There are many things that I like about my 2020 Tracer 900GT, and a few things that I don’t, it’s built to a budget so I should expect a few gripes. What I hadn’t considered however was that a ‘Sports Tourer’ would be fitted with a seat that is so unsuitable for touring……what were Yamaha thinking? After about an hour of riding my arse felt like it had “taken more of a pounding than a Bangkok Ladyboy” and was screaming for it to stop.
if you are happy with the seat, then good for you, this post will probably be of no interest.
I tried an ‘Airhawk’ pad on a recent 800 mile tour, it helped but it is also quite slippy and caused ‘Mr Tompkinson and the twins’ to say hello to the tank every time I braked, especially at traffic lights, and my deep, dark voice turned into a boy soprano as I uttered expletives at Mr Yamaha’s incompetence.
Anyway, problem solved, I took my seat to my local upholsterer who is a biker herself, and she has added new base foam and memory foam, made a new cover for my seat with a faux suede top (very grippy, no more sliding) and has added some double diamond stitching in a nice blue that matches my paintwork, the difference in comfort between my newly upholstered saddle and the stock Yamaha piece of junk is ‘night and day’.
scores on the doors out of 10; Yamaha Stock Seat = 2 AirHawk Pad = 7 Upholstered Seat with Memory Foam = 9