Butt Pad, no pad or seat upgrade?? What is your flavour??

I've recently added a butt pad to my bike and enjoy the difference with added comfort. I was wondering how many riders protect their valued 'assets' out there. Feel free to post comments. If I missed your style of saddle, please let me know what you are using.
Steve

Freedom Air

The pad I use isn't on the list. Its Freedom Air; see

http://www.starcushion.com/consumer.php

I checked Air Hawk for now.

Hmmm

Sometimes just my bare Sargent and sometimes beads and sometimes sheepskin. What do I do...voted sheepskin only because there were no votes for the thing and Sargent didn't have a line.

Beads help in two ways. No sore ass, no sweaty ass.

The downside is you sort of got to get used to rolling around a bit, but it's worth it in comfort. Sheep skin? It's baaaad when it gets wet! With beads it's not a problem.

All for $35.00. New Corbin? That bankroll is not allocated in my 08 -09 budget! Beads are cheaper, work better, and that is my vote!

We use sheepskin, but found it wasn't quite doing the trick. We picked up Butt Buffer gel pads at Americade. They seemed to help some. Still get a bit sore/tired, but the recovery time once you get off the bike is MUCH better. We stop about every 2 hours to top up the fuel, stretch, have a drink etc, so it seems to work out. I guess the ride to Gillette will give us a good idea of the overall effectiveness in the long haul.

Cheryl

My old bike had a Corbin, didn't realize how much it really did help till I did four long days in the saddle of the newer bike with a stock seat.

I need to start saving for a custom seat, because that stock seat on the R1100S is the WRONG shape for my butt. FAR too wide & flat & interferes with getting my feet fully on the ground.

In the meantime, I expect I'll pick up something like <strike>an Airhawk</strike> that Freedom pad.

Custom built seats are the only true improvement for real comfort.
All other means are only a bandaid.

antaeas said:

The pad I use isn't on the list. Its Freedom Air; see

http://www.starcushion.com/consumer.php

I checked Air Hawk for now.

Click to expand...

Motorcycle Consumer News just reviewed the Freedom Air and the Airhawk, and concluded the Freedom Air was a much better product.

Also, there needs to be an option for Bill Mayer saddles on this pole. I have one of those on my K1200RS and absolutely love it.

Sargent seat on my Vstrom, Corbin on my K75.

I've also tried airhawk, sheep, and beads and would rate them in that order, with airhawk being the best.

Why no option for:

Stock seat, got rid of that very uncomfortable piece of crap Corbin>I can now reach ground without rubbing insides of thighs raw, can also use proper riding skills and actually stand on pegs that I could not do with the wide arse Corbin. The stock seat is a lot more comfortable, especially on long trips + also got stock luggage rack and doubled carry capacity.

Rocky Mayer on the GS and RT, Sargent on the VFR and R11RS. Stock BMW seats on the R100 and R60. I've got an old Corbin for my CB750F, but will probably put the stock seat back on when i restore it.

I voted other because I have used several at different times. For my old K100, the Airhawk was the solution. For The BatBike (R100R), I tried several add-on things but the best it got was with a Rick Mayer seat. That seat was great, but did not solve greater ergonomic problems I have with the bike. With the GS, I am currently in the experimentation stage. I tried beads, I tried sheepskin, and neither was good by itself. Then I took some 1" blue car-seat foam, put the sheepskin on top of that, then topped it with a BeadRider and that MOSTLY did the trick...but the foam is not protected from the elements, and the BeadRider is coming apart, plus the hwol package doesn't add enough width. Then three days ago I did a home-made attempt at building a custom seat, using materials leftover from a friend's attempt at doing the same. While the result looks pretty decent, it SUCKS. I was miserable- at least as much as with the stock seat- within 50 miles. Gotta solve that in less than two weeks, what with the rally trip coming up. I'll probably buy another stock seat and go back to the 'sammich' I was using before the ill-fated home-build. That will get me through the rally, but ultimately I think I'll be getting a custom-built seat as I need more width than the stock offers.

Can't believe Sargent wasn't one of the choices. No matter...

I'm on a Sargent which is way better than stock. The stocker made my ass burn after less than an hour. The Sargent lets me ride 300 mile days which would have been absolute torture on the stocker. But I still get a bit sore after a couple hundred miles, so I think I'll send my stocker to Russell to perform one of his miracles.

Sargent on my GS. I may also bring the sheepskin for the trip to Gillette.

Sargent here

I have a Sargent on my K12RS. I've used beads and sheepskin with it, but prefer the saddle without either for the most part.

Found that Corbin quality dropped as they became more interested in the Harley aftermarket. I guess the point is that they "look" good, not how well they feel after a long day in the saddle. I had a Corbin on my R100, then on my R11GS. Went to Sargent for the R11R, never looked back.

I installed lower and larger pegs on my GS. The more open seating position eased the fold in my hips and made it easier to move around on the seat. That transformed my barely ok Sargent (but better than stock) into a good seat for me.

I use a Sargent seat and switch back and forth with beads or the sheepskin,.......depending on the riding conditions!

antaeas said:

The pad I use isn't on the list. Its Freedom Air; see

http://www.starcushion.com/consumer.php

I checked Air Hawk for now.

Click to expand...

Ditto for the FreedomAir. Motorcycle Consumer News - July '08 issue did a comparison of the FreedomAir to the Airhawk. They came to the same conclusion I did over a year before in an article in our own Owners News..

FreedomAir works better for me than an Airhawk - and I've owned both. It greatly increases my hours in the saddle without killer pain threshold. And I find it better than the several custom seats I've owned (Russell, Sargent, BMW-Comfort, Corbin) and better than beads, sheepskin or gel. I think I've tried ALL the options, and this is the one that works for me.

boxerr said:

Custom built seats are the only true improvement for real comfort.
All other means are only a bandaid.

Click to expand...

As I've often said "Your butt may vary.." - having gone custom seats several times (Russell and Sargent, semi-custom - Corbin and BMW Comfort Seat) - I've found the bandaid (FreedomAir cushion) works better for my butt.

I've also found there are no hard/fast rules for butt comfort. What works for one person may be torture for another (the Sargent seat I had made was pure torture for me - even after having them redo it 3 times..)

Glad the custom seat works for you - but others may want to try/consider other options. Some people swear by beads (I found they transformed 4 points of pain into hundreds of points of pain..) Some swear by custom seats.

Use what works for you - and no one can really tell you what's gonna work..

on my little F650GS i put a sheepskin butt pad which was an improvement over the stock seat. i still wanted more comfort so i had Mr. Ed's Moto make me a custom seat. i researched seat makers and i found that Don at Mr. Ed's not only rides an F650GS but so does his wife. he knew exactly what was wrong with the stock seat and made a seat for me that when combined with my sheepskin butt pad gives me mile after mile of comfort. 500 + miles days are now no longer a painful event but rather a non issue. the workmanship Mr. Ed's provide is first rate and they have a quick turn around time. i was also told by Don if i was not happy with how my seat turned out they will gladly work with you and take the seat back and do whatever is needed to get the seat just the way you want. for me, this was some of the best money i have ever spent on a motorcycle accessory.