Motorcycle Explorer October 2014 Issue 2 | Page 68

LMG's World
4.Turkish beaded cover
Ever wondered why Turkish (or pretty much
any Middle Eastern country) taxi drivers
have beaded seat covers? Well, according
the marketing spiel, it’s to “allow more air
to circulate” and “to allow the dispersion of
pressure points”. Whatever they say, the
beads certainly seem to work better than
the sheep skins covers. In a 2 day stint, I
had to “run in” a new bike by not exceeding
3000rpms. This meant a long time in
saddle over the both days, and knowing
that the sheep skin would not cut it, I tried
a beaded seat pad. Although I did start to
feel slightly uncomfortable about 2 hours
in to the ride, that was enough time in the
saddle before having to stop to stretch the
legs. Much like the sheep skin pad, the
beaded pad is secured to the seat using (in
my case) an elasticated band whose
tension can be adjusted. An issue which I
have noticed is that the beaded pad will
move about on the seat when you get on or
off of the bike – but not when you were sat
on it. I overcame this by putting a 99p
none slip pad underneath the beads on the
seat. Another concern of mine is that on
heated seats, I do not know if prolonged
pressure of the beads being pressed in to
the top of the seat will affect the heating
elements. The cost of the beaded pads
range from £30 through to £100
depending on the supplier chosen.