Russell Sport Seat on a Camhead

Before you say it, I searched...

Does anyone on here have a picture of a Russell Sport seat on their Hex/Camhead? I have a short inseam and would like to see what others with SLS (Short Leg Syndrome) and Russell's (Day-Long or Sport) think of comfort and ground reach.

I bought a seat earlier in the year from another builder but, though CS is outstanding, ultimately it didn't work out for me so I'm going to just bite the bullet and get a Russell but would like some feedback other SLS riders first if I can.

Thanks in advance...

PS - is there was way to force the search box to return hits with all words rather than any? Do a search on Russell Sport and you'll get 5,000 hits with the word "Sport" in them. Makes it impossible to narrow results to something useful.

PPS - Now that I posted this I see a bunch of threads in the "similar threads" box!

Use the google site search tool outlined here with AND to include all words perhaps
https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?77843-Tips-on-Searching-the-MOA-Forum

mikegalbicka said:

Use the google site search tool outlined here with AND to include all words perhaps
https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?77843-Tips-on-Searching-the-MOA-Forum

Click to expand...

Excellent hint. Thanks!

I went ahead and ordered a Russell Sport seat and scored a Jan. 23rd build date. I was surprised it was that soon as I figured it would be many months. I'll post some detailed pics before and after just in case someday someone has the same question as mine. In reading through some of the related threads I was reminded that I posted several times about my previous interaction with Russell.

I called them soon after I bought my RT (April '18) and talked to a woman who was very dismissive when I gave her my dimensions, never even mentioned the Sports seat as an option. She wasn't rude, just not at all helpful. So, that was that and I ended up trying something else. I was very down on them as a result of this interaction as evidenced in the tone of my responses. This time I've been working with Jay and he has been a great help. I realize any seat is a risk so in the end even the Russell might not work out, but at least Jay was genuinely helpful about it.

Well, the wait for this thing is interminable! They shipped it to me on Friday, Jan. 31st and it's scheduled to be delivered Friday the 7th! Gahhh!!!!

To my knowledge, the lady who you spoke with no longer works at Russel. I hope that you are as happy with your sport seat as I am with my daylong.

Today! The delivery is TODAY!

Well, here's a Russell Sport seat on a Camhead.

I wanted to provide some actual data since there's next to none available online that I could find so here are some images. The first two with the ruler were taken from the exact same spot to ensure no perspective changes are introduced. For reference, the ruler is a framing T-Square sitting on the ground with the bike sitting on the center stand and the bike has the OEM lowered suspension. If you have ESA, then add about 3/4" to 1". I do NOT think I could use this seat with a non-lowered bike.



The below image shows the BMW Comfort Seat installed. You can see the height of the center section is about 30 3/4" (on the center stand) and there are no "wings".


This picture is with the Sport seat installed and you can see that the wings are very pronounced.


Finally, in this image, I moved the camera to better show where the center "flat" is. Here you can see that this is only about 1/2" to 3/4" higher than the BMW seat.


I literally just installed it so I haven't taken it out yet but of course threw a leg over as soon as I was done taking the pictures. On the center stand and seated, there is an immediate sense of "oh...yeah!" It's very, very comfortable and allows quite a bit of fore-aft movement. The seat pocket is not so pronounced that you can't move and the "boys" aren't crunched.

As for ground reach, I have a 29" inseam. Though it's contra-intuitive given how pronounced the wings are, I can still reach the ground with very little perceived difference as compared to the Comfort seat. MUCH less of an issue than I feared actually so I am VERY stoked to get it out in the real world and see what happens.

Nice. You are going to love it. You won't ever think about a sore butt again.

Here are a couple of pics comparing the BMW Comfort seat and the Russell Sport seat with the bike on its wheels (not on the centerstand) with the preload at minimum. Keep in mind that this bike has the factory low suspension and the one seat is very well broken in and the other is brand new. There is NO change in seat height as measured to the center flat of the seat. The wings on the Russell add an inch but in practice they deform down when you extend the landing gear so they're not much of an obstacle. I also noted that the vinyl is pretty slippery so I don't have to consciously move forward to get out of the pocket first before stopping like some people report. The act of putting your leg down kind of levers your butt across the seat in one motion.

Russell


BMW Comfort