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OK, I am looking around for a new seat for my 05 RK Custom for the upcoming season. I have a rider backrest that I absolutely love for long trips. Do any of the aftermarket manufactureres make a really comfortable seat that will also work with a rider backrest? I have also been looking at the HD sundowner seat, and everyone seams to like that one. I just want to keep my options open. Thanks in advance.
For the money the sundowner seat is a great choice. I prefer my corbin that was on my softail but till I can get a new dual tour the sundowner will work fine. Also the sundowner will work with the factory backrest which it sounds like you already have.
Also check out Mustang http://www.mustangseats.com/
and Travelcade. http://www.saddlemen.com/
I've had them both on several of my bikes and can highly recommend either one. I've also had a couple of Corbins, but I personally don't recommend them.
I went through Corbin, Saddleman, etc... on my prior bike -- a 2003 Heritage. I settled on the Mustang because I both liked the way it looked and felt -- both for me and passenger/wife.
In July I traded the Heritage for my 2005 Ultra. I tried the Saddleman (too low for passenger) and looked into the Corbin -- but heard some negatives on how long it takes to conform to backside. Mustang looked good, but kind of pricey. That is when a friend of mine turned me on to the Russell Day Long Seats. AWESOME! They take your stock seat and, based on pictures of you on the bike, height, weight, inseam, and any other modifications you want, they build your seat for you! Check out their website at Day-Long.com
Just by way of "testimonial" -- the first weekend we had the seat on the bike, we did a 1100 mile trip in 2 days and didn't end up having any numb-butt problems. And the stock backrest works with this seat. Can't go wrong.
I can only speak for the Mustang brand, that's what is on my RK Classic and I've never had the opportunity to experience anything else. I'm very happy with the Mustang, I can literally ride all day in comfort.
I do like the styling of the stock seat and am considering having a custom seat maker replace the padding with something else and maybe add a gel pad. We'll see. For now the Mustang is great.
Funny part of my Mustang seat story is when UPS delivered it, my wife said "You paid how much for that?". After the first ride she told me whatever we paid, it was worth it. If she's happy, I'm happy.
The group with which I ride regularly has a wide variety of bikes, though not too many of them the "crotch rockets." One of the Goldwing riders is who introduced me to the Day-Long seat, and he is 6'6" and his wife is only 5'4" -- and the seat works well for both of them. The most telling, though, is a guy who rides a Kawasaki (model unknown) who was on a 3 week trip out west. He drove from Houston straight to Russell's factory/store in southern California, did their ride-in-and-wait-for-it deal, and 6 hours later was back on the road in a custom seat. He finished the 3 weeks and said he could not believe the difference it made.
When I get the seat back from Russell (slight modifications necessary due to some specific requests in the seat composition) I'm going to try to post some pix. They matched the original stitching from HD and the style is, in my opinion, quite good. But the best part is the ability to stay in the saddle all day without the tailbone burn I experienced after only about 30 minutes in the stock seat.
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