WilcoJunoHotel
New member
Getting a little burn on the lower part of my inner thighs after about 2 hours in the saddle. On my previous motorcycles I used a butt buffer on long trips that worked great.
Decided to add a gel pad to my RT mainly because I bought a set of seats from a forum member here at a low price (compared to a motorcycle seat) and thought I would try the gel pad before going the more expensive Russell Day Long seat route. Also, because I wasn't keen on having to fiddle with the butt buffer cushion at every gas stop.
Here is how it went for me. Note that I watched several YouTube videos before doing this.
Bought this gel pad that comes with smoothing foam: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KRNM1T8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And this adhesive: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MFA2EEE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Removing the seat and seat cover are pretty straightforward - just be careful removing the strut that holds the seat up because you can easily break off the little plastic nub on the seat hinge that the strut attaches to (DAMHIK).
This particular gel pad is perfectly sized for the RT seat - I didn't have to do any trimming of the gel pad. Just mark your "sit bones" on the seat foam and then lay the gel pad down to cover that area where you will likely sit for most of your riding. For me my "sit bones" were about 7-8" back from the front of the seat so I made sure that spot was well positioned so that I could move forward or backwards and still have plenty of gel cushion.
The painstaking (slow) part is cutting out the recess in the seat for the pad to fit flush. This takes a while and you will make a mess so don't do this in your den or dining room table (like I did!).
Even if you use a sharp razor knife to cut all the grid lines, you will need to smooth out the bottom and in my case I had to remove more material. I had the best results with these 2 tools:
Here is what it looks like with the pad installed but before the smoothing foam.
After the smoothing foam. Note that the foam they provided was not quite big enough even after stretching that I had to piece it together on the back and lower areas. Make sure you use a liberal amount of the spray adhesive. I only put it on the seat part but you can add it to the foam side too. The gel pad is sticky on both sides but I decided to use the adhesive in the cavity and then again on top of the gel pad and the seat itself as extra adhesion.
Putting the seat cover back on is the hardest part of this job mainly because the addition of the smoothing foam makes the seat just a little thicker. Recommend doing this in a warm room and you will require a good bit of hand and finger strength to get it back on without issues. A hair dryer will help too. I didn't have any luck with a manual stapler nor an electric stapler - the plastic seat pan is just too hard. The staples would just collapse, bend or not go in at all. So, I wound up buying a wide crown air stapler ($40) since I already have compressors. I used standard Arrow T50 1/4" leg staples. The staples that came out were 1/4" leg but they were not T50 - probably some type of smaller gage wire staple.
Here is the finished product. I haven't had a chance to ride with it yet but with warmer weather forecast for next week, I should be able to put a few hundred miles on her then.
Decided to add a gel pad to my RT mainly because I bought a set of seats from a forum member here at a low price (compared to a motorcycle seat) and thought I would try the gel pad before going the more expensive Russell Day Long seat route. Also, because I wasn't keen on having to fiddle with the butt buffer cushion at every gas stop.
Here is how it went for me. Note that I watched several YouTube videos before doing this.
Bought this gel pad that comes with smoothing foam: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KRNM1T8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And this adhesive: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MFA2EEE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Removing the seat and seat cover are pretty straightforward - just be careful removing the strut that holds the seat up because you can easily break off the little plastic nub on the seat hinge that the strut attaches to (DAMHIK).
This particular gel pad is perfectly sized for the RT seat - I didn't have to do any trimming of the gel pad. Just mark your "sit bones" on the seat foam and then lay the gel pad down to cover that area where you will likely sit for most of your riding. For me my "sit bones" were about 7-8" back from the front of the seat so I made sure that spot was well positioned so that I could move forward or backwards and still have plenty of gel cushion.
The painstaking (slow) part is cutting out the recess in the seat for the pad to fit flush. This takes a while and you will make a mess so don't do this in your den or dining room table (like I did!).
Even if you use a sharp razor knife to cut all the grid lines, you will need to smooth out the bottom and in my case I had to remove more material. I had the best results with these 2 tools:
Here is what it looks like with the pad installed but before the smoothing foam.
After the smoothing foam. Note that the foam they provided was not quite big enough even after stretching that I had to piece it together on the back and lower areas. Make sure you use a liberal amount of the spray adhesive. I only put it on the seat part but you can add it to the foam side too. The gel pad is sticky on both sides but I decided to use the adhesive in the cavity and then again on top of the gel pad and the seat itself as extra adhesion.
Putting the seat cover back on is the hardest part of this job mainly because the addition of the smoothing foam makes the seat just a little thicker. Recommend doing this in a warm room and you will require a good bit of hand and finger strength to get it back on without issues. A hair dryer will help too. I didn't have any luck with a manual stapler nor an electric stapler - the plastic seat pan is just too hard. The staples would just collapse, bend or not go in at all. So, I wound up buying a wide crown air stapler ($40) since I already have compressors. I used standard Arrow T50 1/4" leg staples. The staples that came out were 1/4" leg but they were not T50 - probably some type of smaller gage wire staple.
Here is the finished product. I haven't had a chance to ride with it yet but with warmer weather forecast for next week, I should be able to put a few hundred miles on her then.
