Sargent Cycles Custom Seat

[Badbob]

I have a front and rear seat at Sargent Cycles getting a make over right now. I've been using an AirHawk for more than six months and finally decided that the AirHawk was just too inconvenient. I plan to post a full review. I know that lots of GA250 riders have trouble with the GZ250 seat.

The stock foam flattens out real quick and your sitting on the seat pan. Cruisers have a very poor riding position and even with the best seat some people still have issues. It is my hope that the Sargent custom seat will not only solve the last of my seat problems but will also help other GZ250 riders who have similar problems. This is the first seat they have done for a GZ250 somebody has got to bleed a little to get this stuff figured out. This time its me.

Here is the Sargent Cycle URL: http://www.sargentcycle.com/

There are some interesting documents on the site about seats.

Check them out.

[Badbob]

We have worked out all the issues and I should have the new seats within a week.

I had thought I was the first one they had done but there is a GZ250 front seat just ahead of me. However, when I started the process with Sargent Cycle they had never done one before. I'm still going to have the first full set.

[Badbob]

The seats are here. Feels real good sitting on the bike in the garage. I didn't get to ride it yet. I'll post review and some photos soon as I get time to got on a long ride.

[Badbob]

I put 110 miles of city, highway, and back country roads on the new seat today. This is much better. No pain. Now my seat is not much different than sitting in my chair at work.

Comfort was greatly improved over the stock seat. Although I don't think I'm ready for an iron butt ride I think this is about as good as I'm ever going to get with GZ250.

Control and road feel are greatly enhanced. This also means I feel vibration through the seat a lot more than with the air hawk but some what less than the stock seat. I like feeling the road but not the engine vibration.

Finally I don't slide onto the tank when stopping. I'm not sure what caused this but when I put my feet down I always seemed to windup straddling the back of the gas tank. Not any more. This was unexpected.

The two inch increase in seat height worked out very well for me. Just about as close to perfect as I can imagine.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give this mod an 8.5. It's expensive as in very expensive. I subtract a whole point for this. I had a lot done including having the back seat reworked to match the front seat. If you skip the back seat and only get the super cell foam upgrade to the front seat. It will cost you a lot less. I took half a point for comfort. THe seat could be more comfortable. This is not Sargent's fault. They warn you in their documentation that there is only so much they can do with a cruiser seat to make it comfortable.

Was it worth it? I think so. It's definitely cheaper than buying a new bike that may or may not fix the problem.

How much did it cost?

Basic price, seats with 2pc plastic base pan. 109.95
Color welt $20.00
Widen & scallop rear. $25.00
Superrcell foam, widen and dish front only $175.00
Install Supercell foam, rear $40.00
Increase height, front 2 " in addition to S/C widen and dish, front. $25.00
Special discount. (Nov Discount 2006) -25.00% -$98.74
UPS Ground Service 0.00
Subtotal $296.21
Tax (FL-LEON 7.5%) $22.21
Total $318.42

Plus The cost of the seats I purchased off ebay so I would not need to give up my bike for four to six weeks.

[BadMojo]

Great post, I was wondering how much $$ it would cost for one of those critters.

[Badbob]

Originally Posted by BadMojo

Great post, I was wondering how much $$ it would cost for one of those critters.

Here is what you do:
1. Go to this link and read all the documentation so you will understand what they can do: http://www.sargentcycle.com/custserv.htm
2. Call and talk to Bill in custom seats. 800.749.7328. He will help you figure it all out but you need to read the docs first so you can ask intelligent questions.
3. Do some testing with towels and duct tape. To test your ideas. Use good quality duct tape or ridng gear you don't care about. I got goo all over the back of my pants.
4. Call again and run what you want to do by Bill to see if it is feasible. So things they can't do. For example they can't make one seat out of two.
5. Now using their price list you can get a good estimate of what it is going to cost.

Note that they give pretty steep discounts during their slow season. When people are doing lots of riding they don't want to do without their seats for several weeks. I bought used seats and shipped them to them. For me their is no riding season. I ride year round and did not wnat to park my bike for weeks while I waited for my seat.

My seats cost $300 but I had lots of extras done and both seats.

I should have sent my sissy bar pad in as well. It looks odd having different upholstery and black welt instead of the blue the new seats have.

I have some photos but I was having some serious performance issues getting them posted. I'll get them posted later.

[Badbob]

The images thatt were linked to in this post are long gone. Here is the best photo I could find.

[Dupo]

Wow, what a difference! Looks like money well spent.

[Badbob]

New photos added.

[Bill]

My priorities are comfort before style. I don't intend to be miserable just to look good for someone else. But isn't it great when they both come together so nicely. Congratulations!
Cheers!