Air Hawk R seat pad

I received my Air Hawk R seat pad and am wondering how/if those of you that have one attach it to your seat. The two short straps that came with the pad aren't near long enough to span under the seat and catch the loop on the other side of the seat. I called the company I purchased it from, the rep said those strap are for cruiser type motorcycles. Do you Air Hawk users just place the pad on the seat and hope it will stay in place?

Thanks for any info you can share.

I'd get something like a black shoelace to attach on one side and get the strap to reach. Maybe you could get some black elastic from a fabric store?

Another thought is if you could somehow get the two straps to hook together and attach only one "strap" to the pad. Many of us only use one strap so if it rains, we can flip the cushion up and keep water from pooling in it.

Chris

I have an airhawk and I usually just place it on the seat. I'm always concerned someone may just walk off with it. But like Chris said...you can go to a fabric store and find something that works better. Also, the one that came with my Airhawk could just be slipped off real easy so you may want to get some kind of strap that makes people work at taking your airhawk. Do you know that the least amount of air is best? You need to ride with it and play with it a little but the least amount of air you can put in it works best. Just to keep your bottom off the seat. One time I had way too much air in it and I was bouncing around like crazy. They work great though and you can ride much longer with one.

Chris,

Good to hear from you. What kind of bike are you riding now? I just bought a Versys X-300 last week. Ride safe.

Jeff, at the risk of sending the thread off track...

I'm still riding a 2014 BMW F800GT.  I may change someday, but it would be hard to beat this bike.  I took two long trips this past summer.  One from Seattle down to Utah and then through their five national parks...then up through Colorado and the Million Dollar Highway.  From there through Idaho and Lolo Pass, and finally home.  I spent about a week and a half home, then headed toward South Dakota via Lolo Pass (the other way), across to Yellowstone and over to the Beartooth Highway and the Bighorn Mountains.  On the way back, I went north through Canada and Banff, then back home to Seattle.  Never once on the trip did I wish for a different bike.

It's light at 470 lbs wet.  The engine has plenty of power and torque.  You can ride it at low rpms...or unleash it and get going fast enough to earn a ride in the back of a cruiser.  



BTW, that's my Airhawk under the gloves in the picture. It really helped on the trip. Like Jeff wrote, you want the absolute minimum amount of air in it.

Chris

+1 Jeff, The straps can be unhooked from the ouside, however, if I am at a place that is unknown, I unhook and place under seat or in mt GIVI box. My wife and I purchased the med. Size cushions and the straps adjust perfectly.

2wheelgal wrote:

I received my Air Hawk R seat pad and am wondering how/if those of you that have one attach it to your seat.  The two short straps that came with the pad aren't near long enough to span under the seat and catch the loop on the other side of the seat.  I called the company I purchased it from, the rep said those strap are for cruiser type motorcycles.  Do you Air Hawk users just place the pad on the seat and hope it will stay in place?

Thanks for any info you can share.

I have had a Airhawk since 2011. I can’t ride without it. I can but I prefer not too. I tried the straps but they would just pop off. So I gave up on trying to secure the pad. I just take it off and put it in my top box or under the seat. If it is windy it will blow off the seat.
When I am touring for a long trip I will either carry it in with me or tuck it in between my seat bag and top box.

I live in Chicago so I have a certain level of not trusting that my stuff on my bike isn’t safe when not secured. Also I don’t want someone to come along and punch a hole in it for yuks.

One of the best things I did was buy the Airhawk. Couldn’t ride for more than an hour without my behind and back hurting. Couldn’t afford a custom seat and of course that’s not a guarantee it will be comfortable. I have ridden over 70,000 miles with it. As Jeff and others have said you don’t need much air but what a difference.

Hmmmm.... I just posted a reply to thank all of you that responded with suggestions on how to secure my new Air Hawk R and it seems to have disappeared for some reason. Anyway, the straps that were included in the box with the seat are each 9" long so they are basically useless in spanning the distance from the loop on one side of the seat pad, under the seat, and to the loop on the opposite side. I am going to check into some elastic to see if I can make something that will work. I may just end up tucking it under the seat when I am off my Swing.

I put very little air in the seat and have a ride tomorrow so will see if I need to adjust the amount of air any for a comfy ride.

Thanks again for all your quick replies!!

When I bought my Airhawk Cruiser Medium back in my Burgman 400 days, there were no straps supplied with the seat cover, just the four attatchment loops.

My way of securing this expensive neoprene cushion to the seat was by first buying a set of those plastic coated motorcycle seat hooks, the ones that are used for securing seat packs.

I put four of them on the bottom of the seat directly below where the cushion loops, and nipped them into position. Then I threaded lengths of elastic cord through the cushion loops, knotted them and secured them to the hooks. That worked, but the elastic tended to pull on the edges of the seat cushion loops and over time I thought it would stress them.

I got round that by using small pieces of plastic tube cut from the ones that come with pump action hand soap. I used them to make sleeves to thread the elastic through at the cushion loops, and again for where the elastic was secured at the seat loops.

That set up worked great on the Burgman, mainly because I'd built up the seat cover with camping mat as it was a lot easier that cutting six inches of the over tall Biondi screen I was using back then.

I can't say I've been much of an enthusiast of the Airflow since I bought it, I hardly used at all when I changed to the bigger 650 Burgman even though it had a much firmer seat.

With the Silver Wing I last used it over five years ago on a trip to Germany, I used it a couple of times then it was slung under the seat or left back in my hotel room.

I replaced the Airhawk seat cover a few years ago as the camping mat had worn the bottom of the non-slip plastic base, This time the cover arrived with straps.

Another way of securing the cushion would be sticking a few strategically placed adhesive female (loop) Velcro pads on the seat, to mate with male (hook) Velcro pads attatched to the base of the Airhawk cover.

I lack natural cushions. HE did not give me enough padding back there. Because of my lack of padding, I purchased the Airhawk R for a road trip my wife and I took two years ago. I also use it when flying to/from the West coast. I am currently using it daily on my home office chair. It really helps,