Super Tenere – BMS Review/Testimonial
Rode over to Ojai this morning to have a ‘seat-fitting’ done by Bill Mayer saddles (BMS). Of course I had to leave right after the big storm this weekend and I caught the tail-end of it …40-50mph winds and bitterly cold. Found some issues with my Gerbings, but that’s another story.
Left home at 4:30am and arrived in Ojai at 7:45. Met at the door by Adrian and promptly got to work.
First thing they had me do was roll the bike into a front wheel stand and observe how I was sitting on the seat/bike and if I was sitting to forward, backward etc. Since I did the seat-tilt fix with the reduced seat-height rubber bumpers, Adrian had me replace them with the stock ones (I brought them with me, just in case) so he could fix the seat tilt with the foam shape. He said BMW’s have the same issue with the seat tilt. They also wanted to know what type of riding I was going to do, street only, street & dirt, etc…this would help determine how they shaped the seat – as you stand and tend to use body english when riding off-road so the seat must no get in the way of this.
First thing Adrian did was remove the cover and stock foam from the seat pan. He then re-glued the foam to the set pan to make sure the foam was correctly adhered to the pan. He then really trimmed down the stock foam to act as a base for their special pre-formed seat foam. They have many different density foams to use based upon your riding weight. They bonded this to what was left of the stock foam and then used what looked like a right-angle carving knife to start trimming the seat foam. Watching them work was amazing, they make it look so easy.
After the initial trimming we did a trial fitting on the bike to see how it fit and I fit, especially how level the seating position was. They looked, made mental notes and went to work. Some more trimming, sanding, shaping, bonding of some different density foam and it was ready for the first test spin. 20 minutes later I was back and told them how it felt. At first it felt great but within about 10 minutes after the ‘newness’ wore off I started to tell what felt right and what did not. Adrian made some adjustments, I thought he was not removing enough foam as it was just a sliver here & there. 15 minutes later I was back out for another 20 minute ride. Wow. What a change. I could not believe that such a seemingly little change could make such a difference, but it did.
I got back and told them it was great. Now to make the cover. I picked out all vinyl, including a basket-weave top which might have been a mistake, as the seat is a bit ‘slippery’ compared to the gripper cover that comes on the bike. They also had the gripper material.
In no time they had the covers made and fitted. I had a passenger seat re-covered to match.
I was out the door a bit over 3 hours later. The 200 mile ride home was uneventful. Meaning no seat/butt burn, un-comfort, no nothing.
I’m happy.
