GT

Gimlet said:

Roads were surprisingly clean here. I avoid the moorland roads over the North Pennines at that this time of year because that's where they go mad with the salt. There were lots of bikes going past my house heading up over the fells kicking up white dust behnd them. I headed north into Northumberland and the borders and it was clean up there.
I did briefly consider wearing my bulky winter gloves but the sun was so warm I thought sod it and put on my short summer ones. With the heated grips on low it was just fine. This is the first bike I've had with heated grips and I'm a convert.
Next week forecast to sunny but cold so I'm expecting the gritters out again. But hopefully it'll be the last blast before spring proper.

Click to expand...

Can't wait for the salt to finally go.
I'm scratching my biking itch by working on my other bike (Buell/Bottpower-XR1). It's inching closer to being set up the way I want it to be, so it's keeping me keen and excited to try it out when circumstances allow.

I forgot to ask you about why you are now finding that the back of the seat is no longer a cause for discomfort?

Jagster said:

Can't wait for the salt to finally go.
I'm scratching my biking itch by working on my other bike (Buell/Bottpower-XR1). It's inching closer to being set up the way I want it to be, so it's keeping me keen and excited to try it out when circumstances allow.

I forgot to ask you about why you are now finding that the back of the seat is no longer a cause for discomfort?

Click to expand...

I don't know. I've just stopped noticing it. When I first got the bike I was coming from a Harley Low Rider S that had a Tallboy seat fitted (to try and get some of the bend out of my hips and ease my back - it helped but not enough unfortunately). The Tallboy seat was very roomy. I could shuffle around in it. The Rocket's seat is much more sculpted and you have to sit where you're put. I guess I've just adapted and stopped looking for the shuffle room I'd been used to.
I have to make sure when I get on the bike that my jacket isn't rucked up at the back as that will make the pillion pad intrude. The back of the jacket is fairly long to avoid draughts when riding sportier bikes. I also wear braces on my jeans as they're more comfortable than a belt and it was maybe the rear clasp of those along with a rumple in the jacket that was making the pillion pad dig in.

I haven't as yet done any all-day rides on the Rocket as I only bought it at the end of August last year. Hopefully if we have a decent summer this year I'll get a good few of those in. If the seat becomes an issue again after a full day in the saddle I'll revisit the idea of a Corbin. But it's a substantial wad of cash so not rushing to pull the pin at this stage.

Jagster said:

That sounds very similar to my set up and at a very comparable height, it's confirmation to me that it's probably the best ergonomically, out of all the various permutations.

I have the GT bars which I think work very well, but i'm interested in your handle bar set up.....Am I right in thinking that you're using the R bars but with some risers ?
If so, i'm interested to learn more....Like, what risers have you used...and...what wiring/cable set up have you used?

Click to expand...

The stock GT bars. I used the moto risers and pulled enough loom out of the cowl without any adapters, maybe 1/2". The ROX risers will also work from reading other threads.

mine are like these

stingray said:

The stock GT bars. I used the moto risers and pulled enough loom out of the cowl without any adapters. The ROX risers will also work from reading other threads.

Click to expand...

Stock GT bars with the risers, wow!
I wasn't expecting that combo. Interesting.
For a while now I have had the thought that I would prefer something close to the GT bar geometry, but a bit more toward the R bar geometry......A sort of halfway set up.
You've now go me thinking about seeing if the R bars with a riser kit might do something like what I was looking to try.

I have over the winter, had a quick look to see if perhaps the stock risers could be modified or swapped out for something a bit shorter just to move the GT bars slightly forward and down, but I quickly ditched that idea because I could see that those bars would pretty much hit onto the fuel tank at full lock, due to the pull back shape on those bars, but I never thought about going the other way and doing something using the R bars........hmm....food for my thoughts...

You have a lot of options with them. There are different ones that fit. Something like these have even less rise and pullback. I like to sit more upright, even leaning back on the pillion bag/passenger.

Amazon.com

stingray said:

You have a lot of options with them. There are different ones that fit. Something like these have even less rise and pullback. I like to sit more upright, even leaning back on the pillion bag/passenger.

Click to expand...

Thanks Stingray
That's extremely helpful info.
I haven't seen any of that before now.