Folks, IF I hear from RDL I will certainly post up whatever information they give me. I'm taking them at their word that they won't be having a group buy this year. They seemed to make it pretty clear that even if they do offer a discount it will not be in the form of a group buy but as a sale and it will be open to anyone interested in a seat. While that makes the list I have irrelevant, I am going to hold on to the list just in case RDL has a change of heart and asks for it. Having said all that, I have chosen not to wait to see if RDL posts a sale this year and worked out a more attractive group buy with Bill Mayer Saddles. Feel free to join the group buy for a BMS seat in the new thread I created for it. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
I think I'll wait and see. Maybe do a few hundred mile day on the stock seat and see how it goes. I've heard a lot more good about RDL than bad. Love the one on my FJR and can wait for RDL to put it on sale. Hell, might do a ride in this time. How's Shasta in winter? I do think Mayer has unquestionably won the PR battle right now, though. And thousands of dollars of business. Even with the group buy discount, I'm sure they're making a profit. Oh yeah. You're old. Class of 1985 here. Guess I'm old too.
I guess Bill Mayer Saddles should send a thank you card over to the folks at Russell, he's likely going to see 75+ seats he never would have seen otherwise.
Do not buy a seat from Bill Mayer Saddles. I bought one of his seats for my Vulcan. It was no more comfortable than stock which is to say it was bad. He remade it once and it was really no better afterwards. After that he would not honor his word about giving a refund. Before I bought a seat from him I talked to him personally and asked if I don't like the seat will I get a refund. He said yes, but wouldn't give a refund when the time came.
I looked on his website at the Harley seat gallery. I thought the seat he had pictured on the site was a little ugly and looked kind of like a recovered Hammock seat. I wasn't very impressed. The angle of the photos didn't really show the seat that well. There was like four or five pictures of an Electra Glide and they were all at the same angle. I personally like Rick's design better and he's about the same price at full retail as Bill is with the 25% discount.
How on earth do you come up with this line of thinking??? Not giving a discount is shitting on someone? I would agree if they said yes, the OP went through all the effort, and then they reversed course; I don't believe this is the way it went down. I will be riding on my RDL in several weeks - as could you. As a previous owner of several aftermarket seats (will not make this into a comparison), I can tell you I cannot wait to get back onto an RDL. Sometimes it is absolutely worth settling to save a few bucks, other times not. Your view may vary. But cursing a company because they will not give into a group buy seems a bit short-sited. Maybe HD would knock off 20% with a group buy...
Before you can properly evaluate my response, I think you should spend two and a half months of your life putting together and administering a RDL group buy. I could fill you in on all the details of what goes on behind the scenes, but you would be better served to take on the task and learn for yourself. Only then will you appreciate my sentiment. If you come across that HD group buy let me know. I would like to get in on all those new 2014 features I missed out on by two months. Hey... Good luck with your seat man!
I agree, and in no way am I referring to your situation, as I have no knowledge of it. But I'm pretty sure in this instance, nothing was ever promised by RDL - perhaps I'm mistaken. I thought it was a build it and they will come kind of deal. I was a little disappointed, but won't write them off because of it. As I said, totally different story if they change their mind mid-stream....
I haven't written them off. I may end up with one of their seats on my bike yet. I'm just trying a seat that a good friend of mine loves on his bike from a company that has a generous return policy. If I like this seat, I will save quite a bit of money over the price I was going to pay RDL, even with 20% off. Like I said originally, if it doesn't work out I will decide what direction I'll go from there. I have told people that I actually love to kiss my ass during times of frustration. I have yet to write one of them off.
Having never purchased from Bill Mayer before I can't speak to the unfortunate occurrence described above, however, I have three occurrences with Rick Mayer that I can describe. I'm not in the interest of slamming any company and can only describe my experience. On the first occurrence I ordered my seat for my 2005 Victory Kingpin with embroidery on the seat. I was charged for it but it was not done. Emails to Rick were never returned. Occurrence two, I was having some discomfort issues with the seat. In fairness to Rick, at the time I was a big guy at 5'11" 250lbs. When I inquired I was told that perhaps I should lose some weight. Not that he was wrong, just a poor response to a customer in my opinion. Occurrence three, before emailing Bill, I sent Rick an email about a seat for me only, not the group buy, as his prices were surprisingly low. I never got a response. That prompted a search on Rick and it wasn't uncommon to find dealing with Rick is/was difficult. As always YMMV. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
I had been planning on ordering my RDL once the snow started falling here in Pa. When I read the possibility of a group buy I joined in. I have been reading all the threads on the five or so blogs about touring bikes. The vast majority of comments point to RDL as being worth every cent spent. No matter if there is a group buy or not, RDL is the only way I am going to go. Quality and customer support are superior and that is basis of my decision. 2013 R1200RT 90th Anniversary Edition
Absolutely matches my experience with Bill Mayer. All details the same! Very interesting. Very happy with my Russell Day Long; worth every penny, and then some.
That R1200RT is an awesome bike and you should outfit it in what you feel is the best out there. Despite my aggravation with RDL and their constant procrastination, their product is unmatched in my experience for packing on the miles. If you don't need a seat right away, I would wait around and watch to see what they do in November. 100+ seat orders in the slow season remains a hard thing to pass up. I don't believe for a second that they are not going to honor a group buy (or sale) of some fashion before it's all said and done. Paint me nostalgic and color me optimistic (or fool hearted). I ain't buying no Bill Mayer seat, that's for sure. If I'm lucky, I'll like the Mustang I just ordered and my journey will be over. I have read exhaustingly about the seat and have a friend in NC that swears by it. If not, I will return it and sit back and watch what happens myself. Mustang owns the HD market for aftermarket seat sales. I advertised this group buy effort on five HD forums and couldn't get any interest at all. RDL is best known in the Sport Adventure and Sport Touring world. In my GB last year I had only one Harley owner out of 150 list members and he knew of them from having one on his Vulcan.
I had a RDL on my K1200GT, a Rick Meyer on my 650 Dakar, and a Rockey on my 1200 GS I am going to put a RDL on my 1200GS now, no doubt it is more comfortable than the other two hands down.
I was forwarded this thread for my opinion, and felt compelled to chime in. I became the website developer for Rocky Mayer earlier this year, and in order to get a complete understanding of what Rocky does and what makes his product stand apart, not only did I spend a TON of time talking to him, but he also sent me 3 foam forms which we discussed in detail. I don't want to get into whose foam cores he sent, but suffice it to say, one came from another seat builder mentioned in this thread. I will also say that I worked in sales at Sargent's for a while so I feel somewhat qualified to participate in an intelligent discussion regarding the qualities of a seat built for comfort. I also have worked closely with some of his clients - one of whom is Ron Ayres (I built his website too) of Ayres Adventures, and he SWEARS by his BMS seats not just for the comfort but for the BMS customer service. And believe me, Ron is VERY particular. Rocky has quite a number of other well known 'round the world riding customers as well. For those of you who feel that they got poor customer service from Rocky, I am amazed. Are you sure it was BMS (Rocky) that you purchased the seat from? He spends all of his time thinking of ways he can better serve his customers (seriously - he calls me like twice a week to discuss it :huh). So I find that difficult to believe. Ok, so here's the scoop on how Rocky approaches seat design. First of all, no, they don't use the same technology as RDL. It's true that Bill Sr. sold the technology to RDL, and waited until his non-compete expired before he came back into the business. Second of all, although he uses foam cores, he doesn't apply the "one size fits all" philosophy to foam density in his cores. He has 5 different densities, and the density selected depends on a variety of factors, from weight, to riding style, to reach to the ground and well, you get the idea. The shaping is largely dependent on the information provided by the customer, including photos, and the seat marked so that Rocky and his seat specialists know where to shape the seat properly. As anyone who has had their seat customized no doubt knows, there's always a risk in sending your seat in and having it customized without you there. From everything I've read about the BMS seats and my personal experience dealing with Rocky, I would have no problem sending my seat to him to be customized. Just my opinion... based upon some very good information.