Short guy needs a short seat

[tonyff]

Hey All,

I'm ready to pull the trigger on getting a shorter, better seat on my 04 Silver. She stands just a bit tall for me and I am thinking that a shorter, narrower seat would do the trick. I don't want to end up with a seat with inadequate padding for the long trips.

Can you offer any suggestions? What are your experiences:


Thanks

Tony

[snowprick]

I am in the same boat. I have a low seat but it does not improve the comfort. Think about thick soled boots, it all helps.

[tonyff]

Thanks,

I do have the stock BMW low seat and have boots with a substatial sole, but still find that when I come to a stop I do a lot of scooting around to position myself to get my feet down. The end result is that my left cheek will end up sore after lots of stops and starts.

I'd really like to find out what other short guys/gals experiences have been with buying after market seats to lower and trim the width. I have been on the seargent site, but have not seen what I think I may be looking for.

Tony

[boxermania]

How much do you weight and do you ride one up, if so, set the preload on your rear shock to 2 or 3 clicks and that should give you some added reach by lowering the back of the bike.

Get thicker soled ridding boots....inexpensive and safe solutions.......

[Robert_winter_1000]

I am in the same boat. I have a low seat but it does not improve the comfort. Think about thick soled boots, it all helps.

I had the same problem with the stock seat. I am using now the “Russell Day-Long Touring Saddle” and it is very good.

http://www.day-long.com/new_pages/bmw.html











Regards

Robert

[snowprick]

tonyff,

I bought my bike from a guy that is even shorter than me (I am 5' 4" / 29 inseam) he had the rear shock modified by a company in the US. The standard shock is 14.38" ctr to ctr. He had his shortened to 14". It worked ok but the centre stand had a nasty habit of grounding on speed humps, even at slow speed. I almost threw it on the floor a few times as a result. Two up riding was not an option. I replaced the modified unit yesterday with a standard and that is when I found out that he had shortened the centre stand also.

The seat which was on the bike had also been modified and shaved savagely on both side to improve the leg drop but it makes for an ugly seat.

If you shorten the shock be prepared to remove your centre stand and even then be careful on the bumps.

[challey]

I have the same problem since my inseam is 29". It's difficult to get the seat lower: The bracket under it is raised up by a plastic space to clear the back mount of the Telelever. If you could remove the spacer you'd lower the seat by close to an inch. In order to do so, you'd need to cut out an inch of metal from the seat bracket, which I think would make it too thin to support much.

I made things a bit more comfortable by taking the rubber isolators out of the bracket - that got my feet maybe 1/2" closer to the ground. I bought a used seat from someone on the IBMWR that I intended to make narrower but haven't yet gotten around to it. That should also help a bit since the stock seat is pretty wide and splays your legs outward significantly.

If you search through the archieves, you should be able to find some suggestions on seat lowering by a former member from CA named Patrick. He had quite a few tricks

Charlie

[ken k]

I have a low seat and bought an Alaskan Sheep Skin Butt Pad and it really helps soften the seat a bit without adding to the height of the seat.

ken k

[TonyT607]

Tony, before you invest in any pricey mods try this; it worked for me on my '02 R1150R, giving me another 1/2 inch: remove the seat and see how the front is supported by those two little grooved rubber barrels? Slide those off the pegs they mount on and using a sharp knife (almost) cut them in half the long way, leaving enough rubber to still have a hole to slide back onto the peg. Reinstall them with the newly cut flat side up, and you'll be sitting pretty to the tune of a bit more flat-footedness.

Worked great for me.

[challey]

TonyT607 said

before you invest in any pricey mods try this; it worked for me on my '02 R1150R, giving me another 1/2 inch: remove the seat and see how the front is supported by those two little grooved rubber barrels? Slide those off the pegs ...

This are the "isolators" I was referring to in my earlier post. In my case though, I simply removed the grooved seat barrels or isolators or whatever they're called, then wrapped the bare metal pegs with electrical tape and reinstalled the seat. As TonyT indicated, this gets you ~ 1/2" closer to the ground. Still not quite enough for me, but an improvement over stock.

Charlie

[TonyT607]

Hey Charlie, yep they're the ones....me should read mo' bettah.

I'll go back to my hut now.

[challey]

Well at least Tonyff gets the picture now.

We vertically challenged need to stick together.

Charlie

[shake1150]

I have a stock BMW low-seat for sale if anyone is interested. really cheap.
PM me if interested.

[P_Jensen]

There several things to consider when lowering the seat height.
1. A lower suspension i.e. shorter shoks will reduce ground clearance, suspension travel, and reduce the available angle of lean. It will also require modfication of the center and side stands.
2. A lower seat height will also reduce the seat to peg distance, so if the bend angle of your knees matters I would not remove too much from the seat.

I have a 29"-30" inseam and have tried many things on both my previous F650 Classic and my current R1150R. On the 650 it took 2 seats and a set of lowering links to get it comfortable. The first seat was a Sargent Custom a pure waste of money. The "Super Atomic Foam" wasn't it was almost as bad as the stock seat 1hr 15 min max distance and you did not want to get back on. At first I thought it was because of the thickness but my passenger had as much of a problem with foam that was twice as thick as mine. I know many rave about the Sargent off the shelf, it is not a usable choice in this case too high. On the 650 I then went with a Corbin with a nose job (approx 3/4"-1" narrower at the front) and lowered by 1/2" I could ride all day with no problems. When I got the R1150R I went with a Corbin again with a nose job and lowered by 1/2". I have ridden the bike to the national Rallies in both Ohio and Wisconsin and have had no problems with seat comfort. The only draw back is the reduced seat to peg distance, my knees are a little more bent than I would like for long distances. The last choice is Wudo, they make a seat that is nrrower at the front and in cludes a set of reformed side panels. The choice will depend of how much money you are willing to spend, with the cheapest being a reworked seat and the most expensive being a combination of all of the above.