BMW High Seat

[dbrick]

The new-to-me R12R carries a low seat, and I don't care for it. I've tried a few regular-height seats, and they're better...but I'm thinking that the high seat would be better still. I've ridden the RS with the seat in the high position for 14 years.

Is there anyone on the Board in Northern California (Monterey Bay to Sacramento) with a BMW high seat on an R12R I could come over and sit on?

[daveyator]

Don't do another stock seat. Do yourself a favor and get a BMW comfort saddle. They make a high and a standard one. Lots of info available on this site.

[Don C]

I don't know if this helps, but there was one on display in the showroom at Moto Marin before they went out of business. Their stuff is being auctioned off soon.
http://mulrooneyauction.com/auctions.html#2

[Bob Ain't Stoppin']

Geez. You're in northern Cali and asking this question? Go to Russell and do a drive in. Best seat in the business. Alternates for either Mayer brother. Don't waste you're money on an oem seat.

[Kieran R1200R]

The new-to-me R12R carries a low seat, and I don't care for it. I've tried a few regular-height seats, and they're better...but I'm thinking that the high seat would be better still. I've ridden the RS with the seat in the high position for 14 years.

Is there anyone on the Board in Northern California (Monterey Bay to Sacramento) with a BMW high seat on an R12R I could come over and sit on?

Swap it back at the dealer for a high seat. I've got one and have no problem with it!

[dbrick]

Swap it back at the dealer for a high seat. I've got one and have no problem with it!

The new-to-me bike's a 2007, and I think a dealer wouldn't be eager to trade for a bike he didn't sell. OTOH, a high seat was offered today on the MOA Flea Market and I bought it.

[dbrick]

Geez. You're in northern Cali and asking this question? Go to Russell and do a drive in. Best seat in the business. Alternates for either Mayer brother. Don't waste you're money on an oem seat.

We'll see after the stock high seat arrives (see previous post). FWIW, BMW seat engineers must sneak in during the night and measure me in my sleep, as I've always found the stock seats just fine: /2 (four of them, 11 years), R65 (4 years), K75S (9 years), R11RSL (13 years).

[dbrick]

The oem high seat showed up yesterday, and it's just wonderful. YMMV.

[Grumps]

David, I'm considering doing what you did. My inseam is 32 inches, may I ask yours? Thanks, Peter

[dbrick]

My inseam is 31". After a few weeks on the high seat, I wasn't so sure it was right for me after all. I secured a medium, and have now ridden on both.

High - lovely leg room, slight tendency to slide forward, the bars are just a bit too far away. It's not too far from the ground, I could place both feet flat on the ground with no difficulty. Feels nicely resilient because of the greater thickness and rounder top.

Medium - absolutely perfect seat/bar/shoulder relationship, less legroom, and for some reason easier to get my feet to the ground than from the high seat. Less resilient than the high seat, but not so extreme as the low seat that came with the bike.

I want to do a couple of weeks on the medium, and then I'll decide what to do. At this point, I'd keep the medium seat, get used to the comparitive lack of resilience, and if I can't get used to the shorter distance to the pegs, consider the Suburban Machinery peg lowering bits.

[Boxer-Lust]

The BMW comfort seat is very comfortable and much better looking than all of those homemade aftermarket tractor seats...

[fastdogs2]

+1 for the BMW Comfort Saddle. I tortured my bottom on the stock, feels like a wedgie with a 2x4 seat, for 600 miles before purchasing the Comfort Saddle. After 5,400 miles on the Comfort Saddle, I couldn't be happier.

I just got back Sunday from a weekend, 800 mile trip, through southern West Virginia and really appreciated the Comfort Saddle.

The Comfort Saddle is the seat that should be standard equipment for the R1200R. The current stock seats should be optional for those riders whom it fits or for those who deliberately wish to torment their backsides.

Just my opinion.

Bill

[deilenberger]

Question for Comfort Seat riders..

Do you find you are somewhat restricted in being able to move around in the seat?

I have one in the garage, that periodically I'll put on the bike and think of going for a ride on (it has less then 100 miles on it..) and each time I end up taking it off and putting my Sargent modified low seat back on (which after about 30k miles has conformed to my butt, and I can pretty much ride it most of a day with minimal ibprofen doses..)

The extra height of the "low" Comfort seat is a tiny bit of an issue vs my Sargent, but moreso - not being able to slide my butt around on the seat just feels weird.

So - anyone else find that's an issue, or should I just get over it?

[websterize]

Do you find you are somewhat restricted in being able to move around in the seat?

I bought a tall Comfort seat today. I'll let you know.

[fastdogs2]

Don,

I assume that you mean front to back movement, rather than side to side. I find that I am able to move front to back on my Comfort Saddle enough to satisfy any desire I might have to move around. The only thing that stops from sliding back too far is the point where the pillion seat starts and there is a rearward rise in the seat.

The Comfort Saddle feels to me like I am seated "in" the saddle, like you would sit in a chair. The stock seat feels like I am perched "on" the seat, like you would straddle a fence rail. That is why I have described the stock seat as a "wedgie with a 2X4."

Consequently, due to the more comfortable seating position, I don't feel the need to squirm around on the Comfort Saddle, in search of a comfortable spot, as I did constantly on the stock seat.

I didn't move around that much on my previous bike, a R1200RT, because it had a two piece seat, with a definite separation where the pillion seat met the driver's seat. Perhaps that trained me to ride without any appreciable front to back movement, since I didn't have that much space alloted to me for such maneuvers.

Bill

[JohnM]

I've put over 7.5K on my Comfort High seat this summer. Rode w/ Don E. to Nova Scotia in July, then to the Souf (including NOLA) last month.

The Comfort is great for me until about 125 miles (and is unmeasurably better than the stock torture rack.) After that, its stand-on-the pegs-ever-10 minutes to get relief. Not good when you're doing 400-500 mile days, and you can get 240 between gas stops.

It would be OK for a brisk pace and/or a track day, as its fairly narrow in the front. Just not wide enough in the rear (which unfortunately I am!)

So I'm looking elsewhere. Even if it'll look like my assey is on a Massey-Ferguson.

Just like windshields on R12Rs ... your mileage may vary.

JohnM

PS> FYI, 6'2" w/ 33" inseam.

[BigEasy]

John, Take a look down the main page for my post about a Rich's custom seat (I can't figure out how to link to it). I've only put 1,000-1,200 miles on it but I have to say it's wonderful, and it's not full blown tractor like. In doing those miles I was leasurely riding around KY doing 225-325 miles a day but putting 6-8 hours in the saddle to make those miles.

I added a little more eval in that post including extra heiaght etc. Good luck in your search, Keith

[waynemathews]

Question for Comfort Seat riders..
Do you find you are somewhat restricted in being able to move around in the seat?

I've got about 1500 miles on my low comfort seat, so I won't claim to have it broken in. I have couple of inches of fore-aft movement in the seat. I'm very happy with the seat around town, but on triple digit days I would like to slide back a bit more. I put 100 miles on my R100S yesterday, and was struck by how comfortable the stock seat on that bike is. It is flat enough that repositioning is almost subconscious. The not-to-be-aspired-to titanium farkle in my left leg (see avatar) makes me more restless on a bike than I used to be, so YMMV.

[JohnM]

Big Easy:

Back in 2007, I rode 700 miles in one day from Asheville to the NJ Shore on a Russell Day-Long on my K75RT. No way I could have done that on the OEM Corbin. Russell's not guaranteeing similar results, but I'm willing to bet on it. (I don't mind if I'm pulling the combine behind me. LOL)

JohnM

PS> Got in on the ADV Rider Day-Long 20% group buy discount, which eases the pain.

[Boxer-Lust]

I think the BMW comfort seat is about as perfect as a motorcycle seat gets.
Made in Italy where they understand the art of making beautiful things out of leather.
Comfortable put still able to ride the bike in a active way,being able to move your but while most of those aftermarket "tractor-seats" put you in one position and keep you there...
Of course after 200 miles/or a burned tank of gas you need to get up and stretch and get the circulation going on any seat,stock or aftermarket.
A lot of those seats have the placebo effect;you spent a lot of money for a little foam and leather and so it has to be great...
And yes the BMW comfort seat should come stock on the R1200R
Except maybe for people with really short legs...