What seat to get?

I would like to replace the stock seat on my 08 GL 1800 Goldwing with Champion conversion. I would like any and all opions as to what manufacturer you think has the best custom seat. My buns are sore

jingles said:

I would like to replace the stock seat on my 08 GL 1800 Goldwing with Champion conversion. I would like any and all opions as to what manufacturer you think has the best custom seat. My buns are sore

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There are two that I can recommend based on having owned a few of each, Russell Day Long and Rick Mayer Saddles both custom build saddles to fit the buyer's anatomy. Both are thorough professionals and great to deal with. I know folks who have spent a lot of money on other saddles before winding up with one of these who agree with me. They aren't the least expensive but they do the job!

Her Purpleness came with a Corbin from the PO. I liked it, Gloria hated it. We went with a stock for a while, did the sheepskin, gel pad sometimes. air cushion sometimes, etc. Broke down and got measured for a Diamond (same folks make the Hartco) and love it. Was comfy right away, and got more so as it broke in. If something wasn't right, Diamond said they would fix it to our liking. Cost was around $900 (yeah- ouch. But that's pretty much any full custom seat) That includes choice of seat material, passenger backrest cover, armrest covers, driver backrest and a rain cover for the seat and a little set for the armrests. We got the passenger cover,as the OEM rest was fine, but they do make a complete passenger backrest if you need to change the seating angle. I've heard tell some think the 1800 passenger backrest slants back too far.

Get the Ultimate seat and passenger backrest combo.
I had my stock seat redone by Bike Solutions last year and we just never liked it.
We then tried the Ultimate seat at the Davis Rally late last summer. We really liked the feel of it.
We decided to order one this year and it is great.
Check into it and btw, you have a 14 day trial period. If you don't like it, send it back for a refund.

1800 06 Champion Trike said:

Get the Ultimate seat and passenger backrest combo.
I had my stock seat redone by Bike Solutions last year and we just never liked it.
We then tried the Ultimate seat at the Davis Rally late last summer. We really liked the feel of it.
We decided to order one this year and it is great.
Check into it and btw, you have a 14 day trial period. If you don't like it, send it back for a refund.

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I also suggest the Ultimate seats. I have the full set on my Valkyrie Trike and they are a vast improvement over the Corbins I had, IMHO of course.

I still use the stock seat but had a Hartco on my GL-1500. Loved it! Have some friends with Corbins but they seem a little wide to me regardless of who they were made for...If you can make it to some rallies or "Get-togethers" and check out as many as you can in person, I would. It's a pretty steep investment and I would really try and make sure I was getting what I wanted.

Just spoke to Leslie, my RDL saddle is done and shipping out today!

The production took only 10 days, can't wait to see it in person, since I made some daring selections (all leather, black sides and snake skin leather inserts with small diamond pattern, backrest, both drivers (+pouch) and passengers done by RDL as well).

Will post some pictures and give you my feedback when I receive it.

Best regards,

We have a Ultimate on our 1500 and love it

mpolissky said:

Just spoke to Leslie, my RDL saddle is done and shipping out today!

The production took only 10 days, can't wait to see it in person, since I made some daring selections (all leather, black sides and snake skin leather inserts with small diamond pattern, backrest, both drivers (+pouch) and passengers done by RDL as well).

Will post some pictures and give you my feedback when I receive it.

Best regards,

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Just got my seat back from RDL today...see attached photo. To me it looks and feels great. I just hope that this color combination will look good on my trike (metallic red) and will not be too busy ( I'd like to hear your opinion). I also hope that it would be as comfortable as it looks while riding.

Will post the pictures and give you my feedback when it's on the trike.

When we got our Diamond they told us that it would take up to 1000 miles to break it in. We were up in Minnesota when the Diamond folks finished it, so I had it sent to my mom's house. Put it on and rode 600 miles home. It was immediatly more comfortable than the stock seat, and made the trip back to SW MO even better than the trip to MN. It has gotten better evey time we take a ride. Yours most likely will be the same. Makes all the difference on those long rides. 400 mile days are easily now 600 milers.

Your seat looks good, would like to see it on the trike. I think it's a good choice, and don't think it will be too busy. If you end up not liking it, there is an option is to cover it up. The seat of your pants would work very well - other folks won't notice it, and you can't see it if you're riding.

BTW- what is that thing behind the seat? Real man throw hard steel, not limp plastic.
Actually, I have both a steel-tip and a plastic-tip board set up in the basement. Shoot both about equally, but on most machines, the double and the triple rings are larger than on the steel-tip board. And my practice steel tip board has even narrower double and trip rings than my regulation sissal board.

JJ I think your going to really like it. It looks GREAT

I love my Ultimate!

I love my seat too, grinn

(Ray, why doesn't that surprise me!! What no saddle horn?)

Jingles: I inherited my Diamond from the p.o. We grew to like it & now love it! I wanted to try out an oem, just for fun. Wifey threatened me with bodily harm if I did!! She da boss! At least back there!

don't need no saddle horn, grinn

Got an Ultimate in denim. Did not want leather or vinyl in the Texas furnace we call a summer.

Quite pleased with it, but not the backrest. It was like a pencil point back there.

Got Des to make me a larger one although it is not covered in denim, I still like it and just did 1466 miles on it. Yeah, I had a sore butt at times, but that why rest stops are so great.

We went with the ultimate seats and like them pretty well
We do have an un-resolved issue with ultimate that we are trying to get resolved still
After sending vehicle description and photos we received the seats just a day or two before the Maggie Valley rally so were able to ride them to the Valley.
When we ordered them we were assured that the seat(s) we needed were in stock and they could be to us in time to use them for the ralley ride.
Unfortunatley ,when we received them we found that none of the seat pan hardware alighned up with the mounting holes on the trike. I called and spoke to a gentleman there and told him i thought i could send it thru my metal fab shop and "adjust" and weld metal into it and make it work .
Ok so far so good--made the needed changes and made the seat work. All was well to this point. Last week i got a call from Ultimates office lady stating that the core charge i was issued (200.00) was going to be placed back on my credit card because it was not the same as the one they had sent me.
I voiced my discontent with their plan because i had sent the pan that was on the trike originally-----I gave them the Dealers name where i had purchased the trike . They called the dealer and was told that when the Champion trikes were put on the vtx 1800's that the f seat is replace with (i think they said the c model seat.
As of today i have not heard back from ultimate but it seems with the vtx champion units out there that now that they have what is the "proper seat pan" for this unit they might want to keep it for their next vtx trike customer.

This is an old thread, but as long as it's kicking, I'll add to it.

My Honda VTX trike came with the stock saddle. Bad-bad seats. 25 miles and my butt and tailbone were screaming. Everyone on a VTX forum raved about Mustang seats. I bought the seats and installed them. I can ride a whole tank without getting off, but the seats just aren't as comfortable as everyone was saying.

Later I noticed that I haven't seen any trike rider recommend Mustang seats. So that must mean something.

I'm going to give them a little longer to break in. If they don't improve, I guess I'll sell them and move on.

Might contact Ultimate---I know they have a seat to fit yours right now that they want to get shed of :yes:
The seats are really comfy

Reason I went with Ultimate for my GL 1800 was that I did not have to provide them with a pan.

I got the seat covered in denim as I did not want to be sitting on vinyl or leather in Texas during the summer.

I really like the seat. It came with a very small backrest like leaning against a pencil point. I exchanged it for a much larger one. The larger one is covered with leather, but its really a comfortable back rest.

Have no issues with Des or Ultimate. They are easy to deal with. However, they have two offices. One in Canada and one in Florida.


You may have to speak directly with Des to get the issue resolved.