rides my RT someone compliments him on the seat, so maybe it's a generational thing. Way I figure it, if I get the Russell seat, he won't like "the look", and maybe I get my bike back again. Double win.

 

Truthfully, the only way to buy a new seat, particularly when you're going to put $1000 more or less into the purchase, is try before you buy. Get in touch with some RT riders in your area and borrow their seats for a while. You'll know for sure then.

 

Scott

[SWB]

There is so much understanding and empathy here when you say the word "seat".

I had my first R1150RT in 2001 and I swore I would break in the seat rather than spend money on a custom saddle. That bike went to god after I hit a kangaroo. The seat had not yielded after 40,000km. It was replaced by a new R1150RT and I had to start breaking in the seat all over again. After 39,000km on this one, there is still no relief.

BMW must have set designed these seats to be indestructable.

These seats are real "pile drivers".

 

Haynes,

 

I had the BMW "comfort" seat on my old R1100RT-P. Didn't know it though, so I bought another one, and the seller tossed in a stocker too. When I got the two and compared them, I realized I already had the comfort seat. Sort story long: a used BMW comfort seat can be had for as little as $75.00 to $150.00 (USD). Check Ebay and beemerboneyard.com.

 

You'll love the difference.

 

- Scott

[DMilan]

BeadRider..

 

I tried one and found it painful. I don't have much padding on my backside. You?

 

Pretty personal...

Butt, I'll answer anyway . Yes, sufficiently padded.

 

dmilan

[questrider]

BMW doesn't make an OEM seat worth a damn...

I know this is the common complaint but I have to say that I've always been of the mind that gear and riding position will make a world of difference as well. Now I'm sure one of these custom seats would be very nice and provide some comfort, no doubt about it. But I just did a 15-day, 5,000+ mile trip from Illinois to California and back and had nary a problem with the gear I wear and the riding positions I switch between. And this was with an OEM seat on my 06 GS (I'm also 6'2" and 250lbs). So while I would probably enjoy a custom seat, in my experience I've found ways to ride my bike the way it is and save the money for trips, etc.

 

As always, YMMV.

 

The key for me (other than the seat jacks) was the Master Yoda Riding Position, and just moving around in the seat a bunch as I ride.

 

Other stuff: bicycle shorts instead of underwear. The seams on regular underwear can be downright miserable after a while. Pretty much the only time I don't wear bike shorts when I'm riding is if I'm just commuting.

 

I'm not knocking aftermarket seats...the Russell Day Long's I've sat on are more comfortable than my fricken couch. But...there's stuff you can do that will make life much more pleasant without costing you a fortune and it might be enough to get you from "miserable" to "not too bad".

+1. Riding position makes all the difference. And for bicycle shorts, I've found the ones with a small gel pad especially helpful for comfort. I can't even ride short trips over 15 minutes without regular underwear briefs cutting into my legs and "cuff". Boxer briefs help on that front tremendously. But if it's going to be longer or an all-day endurance trip, then bike shorts, proper gear and riding position will take me all the way with little discomfort.

[Augie]

Surprised that no one has told the joke about how BMW picks the seat testers yet.

 

What the factory does is line everyone up and has them bend over and then the foreman comes by with a 2X4 and gives everyone a good whack on the posterior. Those that don't make a peep are sent to the seat shop.

[AdirondackJack]

LMar-

 

I know it's significantly "after the fact", but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents, anyway:

 

I had your same dilemma, and after speaking to the folks at Sierra BMW, I called Rich's Custom Seats in Washington State and got a first rate job from them in just 10 days including shipping time out and back from NY state. If you go on their site you can view the video of rich actually building a custom seat. I combined this new seat with an Airhawk, and voila: no sore butt anymore.

 

http://www.richscustomseats.com/

 

Just thought I'd bring this up as no one had mentioned this seat builder who I think is way better than the Mayers/Russells/Sargents/Corbins etc. Cost was about $700 including the custom 2-tone leather, the gel insert, reinstalling oem heat in the oem seatpan, and shipping.

[anvo]

+1 for Rich. He makes incredibly comfortable seats, had one on my previous R1150R.

 

On my current R1200RT I actually purchased a stock seat on this forum to replace the custom seat (not Rich's) that came with my bike. I would echo what was said earlier, posture and gear makes as much of a difference IMO as the seat itself. Wearing bike shorts and an Atlantis leather suit allows me to ride 500+ mile days in complete comfort. Cotton underwear and synthetic gear or jeans and I'm uncomfortable after 150 miles on the same seat.

[stubblejumper]

Like yourself,I live in Alberta.I hated the stock seat on the R1200ST,and a fellow in Edmonton was recommended to me to rebuild my seat.For the total of $350,he rebuilt and recovered my seat,and now I have no problems riding all day.If you would like the fellows name,I can forward it to you.

[Lmar]

n response to:

Poster: AdirondackJack

Subject: Re: Made it to Arizona on my RT Seat

 

LMar-

 

I know it's significantly "after the fact", but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents, anyway:

 

I had your same dilemma, and after speaking to the folks at Sierra BMW, I called Rich's Custom Seats in Washington State and got a first rate job from them in just 10 days including shipping time out and back from NY state. If you go on their site you can view the video of rich actually building a custom seat. I combined this new seat with an Airhawk, and voila: no sore butt anymore.

 

http://www.richscustomseats.com/

 

Just thought I'd bring this up as no one had mentioned this seat builder who I think is way better than the Mayers/Russells/Sargents/Corbins etc. Cost was about $700 including the custom 2-tone leather, the gel insert, reinstalling oem heat in the oem seatpan, and shipping.

 

Thanks, I will keep him in mind. My Sargent Seat should be here in Arizona by the August 1st. I will give it a good test on the way back to Alberta (about 2000 miles). I will know after that trip whether the seat is for me. If it doesn't work I will send it back and look else where.

[Lmar]

n response to:

Poster: stubblejumper

Subject: Re: Made it to Arizona on my RT Seat

 

Like yourself,I live in Alberta.I hated the stock seat on the R1200ST,and a fellow in Edmonton was recommended to me to rebuild my seat.For the total of $350,he rebuilt and recovered my seat,and now I have no problems riding all day.If you would like the fellows name,I can forward it to you.

 

Sure, PM me just in case the Sargent doesn't work out.