E-Z Berg Touring Seat

E-Z BERG TOURING SEAT

EVALUATION

Several months after our longterm Honda CB750F went into service, the man to whom the bike is assigned made a tough decision. He traded in the stock seat for an E-Z Berg seat, a touring bucket also known as a tractor or frying pan seat. The sort of seat one sees on Harleys, old ones, and seldom sees on sports bikes like the 750F.

His reasons were basic. The bike itself was terrific and lived up to its reputation. But after an hour or two the stock seat got him where he perched and he was forced to slide back and forth and balance his feet on the passenger pegs or cases, for relief. The more he rode, the more sensible a touring bucket seemed to be.

The style is an old one and dates back to before rear suspension was invented. The frying pan seat is shaped to match the human seat. Where people are convex, the seat is concave and it’s done in curves in all dimensions. Done right, tractor seats are the best system for long rides, which is why some factories have been copying the idea for their touring models.

As Mark Twain said about his wife’s swearing, factory buckets have the words but can’t carry the tune. The seat shown here comes from E-Z Berg, who in 1946 began building custom seats for motorcycles and could fairly be given credit for the popularity of the touring bucket which led to the factories getting into the field.

Berg himself went from building his own seats to selling on order, to a small company and then to retirement and consulting for the firm that bought him out. The original idea, seats to order, still applies.

This works in either of two ways. Bikes for which special seats are common, like Hondas from 500cc up, Yamaha 750s, 850s and 1 Is, Suzukis from 550 up and the Kawasaki KZ1300, can get Berg seats on a production basis. They come sized for a median rider, 5'9" to 6T" and weighing 160 to 200 lb. The buyer has a choice of solid black or black with contrasting trim, single bucket or double. You pay your money to your local E-Z Berg dealer and you get the seat over the counter.

The other way is for owners of bikes that aren’t thought of as touring models, or for riders who want special colors or different padding. They write to E-Z Berg, 540 W. Lambert Ave., Brea, Calif. 92621, and ask for details. They can then spell out which color, rider weight and so forth. For some bikes, like Guzzis and BMWs, the buyer sends money, gets his seat and returns the stock seat, the pan of which is used for the next guy. For really rare orders Berg requires the stock seat pan and builds the foam and cover on that, which means a wait of several weeks and makes the project works best for riders who live where you can’t ride during part of the' year. Complicated procedures, all of them. Seat prices, no matter which way you buy, are $170 for single bucket, $195 for. double.

But worth it. There are no quarter-mile times for seat comfort, so all that can be said is, the E-Z Berg seat works. It’s been4 on the bike for six months. The padding is still firm and smooth. There are no tears or rips. The seams are intact. Although the seat hasn’t been through floods the bike has sat out in rain and didn’t soak up water.

The frying-pan seat looks odd on a«, sports bike. You can’t slide around. You can’t stretch or use the passenger pegs. The guys for whom the seat wasn’t designed, don’t care for it. But the man for whom it was designed has never spent more comfortable 700-mile days in the saddle.