General topics » 820mm or 840mm seat?

I have both an 820 and and 840mm seat for my 1250 and I am still torn as to which to use.

The bike came with the 840 but I felt a bit of a wally at parking speed paddling round car parks and mounting kerbs etc. So I acquired an 820mm seat and lowered the footpegs 1 cm (SW Motech). I have happily ridden a few thousand miles so far this summer with that combination (although never with panniers mounted). But two things are making me contemplate a change back to the 840:

1. I find that if I position my feet immediately in front of the pedals I can flat foot with the 840. (Of course when paddling round car parks you ideally need a bit better than that but, given the very low CG on the RS, one can quite safely halt on any road in all but the most extreme of situations i.e all but an extremely heavy camber)

2. I found with the 820 seat I preferred to ride with the suspension on MAX although I am unsure whether that really improves the excellent handling of the bike but I felt that the rebound was a bit firmer on ROAD than on other settings. That of course mean that I was almost mirroring an 840mm set to MIN or maybe AUTO

So all was well riding with the 820mm until last weekend. I rode non-stop for almost 4.5 hours diagonally across Wales to Fishguard on Friday and two spells totalling over 5 hours coming back following the coast up to near Porthmadog before striking inland across Snowdonia and then home. My backside did not like 4.5 hours in the saddle on Friday and reminded me of that on my return journey on Monday!!

So I put the 840mm back on for a round trip to Harrogate yesterday totalling circa 170 miles to give it another go. I definitely look less of a wally at parking speeds on the 820mm but on long tours hope not to spend too much time at those speeds. Fingers crossed I am heading off to Switzerland on 31st August when I hope not to do too much stop start riding and will usually drain the tank between stops. Hence giving the 840mm another go.

So, after that long introduction, to my question: Has anybody experienced much bottoming out of the suspension if set on MIN riding one up but with full luggage+? - I should add I am about 195 lbs.
My thinking is to go back to the 840mm but in stop/start traffic to swap the suspension setting to MIN and ditto when parking and mounting kerbs etc. All well and good but the trouble is you have to halt to revert to AUTO or MAX and you cannot always predict when traffic will clear so as to swap and thus may end up riding a pot-holed road still on MIN. I will live with an occasional jolt to my posterior but do not want to damage the suspension in such circumstances. So if anybody has experience of that subject I would appreciate input!

I rode with that combo (840mm and panniers) on tour last autumn but was still new to the bike at that time and thus was quite cautious and less confident at parking speeds and probably riding less fluently.

P.S. I have now clocked up over 7,000 miles in 13 months so I definitely feel at one with the bike but, as you will gather, the fine tuning continues.

Chris

When I bought my RS the Pyramid Hugger was cracked and marked. This could only have happened by bottoming out. When riding through some bumpy Fen roads I had it bottom out again and damaged the hugger further. This was in Road Solo setting. I try to avoid fen roads now and ride Road Solo Luggage or Dynamic. Not bottomed out since.
Also. I have done a post asking to swap my 790 seat for an 820. Not had much luck to date. So if you decide to stick with 840 I could be interested in buying the it off you if you want to sell.

Thank you. That is helpful. So I should pull over at first opportunity and swap settings to AUTO if I am sticking with the 840mm for touring.

I think it unlikely that I will get rid of the 820mm. If I find myself at any time doing exclusively urban riding, mounting kerbs etc it takes just moments to swap seats so that I can more adeptly deal with ultra low speed handling events. Also at the moment I ride solo. If riding with a pillion the 820mm will give both me and the pillion greater confidence! (Actually thinking back it was some riding two up this Spring that had me swapping to the 820mm and then sticking with it despite a Summer without a pillion passenger.)

Chris

Zitat von L2RKE im Beitrag #2

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When I bought my RS the Pyramid Hugger was cracked and marked. This could only have happened by bottoming out. When riding through some bumpy Fen roads I had it bottom out again and damaged the hugger further. This was in Road Solo setting. I try to avoid fen roads now and ride Road Solo Luggage or Dynamic. Not bottomed out since.
Also. I have done a post asking to swap my 790 seat for an 820. Not had much luck to date. So if you decide to stick with 840 I could be interested in buying the it off you if you want to sell.

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Zitat von Mr. 36654 im Beitrag #4

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What's the English translation of "Fen Road"?

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Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #6

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Zitat von Mr. 36654 im Beitrag #4

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Zitat von L2RKE im Beitrag #2

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When I bought my RS the Pyramid Hugger was cracked and marked. This could only have happened by bottoming out. When riding through some bumpy Fen roads I had it bottom out again and damaged the hugger further. This was in Road Solo setting. I try to avoid fen roads now and ride Road Solo Luggage or Dynamic. Not bottomed out since.
Also. I have done a post asking to swap my 790 seat for an 820. Not had much luck to date. So if you decide to stick with 840 I could be interested in buying the it off you if you want to sell.

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What's the English translation of "Fen Road"?

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Fen Road, HTH, HAND

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The Fens are an area of flat land in the east of England and feature the city of Cambridge as one of the (perhaps only) high points.

Apparently the roads are not well maintained.

Hard to maintain flat road.......sounds illogical

Zitat von Mr. 36654 im Beitrag #9

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Hard to maintain flat road.......sounds illogical

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Great that my post started an off subject conversation 😉👍
Yes. Fen roads can be very bumpy and undulating due to unstable subsurfacces.