Hello everyone, Boo here.
Here's the short version first.
- The used G650GS high seat I bought was very hard
- When I peeled the cover off, the foam was still soft. It was the cover that had gone hard
- The cover was glued to the foam, and peeling it off took one to two hours. Holding the cutter blade upright and scraping worked best
This may sound sudden, but I think the parts where people and machines touch are really important.
Take a computer, for example: the keyboard, the mouse and the screen.
If the keyboard is the wrong size, typing becomes stressful.
And if the shape of the mouse or the speed and movement of the cursor changes, that's stressful too.
You notice it most when you use someone else's computer.
What matters most on a motorcycle seat...
On a motorcycle, those parts are the handlebar (levers, grips, bar shape and height), the seat, the footpegs and the meters.
Of these, I think the handlebar and the seat are the most important.
I've owned six motorcycles so far, and I've had the seat modified on three of them.
On two of those, the foam inside the seat was reshaped, and on the other one the foam and cover were replaced as a set.
Every one of them was more comfortable than before and my backside took longer to start hurting, so I'm glad I had them done.
Even so, I didn't think much of the seat cover. I believed the foam was what decided how comfortable a seat was.
Today's story is about how I found out I was wrong.
The G650GS has an optional high seat, and I've written before about how good it is.
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BMW G650GS High Seat vs Low Seat: Reaching the Ground at 167 cm with Short Legs
I bought a used genuine high seat for my BMW G650GS (F650GS) and compared it with the standard low seat: photos of both feet and one foot down at 167 cm, plus less soreness, less knee bend and less radiator heat.
By the way, this high seat also fits the F650GS (single-cylinder). Or rather, the F650GS high seat also fits the G650GS.
The catch is that a new high seat costs about 60,000 yen...
I bought a used seat and it was uncomfortable
Then a used high seat came up for sale cheaply, so I bought it straight away.
But when it arrived, I was surprised!
The seat had very little give. "Stiff" might be a better word for it.
You can't tell by looking, but the cover had gone hard
I decided to replace the cover myself to make it more comfortable
I thought there must be a reason it was so cheap, but it was clearly a genuine part with no signs of modification.
So I made up my mind to peel the cover off myself.
First, remove the staples
First, lift one side of each staple with a flat-blade screwdriver.
Then pull out the lifted staples with long-nose pliers.
After a lot of patient work, I finally separated the seat from the seat base.
The foam was not glued to the seat base.
The foam and the cover are glued together, so peel them apart carefully
I thought, "Now I'll find out whether it's the cover or the foam that's hard!" But then I found the cover was glued to the foam!
(Added 15 July 2024: on some model years, the cover and foam apparently aren't glued together.)
There was nothing for it, so I cut a slit in the cover and started peeling from the flatter parts of the seat.
Where your backside sits, the cover came away from the foam just by pulling on it, but...
I cut a slit in the seat cover and started peeling from wherever looked easiest
On the sides and curved areas of the seat, the cover and foam wouldn't separate without a cutter.
If you pull the cover by force, chunks of foam come away stuck to it.
At first, as in the photo, I peeled it off by slicing along the glued surface between the cover and the foam with a cutter
But where the foam gets thin, it sticks to the cover, so I ended up cutting into the foam (sorry, it's hard to explain).
After some trial and error, I found that the best way was to use the cutter like a razor: hold the blade upright against the cover and scrape it away.
This method takes a long time, though. It's a valuable high seat, so I took my time, but if anyone knows a better way, I'd be glad to hear it.
The seat cover is off
It was hard work, but I separated the cover from the foam!
Even the thin parts of the foam came off cleanly! I'm pleased!
I don't know how it's made, but there were a lot of large air bubbles in the sides of the seat.
It came off so cleanly that I'm posting lots of photos. Just for my own satisfaction!
It took about one to two hours, but I managed to separate the foam from the seat cover.
The seat was uncomfortable because the seat cover had hardened
After all that, I finally found out why the seat was hard!
It was the cover that had hardened!
The foam had a good colour and was soft when pressed with a finger. I couldn't feel any deterioration or hardening.
But the seat cover had hardened.
As you can see in the photo below, the cover has set hard in the shape it was in when I peeled it off.
The cover I removed had no give at all, like a piece of cardboard that had curled up.
The cover has set hard, staying curled up or keeping its shape. A new cover is as soft as cloth.
I don't know how this seat was used or stored.
But it seems it's possible for the seat cover to deteriorate while the foam inside stays fine.
If your seat feels hard and uncomfortable,
it may be worth suspecting the seat cover.
In some cases, simply replacing the cover could give you a comfortable seat again.