Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Gel pad

I'm looking for some input on brand, size, availability, effectiveness, comfort, price, etc. for a gel pad to use on the occaisional long ride. Thanks, Steve

Have you considered a sheepskin butt pad?

I installed a GEL PAD on my friends Vulcan. He said the comfort was ok but that it really sucked on hot days. If your bike is parked in the sun like is was at work he always put a towel over the seat to keep it from getting too hot. He use to say you could fry an egg on it in the summer. So, if you don't mind the heat it would be ok. But, there are better choices out there to consider.
Ride Safe
EZ

The best way to use a gel pad in the seat is to take the seat apart and insert it in between the foam, you slice it open to do it. They WILL fry your butt if you just sit on one. In the cold it will suck the heat right through "your" exhaust and your butt will freeze.

One review of gel pads said it was like sitting on a slab of raw liver....

I have one (a Travelcade large gel pad) if you want to borrow it to see what it's really like send me an email/pm. I also have a bead seat, air pad, long distance shorts, and a Triumph tour seat. The gel or bead seat gets tough after about 8 hours. Air pad (not an Airhawk, but I've used an Airhawk) tends to push up where there's no weight, AH does the same so again about 6-8 hours and you're looking for something else. The tour seat on a BA requires a change in mount hardware and isn't much different than stock for the driver. The jury is still out the LD Shorts.

I have a Corbin coming from Chy. All this may sound drastic, but about 2-3 times a year I go riding for 3-5k miles a week and spend a lot of long days in the saddle. A couple of 1k mile days will have you looking for anything that makes that 15th hour a little easier.

I put a Saddleman gel pad under my stock seat cover. Reinstalled the factory cover. It does get warm on very sunny days. Definitely improves the comfort level.
I bought the Large size pad from JC Whitney, here is the Saddleman website detail:
Saddleman Gel Pads
My neighor does seat work, he helped. It's actually pretty simple. Pull the cover, trace the outline of the pad, than cut with a very sharp knife. I smoothed out the inside with a 3M bristle disc on my air grinder, that worked great. We learned later to put baby powder on the pad, it's sticky and much easier to handle with the baby powder.
Raw pad on seat


Here's the cutout before laying the gel pad inside:
Seat Cutout