My diatribe the other week about the disappearance of the tailpieces on modern bikes and the implications that it has for seats on motorcycles has started a bit of a think. Combine this with a two day ride on my VFR and being reminded that the foam in the seat is in desperate need of new high-density packing (the cover is OK but the foam is sacked) and I started thinking about seats in more general terms.
There are a multitude of different kinds of motorcycle seats and, for the most part, they are a function of the sort of bike to which they are attached. As I said, there are a heap of different ones, but let’s just look at the “standard” types and examine their pros and cons.
Firstly, there is the cruiser-style seat usually found on Harleys and what are now called “metric cruisers” (PC-speak for Japanese Harley clones) It is usually quite small and placed low on the bike. Its advantages are many. Its low placement means that getting on and off the bike is easy and getting your feet down onto the ground when you stop is also easy. It is usually linked in with forward control pegs which means that the rider’s legs are stretched out in front of him. The disadvantages mainly relate to the fact that the rider’s weight is concentrated on the coccyx, that small, triangular-shaped set of bones at the base of the spinal cord.
It is made up of four smaller bones and, despite being bone, it is quite small and fragile, as anyone who has fallen on their backside and hit the coccyx will tell you. Concentrating one’s weight on this small appendage to the spine isn’t a recipe for comfort and it isn’t surprising to find that people whose bikes have this type of riding position do not like riding for long periods of time.
It should be obvious, though it apparently isn’t, that the most comfortable seats are the ones that spread the rider’s weight over the largest area. The cruiser-style seat doesn’t really achieve this as well as other designs do.
Then there is the sports bike seat. Designed to look as much like the racers’ seat as possible, it has a number of advantages but also some pretty serious disadvantages. Its advantages are that it allows the rider to move around a lot and assume the classic “bum off the seat and knee down on the deck” sort of thing. It is small and light thereby contributing to the saving weight at all costs mantra that governs racing. It performs the basic function of a seat, but, sadly, that’s about all it does. It is usually placed high on the rear subframe and with the increased forward weight bias and “kick the tail up in the air” styling fetish, you’d better have long legs if you want to get on and off easily and put your feet down at the stop lights. But the main problem is that it is uncomfortable. This “hunched forward” riding position also requires that the head be tilted back at all times so that the rider can see the road ahead and while this too can be gotten used to, it is a pain. Yes, I know you can ride long distances on one if you want to, but why would you want to? A mate rode his 1098 from PI to Wollongong in one hit years ago, so it can be done. The lack of padding and comfort coupled with the weight of the rider being taken more and more on the wrists rather than on the more solid parts of the body means that the seat barely performs the function for which seats were originally invented.
Then there is the touring bike seat. Logic would suggest that these are the most comfortable of all seats and that is “pretty” much correct (with a caveat that I will mention shortly). Soft, amply padded and large, the touring bike seat should be the one on which you would want to sit for hours and hours at a time while the kilometres melt away. Please note that I am lumping in the current range of adventure bikes into this category as the seats tend to be very much the same whether the bike has road tyres or off-road. The rider sits more or less upright with a commanding view of the road ahead (without having to bend the neck) and a comfortable stretch to the bars where the hands rest comfortable without having to bear the rider’s weight. They do tend to be quite tall so a better-than average inside seam is a pre-requisite. However, my comment above about an upright riding position concentrating the rider’s weight on four fragile little bones applies equally here.
The sports/touring bike seat probably does the best job of fulfilling all the functions in the one perch. the rider still sits high, with a good view of the road ahead, the neck is slightly but not excessively bent and the seat is a good combination of plush and sporty. Most importantly, the seating position allows the rider’s weight to be spread across more area. The base of the spine is not the concentration here, rather the inside of the thighs and this allows for a much better weight distribution. It is fair to say that a well set up S/T bike should be able to carry its rider for whatever distances the rider would like to ride. The advantage over the dedicated touring bike is that the rider’s HEAD is the first point of contact with the wind and, since the top of the helmet breaks the wind first, the fatigue that one can experience from having the wind hit the BODY first is eliminated. Touring bike riders generally sit behind huge fairings so this is not an issue for them.
All seats have their advantages and disadvantages. And there are things that the rider can do to make things better. Air filled auxiliary seats are available. Their advantage is that the rider is sitting on an air bag that can move with their movements and spread their weight in a constantly changing way. Anyone who has had to spend time in a hospital in an immobilised position will tell you that the modern air bag hospital mattress is a blessing.
Then there are aftermarket seats that replace your existing seat. The bolt to the existing hardware and are better shaped to give you a more comfortable perch. They are quite expensive but, if you need one, you will find a way of justifying the expense.
There are a few “cheap” fixes too. A lambswool seat cover can help, though, after a while the wool becomes flattened and the effect wears off. One of these covers is also great in the summer as the wool “wicks” the perspiration away from your jeans and keeps you more comfortable that way as well.
Another cheap fix is the old bicycle shorts. Made of lycra, they feature a gel pad that is sewn into the lining at the appropriate spot and I have used one of these with considerable success for many years. A pair that extended the gel pad down the inside of the thighs would be even better but bicycle seats don’t require that so it might be an idea to see of you could make a pair yourself.
Are you sitting comfortably? If you’re not, there are a range of actions that you can take to improve the situation, keep you more alert and help you enjoy your motorcycling more.
dunc says
ant agree more phil
i have just purchased a pair of these
http://motoskiveez.com/
not cheap but as they say ya get what you pay for
Phil Hall says
Thank you for that. This answers the question I had about the effectiveness of bicycle shorts. Will look into it.
dunc says
hey phil
no need to publish this
the pants have a write ups here 2 links
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=954772&highlight=moto+skiveez
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=934071&highlight=moto+skiveez
a rider i know in kiama bought a pair and says his backside luvs them
hes on a cbr600 and did a trip to canberra and back and said it was more comfortable than before
he does the ride /same trip a bit
he got the sports one