Suzuki 2 Strokes

does any one suffers this,
I always get a numb bum and some time by the time I get home it can be painfull.
still got it on my old T500 and thats well padded,
on my yam/Fazer I had gel pad fitted to the seat but that didn't work.
I last about 40/50 miles than I have to stop and get off.
my wife suffers the same.
my friend who is 70 yrs old and he can ride 150 miles in one go with out numb bum.
is it just me do others suffer the same?
I would love to go touring on a bike but suffering with numb bum puts me off.
by the time we've done 120/140 miles we've had enough.
we've even stopped a few times on the way home and got only 35 miles to go but by the time we're home the pain.
I get it not quite on my bum but between the lower cheeks of my ass and above the upper joint of my leg.
I've tried moving about on the bike but the position of my legs theres not a lot I can do about that.
I always ride with the balls of my feet on the pegs as I find thats the most comfortable position.
I did 140 miles the other day while running my new bike in.
I popped round to see a friend on the way home about 1.5 miles from home.
had a chat for about 10/15 minutes.
then I got on my bike ooh pain it felt like that I had two sharp blade in my bum area.
it took a couple of hundreds yards before my bum could settle in.
anyway do you guys have any of this problem if so what was the cure.

john

John,


Take a look at this - http://www.airhawkguy.com.au


Cheers
Paul

thanks paul. I'll look into that. john

The last time I did a long trip, I found that in my case, numbum was caused by a lack of hydration. When I would stop to refuel, if I got a drink as well the numbum would subside.
During the trip, I stopped at a bicycle shop and picked up a Camelbak. Since then, I don't have any issues any longer.
This has been my experience, YMMV.

delete

pjmcburney wrote:John,
Take a look at this - http://www.airhawkguy.com.au
Cheers
Paul

I use the Airhawk on the vintage bikes or it's too painful to travel any distance, on my cruiser I use the Mustang seat, both of these work well.

Allen(h20kettle),
What is your take on this? If anyone has experianced numb bum, it should be you.

Kevin

Just too curious.... I imagine that "numb bum" should be a bottom pain of some type, but no dictionary report a reasonable translation, so, exactly, what is it? just to extend my english knowledge.
Thank you.

Are we really talking about butt cheeks or do we mean the hip joint or nerve endings like sciatic nerve which goes down the thigh?

Sounds more like a pinched nerve or pressure in the lower vertebrae.

Standing on the balls of your feet takes the pressure off the butt cheeks and also off the lower spine or anything getting trapped or squashed down there.

Try lots of stretching before and during the ride (when you stop) and see if that helps. I'm thinking of toe touching type stretches to lengthen the muscles etc in that area.

John:
Many modern bike seats suck. Suzuki, especially, seems to think a bike seat should be an instrument of torture....at least for us older guys. My 2006 Bandit 1200 just absolutely killed me after 20-30 MINUTES !!!
You cannot tell this by just sitting on it in the showroom, either.
I had this seat redone by a local bike reupholstery gal. She sent me to her foam wholesaler, I tried sitting on about 12 different foams and then picked out the one I thought would work. She then proceeded to hack off the TOP HALF of the stock foam and replace it with the softer foam I'd chosen. She then stapled the stock cover back on.
Now I can go for a full tank (~250 km) before I start to get "twinges".

For my older bikes that WON'T/CAN'T have their saddles reworked due to my wishes for "authenticity", I've found that a thicker high class 100% cotton bath towel folded over a couple of times works as well as anything. I've used this idea for years on my older bikes. On my 1000 miler through Montana and Idaho last September I used the towel trick while riding my KZ650. Worked like a charm and I could go 3 and 4 hours at a stretch with no probs. Keeps your butt dry if you sweat a lot, too.....but the towel HAS to be 100% cotton....no synthetics.

strainer wrote:I have always related numb bum to the seat and seating position. My original GS650 which I rode across country several times never really had that great a seat. It was never really that good for any length of time. Sometimes I used a sheepskin on the seat which helped quite a bit. Changing handle bars to a lower or higher style can also help, lower bars will transfer some of the weight off your butt and into the shoulders. I still ride the 650 but find after an hour or so, my butt starts to give up, but then again, the bike and I are now 28 years older. My daily rider is an 04 DL1000, I find it to be the most comfortable bike I have ever ridden as far as having a great seat and seating position. I can sit on this bike 12-14 hours a day, 4-5 days in a row, 800 to 1300 Km's a day to scoot across Canada to visit my daughter in Victoria.

To add to Strainers comments, My daily ride is an 02 Vstrom, and I find the same comfort level with that seat. My most comfortable seat is on my 07 Duc 1000 GT. If it had a larger tank, It would be an all day ride. The secret I think is that these seats transfer a good portion of your upper body weight to your upper thighs instead of all on the butt. The Rotary seat is narrow and time limited, but the Buffalo seat is wider and seat time is improved dramatically. Its all in the thighs. Maybe all us old farts will have to graft a Goldwing seat onto our vintage beauties. Maybe not!!
Cheers. Fred

Triplerocky wrote:Just too curious.... I imagine that "numb bum" should be a bottom pain of some type, but no dictionary report a reasonable translation, so, exactly, what is it? just to extend my english knowledge.
Thank you.

sitting for long periods eg bike,it is then the bottom start to lose feeling of some sort hence numb and ache but it does become very painfull after a while.
the bottom in plain English is the bit you use when sitting down in other words your ass or arse

I must find a solution to this problem. I have a trip planned for later this year - my longest ever of my 51 years. Call it my "bucket-list" trip, but me and some very close friends are planning for 7,000 miles over 2 weeks. I am not yet sure what I'll make the trip on. The original idea was the GT750 after restoration and a vintage ride with perhaps several VJMC and friends meeting up for lunch and to join in segments of the ride, photos, and a way to meet a lot of people, but I am debating my 2003 Nomad V-Twin tourer or something with modern brakes that work when wet like a 2009 ST1300 ABS or a new '09 BMW 1300 with ABS. We'll see, the jury is still out.

I've talked with Allen several times about this. He uses something called "monkey butt' and says it works. He and his wife have come by here several times on their ST and the GT - Allen actually prefers it and says they can do 8-10 hours with just a lunch and fuel stops. 2 years ago he rode a CB350 Four from Florida to Deal Gap and back - all at 7,000 rpm!

On building torture racks and selling them - My new ZRX had a great looking seat when I saw it in the showroom. It was dipped in the front and had a slightly elevated rear perch for the passenger (forget that anyone over 18 could not use the rear pegs). 30 minutes on that bike and you would just die. The seat actually has no padding and the pan was shaped almost like the seat surface with 1" of pad between. The contour just behind the tank would crush your manhood and the bars would cramp my forearms and lower back. Looked great, performed miserably. I don't like after-market parts, but a Corbin Gunfighter and Lady seat was the first thing I bought non-stock for a bike in years. I still don't like it and have parked it with just 6,000 on the clock in 9 years. The seat only postponed the pain until you reached 1 hour away from home, just so you would have a full hour of torture on the return home.

Regards,
Gordon

For me it's more like a sore bum rather than a numb bum.

Like the poster above, I think my Ducati GT1000 is the most comfortable. A Ducati that's not a torture rack? Unheard of! Even on that bike I'm ready for a break after a couple of hours.

My GS1000 seat would be pretty good except the foam is too soft.

The worst is my T500. Its foam is totally sacked out and it feels like I'm sitting directly on the pan after about 20 minutes. Refoaming is on the todo list but there are a lot of things ahead of it.

Debby

What kind of bars on the bike?