Thread: Gladius Comfort
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Old 28-04-19, 06:50 AM   #7
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Default Re: Gladius Comfort

Welcome.

A long, long time ago in ancient Japan, the Samurai had to master sitting on the saddle of a horse for many hours. As part of the training for this they would sit on increasingly large sized pebbles during their classroom lessons without indicating signs of discomfort. In addition they would learn how to crush walnuts with their butt cheeks. Only when their Master was satisfied with their pain tolerance would they be allowed to progress to a higher level.

Mr Suzuki (whose name means bottom punisher in ancient Japanese) comes from a long line of Samurai and firmly believes in strengthening the bottom strengthens the soul, so this philosophy is embedded in all of his motorcycles. Occasionally his family history shows itself plainly as in the naming of his bikes: Suzuki Katana.
People wrongly think that the Suzuki "Gladius" was named after a Roman short sword but it's a mistranslation of "Gladisan" meaning excrutiating bottom pain.
A little known fact is that Mr Suzuki was so happy with the discomfort of the Gladius he carried it through to the next generation of models.


*no actual facts were used in the creation of the above tale

You mentioned the Corbin seat, it is eye wateringly expensive and I get lost in all the options using the configurator. I just want a black seat please, what colour is "bomber jacket"?

The next step would be to either visit a local upholsterer - many of them would tackle a bike seat - but you need a firm idea of what you are trying to achieve. There are dedicated bike seat upholsterers, Core motorcycle seats in Lincoln is one example. http://edblade.simpl.com/

There's a firm in Germany that will take your seat, strip it down, insert gel pads, recover it and return it (they're on ebay).

There are gel pads/sheepskin pads that sit on top of your existing seat but look naff imho.

The cycle shorts have been mentioned and I suppose there's always a Kardashian butt implant.

We had a thread running a couple of days ago (where were you?) about comfort, I even posted pictures. Why do I waste my time j/k
http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=180771&page=12

My theory (ahem) is that the slope of (most) the seat caused by the curved subframe means you have little horizontal area to move around on. You try and move backwards but the slope pushes you back towards the tank. The lack of padding obviously doesn't help. If you take your seat to get it remodeled at an upholsterers I'd take a picture of a Holeshot seat with you.

I have an AL7 and have had mine re-upholstered 3 years ago (£140) but I wasn't sure what I wanted so I aimed for the look of the Suzuki "Tuck and Roll seat", with hindsight, I'd go for the Holeshot/Corbin look.
http://www.holeshot.com/suzuki/sv/2017

I think the pain-in-the-neck has been mentioned about tension and relaxing. I've been riding for 48 years and I still find myself occasionally gripping the handlebars so tightly my arms ache and I have to force myself to relax. (Maybe I'm just a bad rider)

Another area of potential discomfort is your body positioning - I have (another) bad habit of letting my weight rest on my wrists instead of using my atrophied stomach muscles to keep me upright. I have fitted handlebar risers to alleviate this and half hearted attempts to strengthen my core (don't laugh).

I suppose the bottom line is that now you've got the tests out the way, you can relax, have fun and start to modify the bike to fit you instead of having to force yourself into fitting the bike.
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