I am considering replacing my stock Scout seat with a solo bobber, tractor, spring or whatever you want to call them. I like the looks of the coiled springs and the general looks of the seats, but for those of us who were not endowed with sufficient natural padding, comfort is still the issue. Not many long rides, but a few that are a couple of hours. Would love to hear advice from Bro's and Sis's on the site about these seats. Comfortable enough for longer rides? Coil springs in rear, vs single spring in front? I will read em all, before I go shopping. Thanks in advance.
The cushion of the seat has little effect on comfort, believe it or not. The shape of the seat is everything. As an owner of a 1938 John Deere, I can assure you a seat can be all day comfortable with no cushion at all! I currently have the Indian 1920 seat installed, and it is by far the most comfortable seat I have had on my Scout. (Stock, Mustang and now the Tractor) Most thick cushion seats are too soft. Feel great on the showroom floor, but once you sink into them they apply uneven pressure, and allow no cooling air beneath your butt. You want a wide firm seat dished to the proper shape for even support and air flow. We also set too low on most bikes now. For max comfort you need to have your knees lower than a horizontal line from your hip socket, with your feet at or behind a vertical line from your hands. This places your spine in a natural bend, for all day comfort.
Thanks @Drydock . That's good info. Never gave much thought to what the actual riding position was. Just went with comfortable or not. I like the looks of the 1920 Scout seat. Just wasn't sure about some of the particulars, the way the spring was set up. Appreciate the information.
I agree Buddy. I have recently modified my stock Scout seat, not with nice soft cushy stuff but to make it wider. In its standard form it does not support those butt bones and that can create all sorts of problems. I sat on a Scout Sixty the bike shop had dressed up with the Solid mount Indian seát. From memory it was three inches wider than mine and the difference in comfort and support was noticeably immediately. Yes, it is dear but boy, it was sweet to sit on. I rode an Octane for 45 minutes around town and that too bad a comfortable seat and yes, it is wider than the stock Scout seat. And if you were wondering if the Octane seat will fit the Scout? No, it doesn't,..... I agree with Drydock, you could fit a metal seat with no covering whatever and so long as it was wide enough to provide support, you could ride in comfort from now till doomsday, cold weather expected of course Alpal One last thing. The mod I did to the stock seat? Went out on a 200 mile ride last weekend with the guys and had no sore butt problems whatever. Prior to that I would be doing the seat shuffling thing after about 30 miles. TTFN
FYI the 1920 seat is NOT a spring mount seat. It uses a solid cast aluminum mount. For all that it feels great, and moves the center of balance of the bike forward, more evenly splitting your weight between the front and rear suspension. IE I think (IMHO again) that it makes the bike ride and handle better.
^That^ I am running the Mother Road Customs spring seat and I really like it. I put in a 700 mile trip and I sure did want to get out of the saddle, but it was not unbearable in the least. I do not have anything in the way of rear end padding by way of genes, and I wanted the thinnest pad available from Mother Road. If you are going for the look, I would definitely give them a look see.
I have the standard seat, and the extended reach seat. Of the two, the extended reach rides a bit better for me, but after two hours, I pretty much HAVE to take a break. Would someone please measure the width of the 1920 Solo Saddle? I hate like heck to spend another $380 and find little improvement! I might add that I weigh in around 280 lbs.
The tractor seat will set you up higher and more forward with about the same amount of width. Mother road seats are 16" or less in width, but can be spring mounted. The OEM tractor has no springs. I have a 16" mother road seat on my Honda Phantom and I weigh 255#'s and it can get miserable on a trip for someone our size. I have searched for an 18" to 20" wide seat with the old time seat anatomically correct contours and they don't seem to exist anymore. Someone could come forward with a proper spring loaded seat and make a fortune! Everything anyone makes is made for little tweezer ass people. They act like plus size people don't exist either! I don't want a piece of butt floss to ride on, I want a real seat.......
I've got the tractor seat on my Scout. I've done a bit over 400 miles in a day with no issues. The fuel tank on the Scout is so small that the seat won't often be the limiting factor. You have to get off the bike to get gas every couple of hours. I think the seat would be a bit more comfortable if it were bigger. I am impressed with the solid mounting kit. This thing is well built.
Which tractor seat? The Mother Roads, or the Indian Solo Saddle? I'm leaning strongly toward the Mother Roads - seems to be heavier duty, and sprung. Amazon says the weight of the 1920 Solo Saddle is 3 pounds. I'd worry about a catastrophic failure with my 280# sitting on it, especially knowing what the first part of me to hit the break point will be...
CORRECTION!! MY BAD! I went down to my Indian dealer, and took a good look at the solo saddle. It weighs a whole lot more than 3 pounds, and is indeed robust! The pan appears to be about 10 gauge steel. Width is right at 15", over 2" wider than my current extended reach seat. It gives broad support across your entire butt. And it is about $150 less expensive than the Mother Road seat. Since I'm not made out of $$, I'll most likely pick one up this weekend and give it a try. I have no idea where Amazon came up with 3 lbs shipping weight, and I'm truly sorry for my misinformation.
I'd think that a spring seat with rear suspension would screw up the dynamics...static sag/rider sag and all that, but then again, the springs are pushing down just as hard as they're pushing up, so I'm probably at least partly wrong
I wend down to the local dealer and bought the solo seat, with the understanding I would not mount it, but would put it on a stool and try to sit on it for a TV movie. Unfortunately, I could only last about 20 minutes before I simply HAD to get up! My broad butt and 280# just don't work right with it. I took it back. To reiterate my earlier post, the solo seat is quite heavy, and very well built. I would not worry about it breaking, even with my bulk on it. Also, since you are constantly moving at least a bit on the saddle, it might work out OK on a long trip. I just did not want to invest about $400 in finding that out. So at the end of the day, I'm having the local upholstery shop put heavier foam into my extended reach seat next week. I'll post again after I've tried it out. I'm taking a round Spokane, WA to Mexico trip in July. I hope I'll still be able to walk...
I ended up with the Indian Solo 1920 Seat. I had my doubts, at first, unitl I had to work on some wires in the battery area and remounted it. It was only then that I realized I had not mounted it exactly right. You'd think it was simple, but I can mange to make simple, very complicated. Once I had it right, I found it to be very comfortable and I love it for my 6' 230# bod. @Jpeters , I know you weren't asking me, but since I had asked the earlier question at the top, I thought I would put in my 2 cents.
Glad it’s working for you. I’ve been using tractor seats for years as a way to get some extra leg room. I currently have three that rotate depending on what kind of riding I’ll be doing. I use a Mother Road Customs mount and have modified two Harley seats to work with it. The late model Harley Cop seat is by far the most comfortable and I use it for ball buster Long distance rides. My -25 Harley Police is my normal seat and works well for day trips. I have an AirHawk seat pad I’ll use with it if I anticipate being on it for most of the day just because as I age, I’m not nearly as tough as I once was. The Mother Road is the best looking of the three and the least comfortable for me. Anything over about 40 miles and I’m ready to get off of it. The AirHawk pretty much lives on it when it’s on the bike.
When I was in Mexico my nephew told me to get a BACKJOY. It is a flexible, flimsy piece of plastic shaped something like a tractor seat, about the size of the stock seat. He said he bought his at Target. I ended up ordering it from either eBay or Amazon, and got it in San Francisco. Prior to the BACKJOY my longest day was about 350 miles. At about 50 miles on a tank of gas, I was starting to feel my butt. By 80 miles I was on fire. Somewhere around 100 miles I simply had to stop and walk for a while. I got the BACKJOY and strapped it on my extended reach seat with bungee cords through holes in the thing. That first day with it I put on over 700 miles!! I quit because I was too tired to keep going, not because I was sore. When I got back to Spokane I had an upholstery shop build the BACKJOY onto the extended reach seat frame. Cost about $250? Well worth it! It took them three trials to get the foam right (on the hard side). It could still be just an inch lower, but my isn't Since then I've done half a dozen 300 and 400 mile runs with no discomfort. The BACKJOY costs about $30. Get one and strap it on- not a lot to lose if you don't like it