gel seat revisited

[Greg May]

First thanks to all that responded with info, experience and offers concerning my gel seat question. After having no luck with a couple suppliers on the tip from a fellow lister I managed to locate a part number from Saddlemens site, a little harder then I thought it should have been, and get it shipped to a friend in NYC where I was going to be for a couple days of a much needed weeks vacation and to their credit they were able to get the seat order processed and shipped and delivered to NYC in time for me to pick it up while I was there. Also to their credit they did reply to an email I sent to them concerning the problem I was having locating the proper part number for an all black version. Sadly their reply arrived after I had left and had ordered what I hoped would be the right cover. The upside is what they sent was a perfect fit and seems to be very high quality, the down side which really doesn't matter to me is that it has a blue blue trim panel on it to go with my red bike....certainly no biggie. The price was I believe 20 dollars cheaper then the regular price on the sites I could find it on and 10 dollars more then Dual-Stars sale price which really doesn't matter because I still haven't been able to contact them or leave a message on their full answering service. Anyway back to the seat kit, as I said seems to be very high quality, fit in my case was very good and installation was very straight froward once you use 5/16" staples rather the the 1/4" length they suggest. The 1/4" length could be pulled right back out with no effort because they were just to short to penetrate the cover and the seat base, no worries on the 5/16" staples as they weren't long enough to penetrate far enough to cause problems sticking too far through. The finished product looks very good although I still would have preferred a solid black. My only concern is how the material will react to rain, I think I will fab up a cover for it for when the bike is parked so I don't find out. After the installation I was able to get out for about a 90 minute ride. First two things that are noticed when you get on is the bike feels taller, gel seat I don't think is any thicker but is definitely firmer which is the second thing you notice, you definitely don't sink into this seat like the stocker. Out of the box this seat is more comfortable then the stocker which my seating area and it's "friends" definitely appreciated the extra support. That being said I read that gel seat take a while to break in and for sure I hope this one gets a little softer as it is FIRM. To sum it up after 90 minutes, all on road so I was sitting all the time it was much more comfortable then the stock seat but will hopefully get better as it breaks in, in my opinion well worth the 150 dollars that I paid including shipping...much less then the complete seats that were mentioned in another thread which may very well be better. Anyway appriciate the feed back I received ......Greg __________________________________________________________________ Ask a question on any topic and get answers from real people. Go to Yahoo! Answers and share what you know at http://ca.answers.yahoo.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]