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GSA seat issues

spanky

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 9, 2022
Member Number
511
Posts
105
Location
Colorado Springs, CO
Hey Folks,

To me, seat threads are akin to "what's the best oil to use" threads. That said, of the seven previous bikes I've owned since getting back into riding, I've gone to aftermarket solutions on all but two of them. My new GSA has me thinking I may need to seek something other than the factory seat.

My 2002 R1150RT's seat served me well from day 1 as did my 2005 Ducati ST3's factory seat. For my tush, all other bikes - three K bikes and another Ducati - needed something other than what came stock on the bike.

I do primarily day rides of between 125 and 250+ miles and cross-country trips of between 2000 and 4000 miles. My long term plan with the GSA will have me on the higher end of that range and my already limited mileage on the bike is telling me I will most likely need something better to sit on.

I learned the hard way during my first long distance trip that jeans and cotton underwear don't work. Jeans. Yea, I know but the RT was my first bike after an almost 20 year absence from riding. Long ago I bought some riding underwear from Aerostitch which helped a lot along with good MC riding pants. Since then, my longest day in the saddle has been 830 miles and the only thing that stopped me was night riding on the mountains.

I've purchased both Corbin and Sergeant seats with mixed to good results. I guess it depended on the bike and seat combo. What I DON'T have experience with is going the custom route with a smaller aftermarket seat provider. I don't want to bail on the stock seat just yet but see others here and on other sites sporting other seat and seat covers.

Can anyone here school me on the trial and error method to resolve this issue?
 
I have had Corbin seats on 3 BMWs, 1 Honda and 1 Suzuki. I love the Corbin seats, but they do take about 3-5K miles to break in. My last Corbin on my 19’ GSA took about 4K to break in. I wanted to sell it after sitting on it for about 3 hours when I first got it. Now, I love it. It’s not the most pleasurable experience breaking them in, but I would encourage you to “ride it out” with your Corbin if you haven’t done so already.
 
What Jim said. You're about to get a hundred different opinions. When I replaced my stock seat I didn't know what to get. I decided to start at the lower price end first and then work my way up. That way, if I made a mistake at least I could limit the hit to the pocket book. So, I started with a Seat Concepts. Honestly, I didn't have high hopes but it turned out to be a pretty doggone good seat. Over the years I considered a Rick Mayer seat (nice but the guy was a flake and went out of business), a Corbin, BMS, and a Seth Lamm. Nothing really did it for me until I checked out a Russell Day Long seat last year.

Wow, the Russell...I love it.

Funny thing...when I visited RDL I discovered they had the same carbon fiber pattern upholstery that came with my Seat Concepts seat, so I was able to match my new seat to my SC pillion seat without having them recover the SC pillion. Saved a bit of cash. And the CF pattern upholstery wears like iron.
65120917576__E3239507-56A3-4A57-A937-77B52C48B7B3.jpg
 
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^^Ditto!

Seat comfort is so subjective it will take time and money to find what works for YOU. Sorry, there's no shortcut. One guy swears by Corbin, the other Sargent and maybe they're worse than the stock seat for you! I highly recommend trying an RDL. It was a game changer for me.

Good Luck
 
I have had Corbin seats on 3 BMWs, 1 Honda and 1 Suzuki. I love the Corbin seats, but they do take about 3-5K miles to break in. My last Corbin on my 19’ GSA took about 4K to break in. I wanted to sell it after sitting on it for about 3 hours when I first got it. Now, I love it. It’s not the most pleasurable experience breaking them in, but I would encourage you to “ride it out” with your Corbin if you haven’t done so already.
Ditto for me.

I apparently have a Corbin ass since my caboose seems to love them but as mentioned, all asses are not created equally.:dunno
 
Mike, I have two pair of Aerostitch's equivalent to moto skivee's and they help a lot! In fact, I was wearing them when I did the 830 mile day on a stock RT seat and never had a comfort issue.

Thanks to all for responding. I'm not sure if I have a Corbin or Sergeant tush but like many here I'm less than inclined to drop big bucks on seat experiments that may or may not work out. I've known about the RDL option for many years and may need to consider that option. I'm still new to the GSA and will need to do some serious day rides to get a better "feel" for what I may or may not need to do. That said, I'd appreciate more input.
 
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Mike, I have two pair of Aerostitch's equivalent to moto skivee's and they help a lot! In fact, I was wearing them when I did the 830 mile day on a stock RT seat and never had a comfort issue.

Thanks to all for responding. I'm not sure if I have a Corbin or Sergeant tush but like many here I'm less than inclined to drop big bucks on seat experiments that may or may not work out. I've known about the RDL option for many years and may need to consider that option. I'm still new to the GSA and will need to do some serious day rides to get a better "feel" for what I may or may not need to do. That said, I'd appreciate more input.
I have the Aerostitch Microfiber shorts, too, and they're pretty good. Moto Skiveez, for my sensitive butt, are better. I was skeptical when I bought 'em but I'm a believer, now.

Mike
 
Just tried to order a pair but they're out of stock. :( That said, I also ride a K1200S so I bought a pair of their sports Skiveez and some socks. So, I got that going for me.
What has really worked for my 74 year-old butt is a Seats Concepts saddle and Moto-Skiveez. I've got some of the other brands of riding underwear but nothing comes close to Moto-Skiveez.

Mike
 
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Following up on a previous post, I'm very impressed with Moto-Skivees' customer service. Shortly after placing my order I received their acknowledgement and a separate email asking how I found out about them. I cited this thread and received yet another email thanking me for my feedback. It's not often one gets this level of service and communication, ya know?
 
Following up on a previous post, I'm very impressed with Moto-Skivees' customer service. Shortly after placing my order I received their acknowledgement and a separate email asking how I found out about them. I cited this thread and received yet another email thanking me for my feedback. It's not often one gets this level of service and communication, ya know?

That's pretty cool!

Mike
 
The only two bikes I changed seats on, were my '05 LT, which had a notoriously uncomfortable POS seat, and my current bike, an '18 GSA .
The latter bike has a Sargent seat which makes 800 mile days tolerable. In addition I use either a Bead-rider or a WildAss (better than Airhawk IMHO) cushion.
Reason for all three iterations is that, for me, changing up the seating surface helps my rear end survive a long day on the road.. YMMV
 
The only two bikes I changed seats on, were my '05 LT, which had a notoriously uncomfortable POS seat, and my current bike, an '18 GSA .
The latter bike has a Sargent seat which makes 800 mile days tolerable. In addition I use either a Bead-rider or a WildAss (better than Airhawk IMHO) cushion.
Reason for all three iterations is that, for me, changing up the seating surface helps my rear end survive a long day on the road.. YMMV
Thanks. I'm loathe to replace the seat until I'm able to do a serious day ride and for me that's in the 200 - 300 mile range. I'll report back after I get the Skiveez and if necessary I'll try to WildAss.
 
My initial experience with MotoSkiveez is positive. They're out of stock on the ADVR style shorts so I ordered their sport model because I also ride a K1200s. Using them on the GSA ends up with a happy tush but longer rides are needed to confirm my initial findings.
 
^ Hopefully it will work out for you!

FWIW, I got Under Armor Tech Mesh boxer shorts and that seems to work well so far...
 
Can anyone here school me on the trial and error method to resolve this issue?

My method was getting a new to me bike! I was looking at a DL650 that had a bead rider on it. I thought at the time the bead rider would get removed when the bike got home. Well a 5 hr ride the first day convinced me the bead rider was a great option for comfort. Still have the bead rider 5 yrs later.:ricky
 
The venting that the Bead-rider provides can not be overstated, specially in hot and humid climates....
Keeping everything as dry as possible will help prevent monkeybutt.....
 
Just got my Russell Sport seat for my 2022 1250GSA, I had the one piece Rallye seat and sent it to them to see what they could do with it. I've been riding a Day Long saddle for the last 7 years and it was great. Didn't care for the looks of it though.

I think they made a good looking seat for me this time, maybe more comfortable than the Day Long but I've only ridden it a few miles so far. I hope to take a 5 day ride next week to break it in properly.

i-MBPnd5N-X2.jpg
 
Hey Bill,

Thanks for posting! I saw some different pics of your setup on the "other" forum and liked the setup. I'm awaiting another set of riding shorts to try out before taking the plunge you did and will report back with my findings.
 
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