BAGSTER seats for GT: here's proof they exist!

[wordsmith]

Just back home a few hours ago, totally shattered both physically and mentally from a pretty testing 14-day ~4500km circuit into Far North Queensland, and back.   My second task, after greeting my wife and doggie in appropriate fashion, was to open the large parcel from motostorm.it containing my new Tracer GT seats from BAGSTER.   They arrived 22 days after ordering, pretty good I think.  Beautifully packed and protected with foam inserts, their condition is excellent after the long journey from France.   Allow me to recommend highly the service I had from motostorm.it, with no language complications and plenty of excellent communication.

I am delighted with the seats' appearance, having been very constrained in my choice of materials and colours from the extensive BAGSTER seat configerator menu.   A buyer could easily end up with a patchwork quilt-like effect - or Joseph's coat of many colours - if selecting too many different materials and colours, but on the other hand - why not if that grabs you?   The Baltic Blue stitching and piping is a pretty good match to the blurple wheels - as far as I can tell for they are filthy! - and the overall effect oozes quality.

Both seats were an easy fit onto the bike, rock-solid and no side-to-side rocking, with no unsightly gaps anywhere.   The pix below show the rider seat in the higher of two positions.   It feels comfy!    But time will tell how it performs, for I am not ready yet for even a short test-ride, but as I have had BAGSTER seats previously I know it will be a major step forward in the comfort stakes.   FYI - width of the rider seat across its widest part is 34.5cm or 13.5".   I have an impression that the two new seats are fractionally heavier than the stock ones, whatever that may imply.   

More later - much later - after I have recovered and tested the new seat; and a trip tale may be coming up too. 

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by wordsmith

[flyfifer]

I look forward to episode Two when you feel inclined to do a full day out on your new Bagster seat.

The fit does look good and your comments are all positive for sure.

 

[nhchris]

Beautiful looking accessory Wordy.  What did they cost?

And congrats on a monster ride!  You're the best!

cb

[betoney]

@wordsmith - First off, congratulations on your 14 day trip!  Please share a ride report when you get the time to relax for a bit.  (looking forward to a few words on how the K-Tech parts performed).

Again, praise to Bagster for building a top quality seat, BEAUTIFUL fit and finish! 

Isn't that always how it goes? you get the seat in the mail AFTER returning from the 14 day trip?  It sounds like you need another road trip to break-in the new seat... 😎

[roadrash83]

@wordsmith --Your Bagster seat looks awesome the best looking seat I have seen yet. To bad you didn't have it on the GT for your trip. Looking forward to hearing your review of the seat!

[Wintersdark]

Ooooh definitely interested in this!  I saw those custom (Terry?) seats, which looked comfy but IMHO look really out of place on the bike.  This seat looks much more "made for the Tracer" vs a cruiser seat stuck on it.  

14 days riding is a *lot* though, even if at a relatively tame km/day amount. That's gotta take a lot out of you.  Hell, my 5 day trips leave me pretty much done for a couple days afterwards.

[wordsmith]

Thank you, guys - yes, it certainly has taken a lot out of this 80 yo bod!   But just FYI, it wasn't a straight 14 days as I had, as planned, a cuppla days off the bike in each of two locations to rest and refresh and enjoy some R&R.   The seat actually arrived while I was away, and while it would definitely have been very nice to have had it fitted for the trip, it was not to be.   As it was the K-tech stuff did a really good job - but I'll save all that for later...   I left my camera at the last motel I stayed in, so have as yet no pix to accompany any words, but happily the motel owner found it and it's to be mailed to me within a day or two. Whew!

[kingfisher]

The seats look great, will look forward to your review when available. I'm especially interested in whether or not the foreword slope present with the stock seat has been resolved. Take some time to recuperate from your travels. Sounds like a good trip.

[johnmark101]

Include me in with those awaiting your ride review of the Bagster seat.  After the fiasco with the Sargent seat I am very interested!!  I looks great on the bike.

[dazzler24]

Welcome home and I too am looking forward to your adventure write up.

[wordsmith]

3 hours ago, kingfisher said:

The seats look great, will look forward to your review when available. I'm especially interested in whether or not the foreword slope present with the stock seat has been resolved. Take some time to recuperate from your travels. Sounds like a good trip.

I, too, was interested in this 'forward slope' issue, even though I have never felt on the GT that I was being carried forward into that crushed-nuts position (or indeed on my previous Gen1 Tracers).   Here's a worm's eye-view pic courtesy of Mrs Wordsmith's camera of the two seats side-by-side, BAGSTER seat on left: stock GT seat on right: make of it what you will.   Of course I'll be riding on the bike and not on my dining-table when next out, but I'll give an opinion then, tho' it's gonna be a few days before I get out next.   

Incidentally, my guess that the BAGSTER seats are a little heavier than the stock GT seats is correct - OE front weighing about 1270g, BAGSTER front about 1770g: OE rear about 1000g, BAGSTER rear about 1250g.   Again, make of it what you will.   

I was thinking about the GT's stock seat while riding recently and having plenty of time to analyse things in-between dodging kangaroos and cows...   The GT stock seat is, of course,  a useful improvement over the Gen1 Tracer seats, which looked - and felt - like a sack of flour wrapped in a tawdry bit of black plastic.   The GT stock seat is certainly much better-looking than the Gen1 versions, and feels rather more comfortable too, in fact over the recent ~4500km travel over some very ordinary roads it felt perfectly acceptable to my bony butt.   But it seems to lack something, and I came to the conclusion that the foam is maybe not thick or firm enough.   

Sure, it responds encouragingly to the old trusty 'press-of-the-thumb' test, feeling not too firm, not too soft.   But my fairly light fully-kitted 85kg weight (about 170 pounds) seems to allow the stock seat no further 'give' or compressibility (if that's an allowable word).   I fully recall with previous BAGSTER seats that they seemed to have an almost infinite amount of 'give' so that I never 'bottomed-out' (apt phrase!) onto the seat-pan or base.   On that point, the second pic below is of the custom BAGSTER seat-pan  underside (on left), and the stock GT seat-pan underside on right.   Clearly, BAGSTER did not take any shortcuts.

 

 

[kingfisher]

Thank you, very interesting. Will look foreward to further updates.

[wordsmith]

5 hours ago, dazzler24 said:

Welcome home and I too am looking forward to your adventure write up.

The write-up has been written-up in the appropriate Forum Thread 'Ride Reports' and is titled 'Travelling North again', with a few archive pix of mine from earlier trips up that way while I await the return of my left-behind camera and its more recent pix.... aaarrrggghhhhh!

Edited October 30, 2019 by wordsmith

[OLD DVB]

From the info available in the UK, the seat you have is a "Ready Luxe" which I think has a gel component.  Can you confirm?From your side shots, it looks flatter than the Yamaha one which is exactly what is needed to help the downward slope problem which I find quite severe.  Severe enough for me to try some extra foam under the centre/front of the air bag on my Air Hawk seat which has the same effect of levelling the seat and almost completely cures the crushed nuts syndrome while managing to look like crap!  I've never been happy with the feeling of riding the air seat so your experience of riding the Bagster seat is eagerly awaited as I think it may be the one for me but it is so expensive I need to be sure.. 

[wordsmith]

8 hours ago, OLD DVB said:

From the info available in the UK, the seat you have is a "Ready Luxe" which I think has a gel component.  Can you confirm?From your side shots, it looks flatter than the Yamaha one which is exactly what is needed to help the downward slope problem which I find quite severe.  Severe enough for me to try some extra foam under the centre/front of the air bag on my Air Hawk seat which has the same effect of levelling the seat and almost completely cures the crushed nuts syndrome while managing to look like crap!  I've never been happy with the feeling of riding the air seat so your experience of riding the Bagster seat is eagerly awaited as I think it may be the one for me but it is so expensive I need to be sure.. 

There is NO gel in my seat, nor I believe (but am not the guru here, you should ask BAGSTER direct) in any of their off-the-shelf seats such as you mention.   But visually it is definitely flatter than the stock GT seat.   I too had an Air-Hawk accessory on a past Triumph Tiger Sport SE - very briefly - and hated it!   Got my money back...  

The BAGSTER seat configerator has a 'tick-this-box' option to order gel, so it would seem that it is indeed available, no doubt at extra cost (as indeed is a heated function) - see screen-shot below.   But to be 100% sure of all standard inclusions and/or options you should contact BAGSTER direct, I'd suggest.   

I am still, alas, not yet ready to go out on the new seat as we are experiencing some welcome rain, but more significantly I'm suffering greatly from a return of a long-standing shoulder problem, bursitis, which makes it extremely painful for me to handle a bike, or indeed anything else of any weight.   I may have to seek further medical treatment, as in the past.   It has always been induced by long distance and consecutive days in the saddle, sadly for my touring preferences.

 

Edited November 2, 2019 by wordsmith