Replacement Seat with Backrests

[draygonfly]

I have an XJ1100 Maxim. My back bothers me on long trips. I've been looking for an aftermarket replacement seat with a backrest for both the driver and passenger, or one on a sliding rail mount. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate hearing them.

[Jerry]

The stock seat on an XJ is not really comfortable. My opinion is the seat is to slanted, giving very little support, and setting the back at an uncomfortable angle.

I tried a couple things.

1. Kidney belt ala weight lifter belt, purchased at Sears. Improved comfort, but was akward to use and made another piece of gear to take along. However, I was able to do 600 mile days with it with a susbstantial reduction in back strain using the stock seat.

2. I have Vetter bags on mine; the set-up included a luggage rack. I found a Honda rack with a sliding back rest and grafted it, with minor modifications, onto the Vetter rack. This system is still on the bike and works OK. However, if set to give the driver some support it won't slide far enough back to give a passenger enough room. Not a problem for me, as I don't carry passengers, but it may be for you.

3. Finally went to a custom seat (Diamond Seat) that has a flatter profile and more of a 'cup' to the design. This style gives me a better back angle, and, because it wraps up around the butt a bit, more support. It is also wider than stock, giving more surface/contact area and helping to eliminate pressure points. Not cheap solution, $420.00, but I no longer use the belt or the backrest when riding.

Other brands of seats out there, including Russle Day Long and Corbin, but Diamond built the seat on a new fiberglass seat pan they make and stock. Diamond is less known, main market is their seats for GoldWings. I ordered the seat in the fall of 2000 and it arrived in the spring of 2001. I've not put more than 22K miles on it, and it is holding up well. The week of Camp Spearfish I had 4 each 640 mile pus days, in addition to the 200-250 mile daily rides. Doing that much traveling on the stock seat would have been *very* painful. (Total mileage for the week was about 3,500 miles.)

Two other points: I do have a 2nd, forward-mounted set of footpegs for an alternate foot position, and moved the XJ's bars up and out one position from stock. (The bars are adjustable.) This gave me a more comfortable angle for arms and wrists, and helped produce a more comfortable seating position.

Another note: wear boxer shorts when on long rides.They don't have seams crossing your butt at the greatest pressure points. After 300 - 400 miles this starts to become important!

Other options, which I have not tried but others have, include using sheepskin or gel-pad seat covers, cutting down the existing seat foam and recovering the seat, and using after-market seat kits such as Travelcade.

One last note on the Diamond seat: They cast the seat to your specs, weight and inseam. They will cast the passenger portion of the seat to the passenger's weight and inseam, making a custom seat for both riders. Other brands of seats offer the same customization.

Yhe XJ seat is not interchangeable with other models, due to the underside shape that covers the CDI box and the unique mounting hardware. Swapping in another seat is not an option; you are looking at modifying the seat you have or replacing it with a specic XJ1100 designed seat.

[Mike Hart]

Jerry brings up a lot of good points. Good seat info, thanks.

I think Yamaha designed the XJ seat so it would look good, and gave no thought to rider comfort. I've always thought the seat was abominable. Nice profile, for the eyes, but it has a terrible shape, forces a slouch, or use of back muscles to avoid the slouch, and either way, your back hurts eventually.

On long rides, my huge pile of baggage becomes my backrest, and in combo w/ my hiway pegs, pretty comfy.

I just this season started using a thick sheepskin, and it is a significant improvement. ($20 at IKEA, rummaged thru the bins of them to find a thick one the right shape)

[draygonfly]

Driver Backrest for XJ1100

I noticed that a number of the XJ screensavers Mexsive provided show the XJ1100 with a driver backrest. Since there are no aftermarket seats with driver backrest for XJ, did Mexsive modify his stock seat mounting a headrest from a car as a driver backrest. If he did I'm sure many of us XJ owners would be interested in knowing how he did it, and whether it is fixed or removable.