Shifting Gears Episode 5 Saddle Enhancements

 

So Ken, during our Wings over the County event you let me ride your Gold Wing and I couldn’t believe how different the saddle felt to this brand new Gold Wing. Have you done something to the saddle.

 

Ken

Yeah I ended up spending quite a bit of money on an after market custom seat, but I got to tell you first off, the OEM manufacturers have come a long way in seat reconstruction. The first one I had we used to call it an upholstered brick.
Dave

Right

 

Ken

But when you spend a lot of time in the saddle you’re always looking for something that might be better and I tended to go with a company who does that and only that so I suggest that they put a lot of time and effort into it.

 

Dave

Well it was certainly an interesting experience to feel something different like that that changing the saddle had such an effect. But there are other things you can do to extend your riding day in terms of when we talk about the butt. What have you got here, this looks like something you would see in a cab thirty years ago.

 

Ken

It’s old school technology, it’s been around forever. People say a million cabby drivers can’t be wrong, right, but the old beaded seat on top of the upholstery so you don’t lose from the structure of the seat for support but just getting you up a little bit will either introduce air underneath for air circulation on a hot riding day.

 

Dave

Right.

 

Ken

And even better, if you’re in a torrential downpour and you’ve got your rain suit on an everything, these seats tend to hold a lot of water.

 

Dave

They can puddle up a little bit.

 

Ken

They can, well I’m that much above high tide and sometimes that’s all that matters.

 

Dave

Right.

 

Ken

Something I’ve grown accustom to using and I can switch from having it an not having it just by putting it away.

 

Dave

Wow, so cool. And this, you pulled this out, this is sort of a modern, modern day version of that but this thing is weird. It’s just like a water bed or something. What’s going on in there?

 

Ken

There’s all kinds of stuff in terms of technology and seat performance and this company, air hock, came up with this design and it’s actually a series of air pillows.

 

Dave

Air bladders.

 

Ken

So each one of them is an air bladder that you can adjust by blowing in here and you can make it extra firm. This is like your dial by number bed.   You can make it extra firm or you can make it extra soft or anything in between. And if the valve is even just sticking out the end just a little bit you can change it on the fly. You can’t put it back up but you can let a little out. And they have them in different sizes for the different seats. Be it a cruiser, be it a sport bike, be it a touring machine. This one’s longer for the type of the bigger bike. Typically the pillion seat is much smaller but it would be this. But you can sit this way, you can sit this way, it’s very very adaptable and for space conservation, let all the air out of it, roll it up even within it’s fabric protection. It does a super job of giving you a different ride.

 

Dave

Wow, this is really a far cry from my, hey, I wear my bicycle pants that have the padding inside the crotch… this is incredible, so this is really helps you, you would give a testimony to this and say that this works.

 

Ken

For sure. For sure, for long distance riding, anything you can do to change, because one of the ironic things is we’ll be riding and everybody’s hurting a bit. We pull off, we go into your local donut shop and we sit down on their armorite seats and you go, that feels pretty good, well, it’s different pressure in a different place. And that’s all you’re doing here, is give yourself a little variety because you can’t move around like you can in a car.

 

Dave

Great, great long distance tips, thanks Ken.

 

VO

Still ahead, round five in the Ultimate Yamaha challenge and we’ll get some very important apparel advice for tackling those hot summer days.