N
netsrik
Guest
I purchased my 2001 1150GS back in June and have been very pleased with it. The bike goes when its supposed to, stops when it needs to, and can pretty much tackle whatever I throw at it. My loan gripe about the bike a few weeks after purchase was how dreadful the seat was. I found myself constantly sliding forward and fidgeting to try and find a comfy spot.
Most of my motorcycle career has been spent on Japanese cruisers that have adequate, if not superb, seats. I deduced that the GS seat was in fact a piece of unforgiving steel covered by vinyl. That's not a good thing at all if you're "posterior challenged" like me. I decided that the first (and perhaps only) modification to the bike would be to replace the seat. Thus began the search...
I've never been real big on messing with bikes from stock and I usually leave them as they are until something breaks or needs replacing so it makes sense that I've never looked into a new seat before. I had no idea how daunting of a task finding a manufacturer would be. They all pretty much made the same promises while talking about how bad the other guy's products were. I saw an ad for Rick's in BMW On and visited his website. As it turned out, he was running a special on my bike. After reviewing the prices and features of various other manufacturers, I decided the price was right and pulled the trigger.
For my seat, only one thing was really important to me: I had to be able to ride it all day without getting suicidal 45min into the ride. I downloaded some forms from Rick's site that asked what you expected out of the saddle and various questions about your anatomy. I thought the anatomical stuff to be a bit trite but I figured the man knew what he was doing and played along.
Now, I'm one of those people that will scream it from the rooftops to all that will hear it if I feel I've been given the run around by a vendor. I also will make certain that I give adequate props to someone who treats me right. After receiving my seat and having taken several trips with it under my butt, I hereby scream from the rooftops: RICK MAYER MAKES ONE HELL OF A SEAT!!!
I'll be honest, I had my doubts before I got the seat. Rick is a one man operation but he has a few people that help him out with communication and manufacturing (okay, so he's like a three man operation). Without going too far into specifics, it is sufficient to say that Rick's strong suit is not communication. The man likes to be left alone to build his saddles. While one cannot be faulted for focusing on the task at hand, customer service does have its merits. Long story short, the seat took a bit longer than I thought it should have taken. It also took longer than what was quoted to me. It wouldn't have really been an issue except nobody told me what was going on (Rick was swamped and his helper was sick) and they weren't responding to my email messages or phone calls (my emails were most likely filtered out by their spam filter). Basically it took a demand for a refund to get that much info out of them. After I accepted the explanation and calmed down, I sat and waited for my seat.
The seat finally arrived and as soon as I opened the box I was struck by the fit and finish of the seat. It was far beyond what I had expected. Before making my purchase I surfed a few forums and found some comment that said something to the effect that "Rick makes a comfy saddle, not a pretty one". Knowing that my ass doesn't have eyes, I didn't worry too much about aesthetics at the time. You can tell by looking at it that it oozes quality craftsmanship. The stitching was very straight and the leather was top notch. All joints and seals appear secure and very professionally done. If I had to be nit picky about anything, it would be that Rick used stainless staples to secure the leather to the underside seat pan. While the staples are very heavy duty and I have no concern at all about them doing the job, the use of rivets here would have looked much better. But, like I said, its on the underside of the seat so its not at all an issue for me.
I told Rick that I needed the seat to be very comfortable and flat, ie, I don't like sliding forward. Boy did he deliver on both fronts.
As far as comfort goes, this is by far the most comfortable seat I have ever sat on. It is an absolute pleasure to go for a ride now. I rode from Austin to Houston to Dallas and back to Austin this past weekend (lows in the 40's highs in the 70's) and didn't go butt numb from it. In short I rode all day and could have ridden more. And it was the most comfortable I've ever been on a bike.
If you're in the market for a saddle, I HIGHLY recommend Rick Mayer's. If you decide to order from him, just be patient and understand that he'll get your seat to you as quickly as he can get it done. This is not a large corporation where you can call and yell at someone. Rick is a good guy who builds a damn good seat, let him do his thing and you'll get a top notch piece of custom craftsmanship that looks nice and feels nicer.
Most of my motorcycle career has been spent on Japanese cruisers that have adequate, if not superb, seats. I deduced that the GS seat was in fact a piece of unforgiving steel covered by vinyl. That's not a good thing at all if you're "posterior challenged" like me. I decided that the first (and perhaps only) modification to the bike would be to replace the seat. Thus began the search...
I've never been real big on messing with bikes from stock and I usually leave them as they are until something breaks or needs replacing so it makes sense that I've never looked into a new seat before. I had no idea how daunting of a task finding a manufacturer would be. They all pretty much made the same promises while talking about how bad the other guy's products were. I saw an ad for Rick's in BMW On and visited his website. As it turned out, he was running a special on my bike. After reviewing the prices and features of various other manufacturers, I decided the price was right and pulled the trigger.
For my seat, only one thing was really important to me: I had to be able to ride it all day without getting suicidal 45min into the ride. I downloaded some forms from Rick's site that asked what you expected out of the saddle and various questions about your anatomy. I thought the anatomical stuff to be a bit trite but I figured the man knew what he was doing and played along.
Now, I'm one of those people that will scream it from the rooftops to all that will hear it if I feel I've been given the run around by a vendor. I also will make certain that I give adequate props to someone who treats me right. After receiving my seat and having taken several trips with it under my butt, I hereby scream from the rooftops: RICK MAYER MAKES ONE HELL OF A SEAT!!!
I'll be honest, I had my doubts before I got the seat. Rick is a one man operation but he has a few people that help him out with communication and manufacturing (okay, so he's like a three man operation). Without going too far into specifics, it is sufficient to say that Rick's strong suit is not communication. The man likes to be left alone to build his saddles. While one cannot be faulted for focusing on the task at hand, customer service does have its merits. Long story short, the seat took a bit longer than I thought it should have taken. It also took longer than what was quoted to me. It wouldn't have really been an issue except nobody told me what was going on (Rick was swamped and his helper was sick) and they weren't responding to my email messages or phone calls (my emails were most likely filtered out by their spam filter). Basically it took a demand for a refund to get that much info out of them. After I accepted the explanation and calmed down, I sat and waited for my seat.
The seat finally arrived and as soon as I opened the box I was struck by the fit and finish of the seat. It was far beyond what I had expected. Before making my purchase I surfed a few forums and found some comment that said something to the effect that "Rick makes a comfy saddle, not a pretty one". Knowing that my ass doesn't have eyes, I didn't worry too much about aesthetics at the time. You can tell by looking at it that it oozes quality craftsmanship. The stitching was very straight and the leather was top notch. All joints and seals appear secure and very professionally done. If I had to be nit picky about anything, it would be that Rick used stainless staples to secure the leather to the underside seat pan. While the staples are very heavy duty and I have no concern at all about them doing the job, the use of rivets here would have looked much better. But, like I said, its on the underside of the seat so its not at all an issue for me.
I told Rick that I needed the seat to be very comfortable and flat, ie, I don't like sliding forward. Boy did he deliver on both fronts.
As far as comfort goes, this is by far the most comfortable seat I have ever sat on. It is an absolute pleasure to go for a ride now. I rode from Austin to Houston to Dallas and back to Austin this past weekend (lows in the 40's highs in the 70's) and didn't go butt numb from it. In short I rode all day and could have ridden more. And it was the most comfortable I've ever been on a bike.
If you're in the market for a saddle, I HIGHLY recommend Rick Mayer's. If you decide to order from him, just be patient and understand that he'll get your seat to you as quickly as he can get it done. This is not a large corporation where you can call and yell at someone. Rick is a good guy who builds a damn good seat, let him do his thing and you'll get a top notch piece of custom craftsmanship that looks nice and feels nicer.
