Motorcycle seats

The motorcycle seats in this section solve two different problems. The SHAD comfort seat replaces the original on a specific bike so you hold out better on long rides, and the Customacces pillion pad adds a passenger seat to a cruiser that only has room for the rider. The first step is working out which of the two you need.

Replace the seat or add a pillion

• Comfort seat: for riders who finish a ride aching. It has a different shape and more padding, and it fits in place of the standard seat. SHAD's are for bikes and scooters from 2004 to 2018, such as the Fazer FZ6, Z750, CBR 600F, first-generation MT-09, T-MAX 500 and 530 or the Piaggio MP3.
• Pillion pad: for a solo cruiser that now and then carries a passenger. It sits on the rear mudguard, one held by suction cups and the other bolted on.

Repair yours or replace it?

If the seat is split or the foam has gone flat, you do not always need a new one: an upholsterer can recover it and, while they are at it, fit firmer foam or a gel layer. A comfort seat makes sense when you also want a different shape and one is made for your bike: you swap the whole unit and keep the original as a spare.

Before you order

• The years: the seat follows the shape of the frame and tank of each generation, and the 2013-2018 MT-09, for example, does not share a seat with later ones.
• Your reach: different padding can change the distance to the ground by a few centimetres, worth bearing in mind if you are already on tiptoe.
• The passenger: to use a pillion pad, the bike's registration must allow two people and there must be rear footrests.

If you are after the opposite, covering the rear seat so the bike looks like a single-seater, that is a seat cowl. Each brand's other parts are under SHAD and Customacces, and every other category under motorcycle accessories.