Modern Vespa

My saddle is not comfortable on long rides, and since it appears that Corbin is now catatonic, I'm considering riding in to Bill Mayer Custom Saddles in Ojai, CA. Anyone had any experience with a Bill Mayer saddle? His father patented the All Day Saddle, which he sold to Russell. Russell still uses the old method, but "Rocky" has changed the method and appears to have many happy customers....I'm just hoping that one or two of them are scooterists and may be on the board here?

8)

I had a Russell custom seat done in April of this year. They are located in Redding Ca. They did a really nice job on my seat and I am happy with it. I went in in the morning and left in the afternoon with my new seat.

R.B.

Here's the Bill Mayer saddle:

that looks nice
common questions though, how is it on rides of over 200 miles, chaffing, sweating, rain resistaance, COSTS, and anything else you could add? thanks

They are the inventors of the "All Day Saddle" which Russell aquired from Bill Mayer Sr. You can google Bill Mayer Saddles and check out all the info...it's designed to be a long distance saddle. I will likely be getting mine done soon, will report back.

what I thought this was YOUR seat. now does anybody have thhis already?

who knows what kind of bags are hanging from the side, they are kind of big and thats just what im looking for.

I am hoping to get mine done at Bill Mayer next Friday (June 26th.)

Got a confirmation...ride in on June 26th, will post the finished product when done.

Hi--I'm mostly a lurker and don't have an MP3, but this review led me to Mayer Saddles today.

My experience was just as good as the one described here. Anyone in SoCal should not hesitate to take the (very fun) ride up to Ojai. Your butt will thank you.

I ended up with a very cool two tone (black and grey) saddle for my Kymco. Many thanks for the write-up!

How about a picture of your new saddle!

I hate to ask, but what does these custom saddles cost? I had my seat lowered for $185 at Acme tunes here in Sacramento. And even at that price it took them 2 weeks and many emails to get it done.

This the first saddle that I have seen on this forum that I really really really like. This to me is by far the best looking one and now I want one. Damn you people with money, just stop doing such cool stuff.

The saddles can range for $400 to $500 depending on what material or style from Bill Mayer.

Try this link https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic48632?highlight=saddle.

It is money well spent in my opinion.

Sure! The colors look a little off, but you'll get the idea. It really looks nice. The test, of course, was the ride home. Much better than the stock Kymco seat, which I will mot miss. I'd say it should rest in peace, but it never let my butt do that.

BTW, they charge the same $399 vinyl and $549 leather for mixed colors. The two tone (based on their usual solo seat pattern) was my idea and everyone really liked the way it came out.

They also were prominently featuring the MP3s they had done. A very scooter friendly place, for sure.

BTW, where did you get those saddle bags for your MP3?

Looks great, Sporks!

Nice!!! How many miles do you have on your new saddle?

For taller folks, adding a half inch of padding to the driver's portion of the seat makes a HUGE difference. You can reuse the stretchy stock cover and it really shouldn't cost you more than $100. Heck, if you're handy you can probably do it yourself for the cost of a piece of 1/2" high density closed cell polyurethane foam and about 30 staples.

Lowering it for those of shorter stature is a little more involved but still not very complicated. There's a 3/8" or so piece of foam on top of the seat sensor strip. Once you've removed that foam strip and laid the sensor aside, whip out of the electric turkey knife and tirm off the top foam so it's flush with the area where the sensor rests (and maybe take a little off the sides while you're at it, Floyd). I would use the trimmings to thicken the padding on the "riser" between the driver and passenger as there's a plastic strengthening rib a that spot that will have little padding over it once you lower the driver seat. Moving forward a bit and getting some cushioning on it will keep both vertical and horizontal smiles in good order. Again you can reuse the stretchy stock cover and it shouldn't cost more that $100 at your local upholstery shop.

In summary, you can pay $500 for a custom saddle, and I'm sure it's well worth it, but you can also make things much, much better for relatively small coin. If you're approaching 6 foot or taller, add a half inch of foam to your seat. Seriously. The difference in comfort is night and day.

Only about 150 so far, but I'm super happy with it. The comfort level is beyond measure relative to the old one.

My BMW saddle - was done by Mayer back around 1977, and yes, it still looks new.