dirt bike seats

[bigpoppa]

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I'm noticing on many adventure bikes, they have that dirt bike styled, flat 1 piece seat.
Why is that?
The Africa twin, and the tuareg both have it, as do many others.

They seem more comfortable, with way more room to move around on, as opposed to the standard seat that has you committed in one position for extended period of time.

Why don't all bikes have that?

 

[Ash]

Dirt bike seats are definitely not more comfortable than street bike seats. It depends on the rider, but you generally spend most of your time standing while riding a dirt bike, so the seat is designed to be narrow between your knees. You can move backwards and forwards a lot more while sitting on a narrow plank style seat, but it's the same parts of your anatomy that are in contact with the seat regardless of how forward or back you are. So you don't get much relief from pressure hotspots if you're just riding around sitting down like a street bike.

 

[xrljoel]

Further to Ash's point, dirt bike seat shape/design is about the riders ability to control the bike. Whether that's moving rider weight back and forth or getting a foot off the peg while in motion.

Bench (?) style seats on a street bike still work fine in many applications, but the ADV style bikes require 2 piece designs to keep seat heights lower I think.

 

[Baggsy]

"Seem". Have you tried it on some extended rides?

 

[GreyGhost]

On a powerful street bike, you appreciate having some lip behind your butt to passively keep you forward. I spend much of my time on long trips up on the pillion seat. Having it at a different height allows a big change in all joint angles which makes a big difference on a long ride. For spirited riding, I drop down into the proper position (handling is much slower when up and back, probably not enough weight on the front tire).

 

[Priller]

Further to the above responses, the Africa Twin actually has a lower and wider seat for the touring-oriented Adventure Sports and a higher and narrower seat for the dirt-oriented standard model, as you're expected to be standing a lot more on the latter...

 

[Mad Mike]

I'm noticing on many adventure bikes, they have that dirt bike styled, flat 1 piece seat.
Why is that?
The Africa twin, and the tuareg both have it, as do many others.

They seem more comfortable, with way more room to move around on, as opposed to the standard seat that has you committed in one position for extended period of time.

Why don't all bikes have that?

Dirt bike flat seats are not more comfortable than a touring style seat when you're grinding out road miles. Off-road is different, they make it easier to change body position (sit-stand, forward-back).

 

[xrljoel]

My 1090R came with a much better seat than my 950ADV, or my 990SMT but I still bought a Corbin from a guy on ADV Rider. The Corbin allows me to stay in the saddle for a full tank (400km +) and keep going while the stock seat absolutely requires a rest.

The downside of the wide comfy bum platform is that it's wide. It's made me feel a bit precarious when putting my feet down at stops on occasion as I can't be flat footed or really plant a foot.

I tend to swap between the 2 depending on how long I intend to ride for.

The seat on my Husky 250 is traditional KTM style; stylish, colorful seat cover on a slightly contoured piece of 4X4. I really think the cover is to keep the splinters out of the riders arse.

 

[-Maverick-]

This whole thread is keeping Seat Concepts in business. I'm surprised other aftermarket companies haven't jumped in as Seat Concepts has an eight week backlog. Manufacturers should start adding better seat technology. They're so interested in electronic rider aids that they've forgotten the basics. $600 to Seat Concepts or Corbin on top of the premium you pay for a higher end bike shouldn't even be a thing. Memory gel is very cheap and would add pennies to production costs.

 

[daq]

This whole thread is keeping Seat Concepts in business. I'm surprised other aftermarket companies haven't jumped in as Seat Concepts has an eight week backlog. Manufacturers should start adding better seat technology. They're so interested in electronic rider aids that they've forgotten the basics. $600 to Seat Concepts or Corbin on top of the premium you pay for a higher end bike shouldn't even be a thing. Memory gel is very cheap and would add pennies to production costs.

thats cause a lot of riders just want to pose at timmies so the seat never gets used!

 

[Relax]

Definitely wider is better, but on an offroad bike, you still want to be able to move around/stand. This is what the Seat Concepts seat looks like for my bike - they widen it where you sit, but keep it narrow where you stand. I've done a 2-day ride on this seat no problems, but I'm also only 150 lbs and not a wide load. On the other hand, the stock seat felt like it was raping me and I could only last max an hour on it and still walked funny the next day.

 

[Relax]

This whole thread is keeping Seat Concepts in business. I'm surprised other aftermarket companies haven't jumped in as Seat Concepts has an eight week backlog. Manufacturers should start adding better seat technology. They're so interested in electronic rider aids that they've forgotten the basics. $600 to Seat Concepts or Corbin on top of the premium you pay for a higher end bike shouldn't even be a thing. Memory gel is very cheap and would add pennies to production costs.

Lots of manufacturers such as KTM and Yamaha offer "Comfort Seats" for their various models, which begs the question - are they deliberately selling the bikes with the "Uncomfortable Seats" in order to upsell?

 

[Ash]

Lots of manufacturers such as KTM and Yamaha offer "Comfort Seats" for their various models, which begs the question - are they deliberately selling the bikes with the "Uncomfortable Seats" in order to upsell?

I think that most stock seats are designed primarily to offer the best confidence for shorter folks on the showroom floor and at stop lights (ie: they're narrow). Comfort seats are generally wider and make the bike feel taller because it's harder to get a foot down.

I sort of took the comfort seat to the extreme with the ridiculous touring seat that I built for my VStrom. Imagine a Russell Day Long, but wider and with more support under the thighs. It's so wide that I can dangle my legs off the pegs when riding and my feet don't come close to dragging on the ground. When I come to a stop I've gotten in the habit of hitting the front brake hard enough that the inertia pops me up and forward out of the seat pocket so that I can get a foot down. It's a great seat for the intended purpose, but it's not the sort of thing that any manufacturer would want in the showroom because it makes the bike feel like it's 6 inches taller and 50 lbs heavier than it really is.

 

[bigpoppa]

I think that most stock seats are designed primarily to offer the best confidence for shorter folks on the showroom floor and at stop lights (ie: they're narrow). Comfort seats are generally wider and make the bike feel taller because it's harder to get a foot down.

I sort of took the comfort seat to the extreme with the ridiculous touring seat that I built for my VStrom. Imagine a Russell Day Long, but wider and with more support under the thighs. It's so wide that I can dangle my legs off the pegs when riding and my feet don't come close to dragging on the ground. When I come to a stop I've gotten in the habit of hitting the front brake hard enough that the inertia pops me up and forward out of the seat pocket so that I can get a foot down. It's a great seat for the intended purpose, but it's not the sort of thing that any manufacturer would want in the showroom because it makes the bike feel like it's 6 inches taller and 50 lbs heavier than it really is.

Im having a hard time finding one for my bike, can you make me a custom comfy seat for my bike?

 

[Ash]

Im having a hard time finding one for my bike, can you make me a custom comfy seat for my bike?

It's pretty easy if you want to tackle it yourself.

• Start with a cheap, beat up stock seat off eBay, unless you're really confident and want to just convert your existing seat.
• Grab a roll of foam carpet underlayment from one of the big box home improvement stores. The best stuff is the dense 'rebond' foam, which is made up of little chopped up pieces of recycled foam that has been glued back together into a big sheet. This stuff is firm enough to support your weight without sagging over time.
• Grab a can of Super 77 spray adhesive.
• Pull the vinyl cover off the stock seat. It's just held on with staples.
• Build up layers of the rebond foam around your butt shape and glue them in place to the stock seat foam with the spray adhesive. You can also remove some of the stock seat foam if you think that would help. The main goal is to get more foam in contact with your anatomy. Think of PSI: spread your pounds over more inches (surface area), and spread it evenly as possible. Shape the firm foam to fit and support your anatomy, rather than just relying on a too-squishy flat piece of foam to conform to you which causes hot spots.
• Cover the built-up seat with a garbage bag so that the spray adhesive doesn't ruin your pants and go for a ride. Repeat the process until you get something that works for you.
• If you've built up the seat so much that the stock cover doesn't fit anymore, go to Fabricland and get a meter of outdoor vinyl and recover the seat. You could also take it to an upholsterer if you want it to look really nice, but that jacks the overall price way up.

edit: found an old thread with pics of what I've done for a couple of seats:

Seat comfort

The seat on my Vmax is horrible. I just got it back on the road (after an extra long sleep) this spring and have about 3k worth of rides on it. I've been hoping that it's kind of like a bicycle seat- you get used to it. Not so yet. There's a slightly used Corbin seat specific to the Vmax...

www.gtamotorcycle.com

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