Passenger backrest pushing wife forward.

[TravelNMan]

We purchased a new 2014 RT earlier this year and my wife complains that her backrest pushes high in the middle of her back and makes her feel she is leaning forward. Has anyone else had this problem? We have the stock OEM seat and wondered if the Ultimate or Corbin seat/backrest would help.

 

[Cruzr Joe]

just a suggestion .............. she may be sitting back too far, tell her to try sitting forward a little bit.


Cruzr Joe

 

[900Dave]

We also have the OEM backrest on our 13 ST and my wife really likes it. She has never complained. That is with the OEM seat. I upgraded the seat a week ago and installed an Ultimate seat. She now likes the new seat a lot more but made no mention of the backrest so it must be good. The backrest is adjusted as far back as it will go.

I agree with Cruzr Joe, maybe slide up a little on the seat.

 

[Bob Denman]

Ultimate sells a passenger backrest, that is a bit more scalloped-out. It might lean her back just enough... :thumbup:

 

[Chupaca]

As I see it..!!

the RT's have the built in backrest. If seating position dosen't help you could have it re worked at a custom car shop. Most aftermarket seats are pricy. If possible have the wife sit on others and see if they work better. I do know the comfort seat on our RS helped the passenger seating a great deal. Put her up higher and sitting upright rather than leaning forward. May be the same on the RT...:dontknow:

 

[finless]

My wife complains of the same thing. But the reason is after I added the BRP comfort seat and driver backrest, hew rear end now cannot be as forward as it was and makes her sit more upright.

On my list is to remove the backrest (5 screws) and take it to a local car upholstery shop here in Santa Ana, Ca. and have them reduce the thickness while trying to keep the same curvature thus still looking good on the Spyder.

I will let you know how that works out.

Bob

 

[wiredgeorge]

My wife found the backrest forces her too upright as well. I called MotorcycleDave of motorcycledave.com and asked him if he could mod the backrest and sent pics of what I though would help. He said he could but to first try and remove the bottom screw that retain the backrest and try putting something along the bottom to set the bottom out farther to give the backrest a bit of a rear sloping. I firstfolded up a small and thin old bat towel and placed it across the very bottom. The towel moved the bottom out about an inch and a half I guess. I then decided to space the seat out with a piece of wood. The wood sits in back of the hard plastic seat backing so it isn't felt. I cut off a 1x4 at about 1" and drilled a 1/4" hole though it and used the bottom bolt position to hold it (M6 bolt). You can't get the bolt too long as it would push the seat material as it goes through the hole in the plastic back so I just bolted it to the box and decided best to not use the bottom bolt hole in the plastic seat back. My wife couldn't tell much difference so I tried about 2" of a 2x4 and she said all it felt like was that she was pushed too far forward. Back to the towel. I told her to work on her own backrest at this point as she is the only one who can feel what it feels like to her so she took a large dishtowel and folded so it was about 4" and wrapped it first in a plastic trash bag and then sealed with duct tape. She said it was pretty close to being right and I suspect she may experiment more. If we get the spacing, I may yet call MotorcycleDave and have him recut the seat back to similar depth and taper. Another thought would be for me to find a used stock seat back and pull the cover and start reshaping by adding foam and shaving foam till I get it right per my wife and then sending it to Dave for recover. I am not convinced that the towel and explanations will help him get it right without this type effort. Any wife that has sat in a COMFORTABLE rear seat backrest will immediately understand. I moved the trunk back 4" on my Goldwing and that produced the desired angle (plus more room) and we once had a Voyager XII that allowed the trunk to be adjusted and the correct backrest angle makes a huge difference in passenger comfort.

 

[OverHillAndDale]

"Ultimate sells a passenger backrest, that is a bit more scalloped-out. It might lean her back just enough... :thumbup:"

The ultimate seat backrest provides a full 1" or so of extra space. However it may be the angle, not the depth that your wife has an issue with.

 

[TravelNMan]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I may try adjusting the bottom out first and see how that does.

 

[wiredgeorge]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I may try adjusting the bottom out first and see how that does.

If that doesn't do the trick, contact MotorcycleDave. He is around here a lot and I believe is a site sponsor. He has an upholstery shop and a sense of what you are talking about already.