G-Man said:
Addicted2it,
The dual gel seat is one of the first mods I did on my Rocket back in 04.
While the seat is just OK for comfort (better than stock) it suffers from one critical design flaw.
Leave your bike in the sun and the gel material absorbs and retains INTENSE heat!!!
You will find yourself riding while standing on the pegs until it cools down. Yeah!!!!...it will get that hot!!
Perhaps Triumph fixed the problem since 2004 but somehow I think not. The exterior material is also very weird....some space age mystery material that can't be polished or saddle soaped. My solution: I had the seat re-covered in real top-grade leather with a special insulating foam between gel seat and leather. The custom MC seat shop that did the work knew the problem exactly and had the appropriate insulation without adding bulk to the seat.
Wow! That is very interesting,
G-Man. So is that why trials riders stand up on the pegs? Just kidding.
I've had gel seats on two other bikes and never experienced that (the heat) before. It may, in fact, be Triumph's answer to the electrically heated seat.
That said, did you like the riding position (I'm 6'1" and shrinking)? Because, like what you did, I can always insulate and recover it. I like the look of the tapered pillion gel model, rather than the stock touring seat, which seems to be tapered in the wrong direction.
If mucho mile munching is your deal and you have a skinny Irish arse like me!!!!...Get an AirHawk and achieve Nirvana.
Hope this helps.........
Gary
*LOL* I donno if my arse is skinny, but it's 3rd generation Irish-American. Maybe Americans sit on their asses more than the Irish, so they don't mind it as much...or maybe it's just the natural progression of evolution. ;-)
Ah, the Airhawk. My best friend bought one of those for his Multistrada. His wife liked it so much she stole it from him for use on her scooter. Got a photo of your Airhawk on your R3 you can share?
Much obliged for the shout and the info!
-Phil