Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Saddlmen SaddleGel Pad

Folks:
I've been interested in making my stock seat more comfortable without breaking the bank (ie: Corbin!). On the Saddlmen website, I found they make seat pads from a gel material they call SaddleGel. You can buy the pads covered in Spandura or sheepskin. Of most interest to me was the uncovered raw pad for insertion under a seat cover.

Saddlmen SaddleGel Pads

I found the pads available from JC Whitney for a few bucks less than at the Saddlmen website and ordered the large size. The pad was $56 shipped. You can trim the piece to fit, the Large will need trimmed slightly. The pad is 5/8" thick. I'll have my neighbor scoop out some of the OEM foam to fit the new pad flush.

JC Whitney Saddle Gel Pads

I'm going to have my neighbor pull my OEM cover and we'll insert the pad. I'll take a few pix of this process. Sitting on the pad placed on top of my seat is very comfortable and a noticeable improvement. Here's a shot of the raw pad top of my seat:

How much was the pad if you don`t mind me asking?Thats a good idea.

It was $48, $56 with shipping to MD. I hope to have it installed this weekend. The weather is lousy here in MD so a decent test ride doesn't seem likely.

That's a great idea if you can do the re-upholstery yourself.

For those of you who are, like me, not adept at this type of thing you can check out the Butt Buffer (that name STILL cracks me up) website - http://www.buttbuffer.com/info2.asp#2

They do the gel pad installation into any kind of seat you may have. It's not as inexpensive as DIY but it costs a hell of a lot less than a Corbin or such seat. I had my Solo Seat & Pilion done this fall and am very happy with the work done. Their turn-around time is quick too.

wow the red velour buttbuffers are pimpin' ! Ali G would be proud to have one of those.

I'm trying for the low-key approach as well! I was considering re-doing the top vinyl at some point with something heavier and red piping.

Also good to see the Butt buffer 'doesn't absord fluids' and is 'fungus resistant'!
What more could you ask for .... ?

butt buffer: kind of like depends.

good idea putting the gel pad under the seat.

cat

I'll post more details and photo's when it gets done. With this weather, not likely to be riding soon.

Did the install today. We pulled the cover off, marked the area of the gel pad. Cut the section out 3/4" for the gel pad, inserted and recovered. We cut the section out slightly larger than it would have needed but the gel pad stretched nicely to fill the contours. The Large size gel pad fit perfectly and no trimming was necessary.


Here's a shot of the base with the cut out:


Took it for a short, few miles this afternoon but it sure feels good. Need to run a few tanks full of gas out of it for the final determination.

Al,
If it don't work out, I have a stock seat for sale in the classifieds......

I have to ease the pain of buying the Corbin somehow....

It's all back together. Looks stock and feels great. I'd like to get a few hundred miles on it before passing final judgement but early results are great. Good luck with the seat sale. If it doesn't sell, you might want to consider installing a gel pad for a fraction of the Corbin. Pretty simple actually, I could definitely do it solo but just need to borrow a pneumatic stapler.

I wonder if they could make the passenger pad a little wider?

Before I got my Corbin, I used a gel pad from TheProPad.com I've had it for years and it works well and has held up through a lot of miles.

Call Saddlmen and ask, I bet they can. I was just going to buy another large size and cut it down. (kind of wasteful)
It appears at though my email notification isn't working again.