Man I'm concerned. After having my saddle since January 15th Russel Day-Long finally got it delivered to me today 80 days after it left my home. Almost close for on-time delivery from the quoted 21-30 days. The scary part is it took about 8 minutes to get the seat on the bike and then the fit to the bike was NOT IMPRESSIVE. I must have at least a 1/2" gap on both sides of the front of the seat around the tank. Secondly, being 6'3" I like using the whole drive saddle, well they lost about 1.5"-2.0" in seat length by creating the saddle appearance and feel. I know I need to get 300-500 miles on the bike before I judge what the future holds, but first impressions are not good. And thinking of them re-working it, ( at their pace) is very concerning since riding season is upon us in Minnesota. Anyone else get concerned when you first got your Russell? Turkeyman
Welcome to the club, t-man...I got a brand new russell for my RT sitting upside-down on my GS right now.
I bit and ordered a sargent saddle. They've got a 30 day return policy and you don't have to send them your seat. So while their elves are busy building my seat I still get to ride. One thing that caught my eye was the 1/2" lower than stock claim on their web site. It might help since dished seats usually seem to put you a little higher than stock. They let me slide on the april 1st cutoff for the discount so for 294.93 (shipping included) how can I loose. So Fish, do tell. What was wrong with your russell.
Too much foam under my nuts. Not as bad as cactus needles, but not very comfy. Plus it's too low. I would have liked another 1" higher and 1" further back. Nothing wrong with it, per se, just doesn't fit me. Kinda makes me wonder why they ask for photos. On the other hand, the Russell on my GS is great and has 11K miles on it so far. Why couldn't they just do that on the RT pan??
Killen, Here's how mine looks. As you can see in picture #1, there is a bit of a gap between the seat and the tank: However, the gap shows up a bit more in pic #2. What minimizes it for me is that the tank bag flap attachment has a sticky foam piece that is glued onto the tank just below where the seat meets the tank. You can't see it in this picture, but even though there looks to be a greater space, I can barely slide this ruler in between the seat and the foam thing: Here's a shot from the top (#3) so you can compare: As I said in some other, forgotten post, the biggest problem I had with Russell was their longer-than-expected build and ship times. I was over by 1-1/2 months! Anyways, let us know how the new saddle feels and if you need any more info. Oh yeah, the rat-trap is to keep the POS fukkin KAT off the new saddle. I don't even have to set it anymore...one good *snap* did it for him for life. Works like a charm. Marc
Yup. Thems those new Wunderlich verholens. Extra especial. Hand made by elves in the black forest... BTW, see that scratch / wear mark on the front left of my new Russell? It's were the damn clip for my heated vest wore through the leather while I was riding. It just slid down there between my leg and the seat and ate clean through the fucker. Shit. Guess it's mine now...
As opposed to... hey, that new mapsource hosed my computer and wouldn't write to the card. Should I have removed the older version first? The new maps are waaay bloated too. I had to uninstall the new, reinstall the old and it worked. 50 map limit on streetpilot. For about the same coverage, the old mapsource had about 9 maps (here to utah), where the new one has about 57. wtf?
I didn't. Just installed over the old version and it worked. Hmmm... I did this on my desktop (Win2K) and laptop (Win2K) and both worked fine. ??? Edit -> Preferences -> Transfer -> Check "Reduce map size by removing route calculation..." Saved me a lot of space. One of the reasons I got rid of my old StreetPilot. Lemme know how many you get when you check out the option above. Marc
cool. it's gonna have to wait until I get back, cuz the maps are loaded and I don't wanna lose 'em. Saddlebags are loaded too. Got the tent/kermit squared away and on the rack. Middle section to tankbag has been applied with lots and lots of room in it. Radio box holds four bottles of crystal geyser water. Tank is full, oil's up, pressures are spot-on. New GS mirrors installed. Replaced the parabellum with the bmw tall screen. Just have to do clothes and I'm outta here. And I ain't goin' nowhere near the TBs
70 miles later on after my first ride on the Russell I have fewer concerns than before. The seat position feels pretty good but the saddle itself is asymetrical right now. The left side is lower than the right side. Maybe this will adjust in the next 430 miles. Russell said..."you'll need to give us an up-date after the first 500 miles".............. Turkeyman
I have had the new Sargent saddle on my GS for about 100 miles now. Not long enough to see how it will feel after a long day in the saddle. The construction is beautiful. Light weight with the carbon fiber pan, and fits like a custom glove in either the low or high position. It is about 1/2 inch lower in each of those positions than the original. In the high position, I seem to be able to move around to find more places to sit to shift my load(actually, shift the angle of my back) during a ride. It is a little wider than stock. My pillion likes it better so far too. I put on their back rest, and like it too, but would like any ideas for ways to make it easy on/off rather than bolted on all the time. So far, a winner.
Killen, our seats must have been sitting next to each other at Russell, growing old together. I sent my seat off to them January 2nd, and got it back yesterday as well. When I called them around March 1st, they said they were running 2 to 3 weeks behind, because of the move. It was more like 4 to 5 weeks instead. When I first opened the box, I was quite happy with what I saw. But when I installed it on my R1100GS, egad.. There is about 3/4 of an inch gap all around the tank. Hopefully, after a few hundred miles it will form a little closer to it. When I got on the sucker, the first thing I noticed was WOW, great leg room. Then I thought, yikes, I cant even touch the ground with my toes, when shes on the center stand.. Im not exactly tiny at 6'2", and a 34" inseam. I dropped her down to the lower position, and it helped things out a little bit. I too, thought I was sitting a little more forward than I would like to. Ill have to put some miles on her, and my ass, to see how things will line up, before I make my final decision. But after reading all I could on the newsgroups, and elsewhere, I was expecting something akin to a Barkalounger for five and a half big ones (front seat only). Only time will tell, but so far not impressed in the least. Kenny Jay 95 R1100GS
Ditto for me: just got my Sargent as well. Need more time to tell if this is for me and my butt. Initial observation is that I slide out of the pocket into the forward part of the seat when I brake hard. Wondering if I should put washers under the front of the seat frame to tip it back. Big improvement over stock although you sit just a touch lower ( 6'4").