My "Princess and the Pea" Butt

 You remember the fairy tale, "The Princess and the Pea".  In the fairy tale, the princess couldn't sleep because she was sensitive to a pea that she could feel through many, many mattresses.  I borrowed this image from a Kool School video to illustrate the idea.

Sometimes, I think I'm as sensitive as that princess, at least where it comes to motorcycle seats.  When I bought the KTM, I knew in advance that the original seat was made for riding off-road while standing most of the time.  It was incredibly narrow and firm, so it would never do for long distance riding.  I planned changing the seat before I even bought the bike.

So, at New Years, I sent my seat off to BMS for their special treatment.  What came back was beautiful and seemed like it would be comfortable based on  riding around locally, but on my first long trip, I just couldn't stand it.  My butt hurt so much that I spent all my time thinking about my butt rather than enjoying the riding.

Upon my return, I gave BMS a call and they offered to modify the seat to try to improve it.  And I admit, it was improved.  The picture below shows the revised seat with a larger, more open butt pocket.  I was comfortable enough for the first day, but the second day and each day after I was back in the "pain in the butt" penalty box.

Compare that seat to the Russell seat on my old bike.  The Russell is old school and admittedly ugly, but it's been comfortable day after day on long trips for 14 years.  Hmmn.  Maybe I'm not such a princess after all.  There are several differences between the BMS and Russell seats.  First, the Russell is 4 inches wider and more of a dished shape, while the BMS is flatter and narrower.  The Russell is firm, but softer foam than the BMS.  The result is that Russell seems to spread out the pressure needed to support your weight.  The BMS seems to have a higher average pressure and I suspect high pressure in local areas.  Also, the BMS has a seam across the back of the butt pocket that is just far forward enough that I can feel the seam as a pressure line.

That pain in the butt I have been experiencing feels like high pressures areas under my sit bones and at the seam.  The flesh and muscles in that pressure area don't like that high pressure.  As I understand it, high pressure on the tissue decreases blood and, therefore, oxygen flow to those tissue.  When tissue  don't get enough oxygen, they shift into a survival modes.  Unfortunately, that mode generates lactic acid which your nerves react to as pain.  In extreme cases, this leads to bed sores.

At least, that's one of the possible explanations.  If you search on the subject of butt pain, you will find a staggering range of possibilities.

All that got me to thinking about the aging part of this equation.  This certainly wasn't a problem when I was younger.  Even 10 years ago, I didn't have this kind of sensitivity.  Have you ever noticed that many older men have lost their butt?  Some even need to use suspenders because their shrunken booty doesn't give their belt anything to hang onto.  It seems we aren't as active and are thinning out our cushioning in the process.

As we get older, it seems like we need more stretching, more different types of exercises, and a balance between those exercises to keep the weaker muscles from screaming at us.  Since I don't like suspenders and I don't enjoy butt pain on the bike or anywhere else, I decided it was time to work on this in the gym.  I still need to redo the KTM seat, probably a Russell, but maybe I can improve my end (pun intended).  The things I will do to ride motorcycles.😉

Tweaking the Pumpkin

Let's face it.  I'm a person that like to modify things.  Likes to make them my own and work well for me.  When it comes to motorcycles, I seem to do that more the ever.  Frankly, I don't understand those people who buy a motorcycle, ride it for one year, then sell it.  They tell me that they enjoy the experience of the motorcycle as it is.  That doesn't work for me.  For example, I have been tweaking on the new KTM all the first season and I am finally getting it working well enough to decide that I will keep it.

It was really the most recent tweaks that got the bike talking to me.  I had gone down the wrong road with stiffer springs.  That made the bike harsh without improving suspension feedback to the rider.  After going back to the stock spring rates, I set the sag for those springs, used the clickers to adjust the shock/forks with in the available range of adjustment, and those things made a better ride compromise, but it still wasn't talking to me.

The previous owner had dropped the triple trees down the forks by about 12 mm which decreased the trail/rake.  I brought them back up to factory level and that helped the feedback a bit.

The final tweak was tire pressure.  Both Kawasaki's like high tire pressure.  In fact, depending on the specific front tire, a low front tire pressure on the KLR can result in a high speed wobble.

Force of habit I guess, I had been running the KTM about 4 psi above the "loaded" tire pressure recommendation.  Dropping the tire pressures down to the "loaded" recommendation made all the difference.  It helped both steering feedback and ride comfort.  Now I have a bike that is well controlled for ride, yet envelops most bumps.  At the same time, talks to me in a way that gives me very good confidence.  All of this with a minimum of flex and shake.  Nice.

I may someday try to tweak the shim stack in the compression fork to be a bit more digressive, but for now I am happy with the suspension.

Coming back to this question of riding a bike one year and then selling it.  It seems to take me a minimum of a year just to get the suspension setting right.  I keep wondering what they are missing by not taking time with the bike.  Oh well, each to his own.

In case you are wondering, the nickname "Pumpkin" seems to be sticking for the KTM.  After I made it all orange and black, a friend of mine saw the bike for the first time.  His question to me was, "Is that your pumpkin out there?"  I like that bike in orange.  Not only is orange the company color, but it makes the bike more visible and the color has a lot of flop that works very well with the angles and curves of the body.  So, pumpkin it is.