My fugly RDL Tractor Seats have arrived...

Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum

Help Support Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Top_Speed1

Panama Canal Crosser
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
3,258
Reaction score
669
Location
Finger Lakes, NY
First off, I knew they would be fugly, I've seen everyone else's at meets etc. So... I kept my GT-Sports OEM Leather seats as my everyday set of seats knowing prior of the aesthetics of a Russell Day Long Seat. After all, it's comfort as the main goal for this set of seats.

As I pulled the land barge out of the garage yesterday (for these pics) and w still snow piled about 10ft high around here, my neighbor out shoveling his walk gave me quite the stare ;) (he knows I'm crazy tho)

RDL3_zpsixv6cpzc.jpg


RDL2_zpslile9vqt.jpg


RDL1_zpslufprqzw.jpg


So I'll pop these fugly seats on for my LD stuff only. My G/F Debbie says they're disgusting and I ruined one sexy *** bike. Oh well, she doesn't ride w me on the LD rides anyways and it's my arse that I'm concerned about here. You guys all know, sacrifice the looks for comfort.

Here's my bill and build info:

Purchase another set of seats for the build $700

Full Blk Leather, in half moon; Code LTH/BLK/HM $765

Driver HD Suspension $38.25

Retain F&R Factory Heat $50.00

Return Shipping $68.00

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

For a HS! Grand Total of: $1621.25

If Debbie found this out? I'm Done! ....hobbies ;)

 
Did you buy brand new seats and send them to RDL for rebuild ? $700, yikes !

 
I do the same KJ. For running around and short day rides. I go with the stock seats, for the multi-day trips, I pop on the RDL's. The RDL's put me on the balls of my feet making shoving the bike around a chore. Not a big deal when your sitting there for hour and hours. But a pain in the butt when your on and off the bike all day.

 
Did you buy brand new seats and send them to RDL for rebuild ? $700, yikes !
No, they were from a 2013 GT. Expensive yes, but they are both factory heated OEM, and, RDL retained that (with a small fee of course). Not sure why I wanted to keep that feature as "I" haven't used it once w my OEM seats. Debbie has used her rear heated seat a couple of times, but, she gets cold way easier than myself.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The tractor seats compared to stock seats -- you are going to love the difference. Me no like the OEM K1600 seats *at all*. Riding >2.5k miles in <2 wks on a K1600 qualifies me to make this judgement. The only reason I was able to grind out the seat was by riding with the seat in the fully up position until I couldn't stand it any more, then putting the seat down position until I couldn't stand it any more. Repeat, repeat, and repeat again, all day alternating the pain points. This may be a trend though, I had the same comfort experience on a stock K1300 too.

 
The tractor seats compared to stock seats -- you are going to love the difference. Me no like the OEM K1600 seats *at all*. Riding >2.5k miles in <2 wks on a K1600 qualifies me to make this judgement. The only reason I was able to grind out the seat was by riding with the seat in the fully up position until I couldn't stand it any more, then putting the seat down position until I couldn't stand it any more. Repeat, repeat, and repeat again, all day alternating the pain points. This may be a trend though, I had the same comfort experience on a stock K1300 too.
You may be correct with the regular GT seats, mine are GT-Sport seats and I have to say they are pretty comfy. Here's some comparison...

With my FJR OEM, I could do ~300mi days until discomfort set in.

With my GT-Sport seats, this easily went up to 400 to almost 500mi days. This past summer I did several consecutive days of 500 or more on the Sport seats with way better results than I had with my FJR OEM seats.

My FJR, I only did 10,000 in 2 years, mainly because I didn't have the comfort level.

My GT-Sport? well, in 1 year I did over 12,000 so I more than doubled my FJR riding, mainly b/c it was so much more comfortable of a ride. This may hold water to my frame and body and not yours as well. It's like a good pair of shoes one once said, one kind does not fit all. ;)

So now with these new Tractor Seats? I'm hoping to be able to do the same jump I've seen from my FJR to the GTS, so hoping 600-700mi days will be had with comfort?.... maybe more, TWT.

 
Good lord KJ, your *** that big? At least when your on the bike folks won't see what a lard *** you have. Hugs and kisses https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//public/style_emoticons/default/****.gif

 
Last edited by a moderator:
On my previous bike I could do 200 miles before the discomfort started, on the stock seat.

Adding an AirHawk and a decent sheepskin upped that to between 4 and 500 miles.

Changing to the Russell was a revelation. First ride out was over 800 miles and while my hips and knees still felt it, I completely forgot about the seat I was riding.

The last decent ride on the FJR was 2990 miles in four days .... never thought about the seat once.

So forgive me, that seat looks beautiful to me :D

 
On my previous bike I could do 200 miles before the discomfort started, on the stock seat.
Adding an AirHawk and a decent sheepskin upped that to between 4 and 500 miles.

Changing to the Russell was a revelation. First ride out was over 800 miles and while my hips and knees still felt it, I completely forgot about the seat I was riding.

The last decent ride on the FJR was 2990 miles in four days .... never thought about the seat once.

So forgive me, that seat looks beautiful to me
biggrin.png

I also consider my RDL seats a thing of beauty. My 72 day ride last fall ( 17,727 miles) was an amazing adventure partly due to the ZERO discomfort on my seat.

 
Guess I'm in the minority. The looks kill it for me, reminds me of the seat on Grandma's 3 wheel bicycle.

I do get the comfort thing though, which outweighs the looks....for most.

 
After the many miles on the RDL I could give two ***** what it looks like! The heat is also a a huge plus. Nothing like warming the blood going through your glutes to keep your core warm!

 
Well at least LKLD thinks like myself ;)

As they may be all that in practicality, they just ain't all that in the looks dept. Maybe after I ride on it for a few thousand, I may join the "it looks beautiful" club. Butt for now..... fugly!

 
I'm still intrigued by the Large Barge K1600....

Glad you got some new seats from RDL albeit quite spendy....

Hope you enjoy them on those long rides sir.... Ms Debbie will get over the looks / comfort tradeoff....

 
Top