More on the XR650L
 

Okay, so yesterday I rode about 400 miles on my XR through Central Washington. My butt hurt so bad, I resorted to riding down the highway standing up for quite some way.

So these guys who ride these bikes for weeks on end, what do they do to stay comfortable? I'm going to try wearing my mountain biking shorts, which are lycra and have thick gel padding in the butt. I'm also going to look for a seat cover with some extra padding. Hopefully that'll help.

The other problem I encountered was a small sandstorm. Along the Columbia river, you get very high winds and blowing sand, which almost blew me off the road a couple times. I wear a motocross helmet and goggles, and a little sand managed to creep up under my goggles. I'm now thinking of getting a more roadworthy helmet, with a shield. That might help keep sand out.
But more importantly, the wind rushing through the helmet is deafening, even when I'm not in high winds. To try to solve this, I wear ear plugs. This helps a great deal, but even still, my ears were ringing after riding all day.

Any thoughts?

Time to get a custom saddle!

You can order a new one by mail from Corbin and others, but I think your best bet is to find a local auto upholsterer who has experience with rebuilding motorcycle saddles.

They'll replace the foam with more cushy foam and reshape the saddle to be more comfy.


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Bruce Clarke
brclarke@islandnet.com
www.islandnet.com/~brclarke

To reduce wind noise etc make a small perspex windscreen as per the Adventure motorbiking hand book,do all you can to make the bike comfortable then ride it a lot to get used to it or buy a Honda Pan European.

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