Three times recently, I’ve come face-to-face with a new world of motorcycle seat technology. I recently stopped by Saddlemen and saw their new line of café-styled seats and rear fenders. During the conversation, we looked at seats designed for flat track racing and how they worked to keep racers in position, yet allowed them to shift readily without sliding off their ride.
Mr. Soto has a 2009 hot rod Dyna. Not much has been done to engine, but it rocks and doesn’t stop. He noticed two things about his current seat. It lowered him, which jacked up his knees and jammed him into a squatting position. Plus, the form allowed him to shift or slide off the back at the wrong times. He needed something more aggressive and something holding him firmly in place during a wheel stand.
Saddlemen has been a leader when it comes to seat technology. Our market is changing and more guys need seats for action not just style or long-distance comfort.
How about a seat line designed for straight- up wheel stands? “Sure, no problem,” said Buster Cates at Saddlemen.
The part of the seat that is custom is the lumbar area; riders who ride more aggressively choose to add our gripper material here. A lot of the guys who stunt on the Dynas these days like the gripper there as well. This is the same gripper we use on our race seats. Aside from being functional it looks great as well. While we offer two different Step Up seat options (LS and TR), we certainly do custom options for guys who want something a little more personal.
The benefits of a Saddlemen seat are rooted in the technology of how the seat is made and why. Saddlemen progressive density foam is a closed-cell foam that helps absorb vibration and road impacts. More than just a claim we have done extensive testing to develop our exclusive formulation. The chemical makeup and raw material volume is carefully tuned to create a foam pour that is balanced between support and compliance.
Varied cell sizes and types are encapsulated in the foam by an element-resistant skin that enhances the seat’s durability as well as comfort. Combined with our Gel-Core Technology, that isolates engine and road vibration, a common cause of rider fatigue.
Saddlegel is a molded solid with fluid-like properties that will not slide to one side or move around in your seat like air or water in a plastic bag. Instead the proprietary design eliminates pressure points at the hip bones and tail bone by evenly distributing your weight across the surface of the seat. Otherwise, the rider experiences pressure points or “hot spots.”
The thickness of the gel pad is ¾-inch and on the Step Up seat, we used our Saddlegel in the rider’s seating area.
The pink headliner foam has a few jobs. Primarily it creates some initial “give” when you sit on the seat, and as well as it helps the seat breathe a bit.
This seat involved a Saddlemen production seat with custom elements added. This is a slightly custom version with gripper on the lumbar. Custom seats typically ship in three days, not the three weeks that some companies ask you to wait. One of the best parts of my job is seeing the craftsmen and women build our beautiful Saddlemen seats by hand here in our Long Beach factory. If anyone needs anything, we can help with production or custom seating. Just give us a call at 800 397 7709 or connect with us on our Facebook page.
Link to our fitment chart
http://www.saddlemen.com/step-up/#step-up-fitment-chart
Jeremiah was knocked out with the new Saddlemen seat with his custom touch. He made sure to blue Loctite the strap fasteners. Avoid red Loctite unless you want removal problems in the future.
He added a soft pliant washer to his fender to protect the paint. He slipped the seat into place and fastened it down with the chrome cap screw.
The seat raised his seating position, which gave him greater thigh support, and the lumbar design of the seat improved his ability to stay in place on the open road and during a wheel stand. He was jazzed, rode out of the Bikernet Headquarters and we haven’t seen him for a week.
