Seat options?

I just finished a 3,000 mile two and a half week journey on my 2006 Silverwing. 

My butt was always sore after a day of riding, even after two and a half weeks in the saddle. I kept my mileage under 250 miles a day and I thought the soreness would resolve with extended saddle time. This is my one complaint about the Silverwing from this trip. 

I’m thinking of upgrading my SW seat prior to my next big trip. 

Any recommendations? Is it worth the money to invest in a custom one? Russell Day Long seats almost universally get good reviews but the rest seem to get mixed reviews.

I've mentioned quite a few times over the years in forums when members complain about the maxi scooter seats and before they flash the plastic for an overpriced and usually butt ugly    custom seat, take the simple step of changing the type of underwear you ride in.

For a start, if you wear cotton underwear for touring ditch them, they absorbs sweat and moisture and the design has raised seams in the area under your butt. On a long ride they will dig in and moving around will cause hot spots and discomfort to your butt cheeks. That's what the problem is not the seat itself.

I started wearing synthetic seamless underwear many years ago, originally as travel wear I could wash in a hotel basin and they'd dry overnight. They're now what I wear all the time, I also have a couple of pairs of Moto-Skiveez Cruiser shorts which are like cycle shorts with an insert designed for an upright riding position. They're very good too although I tend to find the everyday wear seamless pants just fine.

There's no seams pressing into my butt cheeks and I've worn them on 350 miles a day rides without any discomfort on three previous maxi scooters, including the lardass Burgman 650 with it's unforgiving and over wide seat.

I also have an Airhawk Cruiser seat cushion which I used to take on tour, a decent bit of kit which is popular with riders and fitted perfectly on all the maxi scooters I've owned.  I don't use it now because usually after day one I'd remove it and store it under the seat or leave in my hotel room. Simply because the seamless pants prevented riding discomfort on all day rides.

I too use an Airhawk air seat cover. It helps but is not the end-all. What works best for me is less miles ridden in a day. 250-300 is the limit mostly, I have done 400 plus miles a couple of times and it gets tiring. Also, stop and take pictures, get coffee, fuel or whatever and just take a short break! Good luck.

Couple of options (as I see it)- one is to use a seat cover and under this on the rider’s seat, you could put either a foam or gel pad (I use a Sit and Fly seat cover that is mesh, so it allows air under you- I have this on the SWing’s seat all the time, so I guess it might be construed as being cooler under there in the cooler months, but no swamp butt). For cooler riding, you could use a regular seat cover and just put a gel pad under that. I was out for 4 hrs yesterday on mine and was very comfortable. A new seat might be nice, but will be more expensive (like a Corbin) and may not suit you for the riding you do. I recall a newer member here saying his Corbin was not comfortable and hard (I had an old Corbin I bought second  hand for my ST, it was hard and I re-sold it after a couple of years).

Side question: is the discomfort related to the butt pad being there, forcing you further forward? I took mine off and then put the cover over the seat.

In my older days, non cotton underwear and ‘Monkey Butt’ powder was the way to go (as said above the change in type of underwear may be VERY helpful on a longer ride, or use bicycle shorts that have the padding built in).

Here, here to removing the butt pad!
I did that and great improvement.
I'll try the underwear tip though.