In my first post I mentioned that I had already had Bill Mayer make custom seats for the bike. I wanted to give my seat some testing before writing this post. I was told that I would need to give the seat about 1500 miles to break in. My experience is that 3000 miles is a more realistic number. I had purchased the low gel seat for my XC previously and had ridden it 1050 miles to my father's house in 16 hours with that seat. I can truthfully say that my butt was in pain at the end of that ride. I ride a 1000 mile day a few times a year so I want a seat that will be comfortable for 16-18 hours straight. I had Bill Mayer Sr. do a seat for me in the 90s for my ST1100 and it worked well for that type of riding. I had Russell Day-Long seats on my BMW R1200RT. They were very good for the long days but they are 1-2" taller than stock and I am short legged. Besides they force you to scoot forward when stopping and they are wide in the front which makes the height even more of an issue. I did try a friends Russell on my Tiger and it had the same issues as the BMW seats. So the decision was made to try Bill Mayer Jr. for my seats. (Bill Sr. passed away about 10 years ago.) I made an a ride in appointment for the Tuesday after Easter and rode from St. George, UT to Ojai, CA on Monday. There are many state campgrounds around Ojai so I had no trouble pitching a tent and saving money from the tourist priced motels there.
This campground was only a few miles from Bill's shop so it was easy to be there first thing in the morning.
Adrian met me and did some checks about what I wanted and how I sat on the bike. I had already sent pictures of Linda and I on the bike but it is always better to have the subject there. They have different sized seat shapes there as well as, I assume, different foam densities as well. Adrian selected one that he thought would work for me.
He removed the seat cover and started fitting and gluing the new seat shape to my existing seat. Then there was some reshaping to better fit my contour and I tested the bike with the rough seat on it for about 15 miles.
This process was repeated a couple of times until I thought it was close enough and that I should ride it for a few days/weeks to see how it broke in. At that point they added a layer of pink foam and the seat cover. I opted for a grey cover as I live in the desert and ride in hot temperatures and thought the grey would be cooler than black.
I liked the looks of the seats and had some longer days of riding planned for the new future and thought I would have the seat broke in an a couple of weeks.
From Ojai I rode to my father's house which was about 350 miles. The seat was comfortable but confining and I did move forward and back as much as I could for a change of position. I stayed at my father's house for a week and then took off for Austin, NV about 400 miles away. The seat was comfortable for the whole trip. I did unfortunately and unknowingly lose my right saddlebag somewhere between my father's house and my first gas stop in east Sacramento. There will be more about this in my blog on luggage which is forthcoming. The next day was 400 more miles to Toquerville, UT and the next day was 525 miles home. The shape of the seat was comfortable but I felt that the foam was too firm. The following weekend was a rally in Texas so on Friday I rode 400 miles to Van Horn, TX. No issues with the seat. Saturday was the rally, I rode 660 miles and never thought about the seat. Sunday I rode another 600 miles home but I took a lunch break as well as visiting a friend for a couple of hours. I did find myself shifting position on that ride. The next Saturday was 650 miles to Kansas, Sunday was another 500 and Monday was 350 home. Monday was the worst and I was constantly shifting around to find a sweet spot. At this time I will say that the Russel seats on the BMW were more comfortable for non stop riding BUT the BMW is a bigger bike with bigger seats that allow for more moving around and I had the seat redone 2 times for more room and then modified the mounts. I am not sure that the Russell seat on the Tiger would be any better than the Mayer. A followup to this is that I was asked to go to Fresno, CA and ride a Tiger 800 XC back to Albuquerque with a stock seat. I took an Air Hawk cushion with me. The first 200 miles of my trip was in some scenic curvy areas and I did not use the Air Hawk on that part of the trip. I did install it at a gas stop and rode 300 miles more and then another 500 the next day. The stock seat does allow for more front to back movement and the Air Hawk does provide good cushioning. But it was nowhere as comfortable as comfortable as the Mayer. I had also considered trying a Corbin but I had always found a Corbin to have a decent shape but way too hard for comfort. I see there is one now on Ebay that the owners wife thought was too small/confining for her comfort (My wife thought the same when testing a BMW with a Corbin.) and also pushed her so far back so that she was trapped between her husband and the top box. It is important that my wife is comfortable for up to 500 mile days. My wife has just returned from a 6 week trip and we will be testing her part of the seat soon. I will also go out and try a 1000 mile day as a final test before making any decision as to whether I would do it again or not. Right now the seat is much better than original but I believe that it could be better.
