Long Haul seat question

[Rick McC.]

Congrats to all who're trying to keep up with some exercising regardless of having other infirmities!

I'm no gym freak, but have had a bad back and neck for quite a while now.

I have found that bicycle riding is the easiest on me physically, while providing good cardio and lower body strength. I alternate that with paddling a Kayak for abdominal and upper body strength, plus cardio.

Best regards to all!

 

[1BigDog]

Paddling a kayak...now im exhausted just from thinking about that.......

 

[Boog]

Good luck on your seat search. I am happy with the stock seat on mine for now. I may change that after the summer season of riding and few more miles like iron butting it to Denver to fetch my boys on the Sturgis trip this year.

Cross fit like exercises will increase your range of motion which will then allow you to work out better and eventually become more fit. But like what has been mentioned already, eating to lose weight works great. Good luck on that too.

 

[subtle]

Good luck on your seat search. I am happy with the stock seat on mine for now. I may change that after the summer season of riding and few more miles like iron butting it to Denver to fetch my boys on the Sturgis trip this year.

Cross fit like exercises will increase your range of motion which will then allow you to work out better and eventually become more fit. But like what has been mentioned already, eating to lose weight works great. Good luck on that too.

I have a std solo seat on my 04 r3 thinned in the sides for seat height worked well. Bought the long haul for extended runs and am looking for a rider back rest to help on the 6-700 km days. In regards to weight goals I found if its not an passion or pleasure that gets you fit it want last. For me its Full contact stick fighting(eskrima)

 

[saboteur]

Exercise is great for many reasons, but for weight loss the key is always what one eats. Keeping track of stuff with a program on a smartphone is a good way to get numbers on that. MyFitnessPal is free and works well, just plug in everything that one eats and drinks and get black and white numbers on it. But then you need to be consistent on the eating and the plugging the data into the app. It's not easy.

Not so fast- remember what it was like to be 18 years old? I ate everything in sight and never gained a pound until I turned 40. Activity is every bit as important how much food is stuffed into the pie hole. If you're inactive, you have a resting metabolism, so quantity and quality of food are pretty important. If you get up out of sofa, the calories you'll burn are far and away more than the numbers of a sedentary lifestyle.

 

[cr0ft]

Ok, this is now straying a fair bit away from bikes and onto health, but hey, it's just us here right?

Not so fast- remember what it was like to be 18 years old? I ate everything in sight and never gained a pound until I turned 40. Activity is every bit as important how much food is stuffed into the pie hole. If you're inactive, you have a resting metabolism, so quantity and quality of food are pretty important. If you get up out of sofa, the calories you'll burn are far and away more than the numbers of a sedentary lifestyle.

Yes, of course, as you age your metabolism slows down. That's a big part of the reason why 40+ guys develop a gut - they do, as you say, keep eating like they always have, and their bodies can no longer burn it all. That doesn't invalidate the point, that it's still your food intake that determines your weight - you have to adjust it down to fit your slowed-down metabolism. If a 25-year old 350lb guy has a resting BMR (basal metabolic rate) of 2800 calories, the exact same guy at the same weight will burn maybe 2500-2600 at age 50, fully naturally.

But as I said, exercise is great, but primarily you need to keep your calories in below your calories burned. Most people have no clue whatsoever how much they need or how much they put in said pie hole, so of course they can't control their weight.

And then there are guys like me who do know but still fall for the temptation of a good meal...

 

[1BigDog]

Not so fast- remember what it was like to be 18 years old? I ate everything in sight and never gained a pound until I turned 40. Activity is every bit as important how much food is stuffed into the pie hole. If you're inactive, you have a resting metabolism, so quantity and quality of food are pretty important. If you get up out of sofa, the calories you'll burn are far and away more than the numbers of a sedentary lifestyle.

I was pretty active during my youth. While my weight fluctuated I was never really big until I passed that 40 mark. I am now coming up on 59 and my body resists most forms of exercise. I try to lift weights and it gets downright nasty. Some inner creature lurking inside me comes to the surface, grabs a chunk of muscle or a tendon, pulls hard enough to make me scream and whispers into my ear: hey A-hole, you had 40 years to do this. Im retired now so dont even think about it. So, I listen to my inner self and soothe his savage ways with a nice piece of lasagna...........im just saying......

 

[1BigDog]

So, until the weight comes off my fat ass I decided to do 3 things. Since I had 2 stock seats and one new LongHaul seat with back rest I spoke with Utopia who only makes back rests for the classic right now and I am sending him one of my stock seats for him to do a little R/D on. If he is successful then he will offer the back rest for the Tourer as well. Ill know next week if its feasible. Utopia makes a nice back rest and has been around for a while. I installed the other stock seat in the meantime so I can at least ride the bike. If and when the project seat comes back and it feels good I may decide to either keep the Longhaul seat for the future or sell it now. Its brand new. Never even farted on it. Lets see how this goes......

 

[vanguard138]

Paddling a kayak...now im exhausted just from thinking about that.......

I have a Wilderness System Pungo. Like to kayak more than canoe.

 

[Molinoman]

Saboteur is absolutely correct...period. You don't have to lift weights...just going out walking at a very brisk pace does the trick for me along with watching what I eat. You can get your weight down to some extent by watching your intake but the burning of calories is where it is at. If you walk and don't run you tend to lose more weight as since it takes longer to walk the same distance as it does to run it your body is getting more exercise just because of the time involved. Walking briskly tends to keep your heart rate up as much as running so you get better results because of this. I am walking more now at night than I ever have and feel better. When I was overseas in Afghanistan since I didn't a vehicle assigned to me I used to go over at around 260 lbs and in a couple of months, with all the walking, I would be around the 235 to 240 mark. The 24 day vacation my wife and I took when I returned from Afghanistan in 2011 just about killed me in weight gain (went from 238 to 263 during that time because of all that driving, eating, minimal walking around and repeating the routine everyday for those 24 days. Since I may be going back overseas again sometime after July, hopefully, I am trying to lose a lot of that weight.

As for the seats on the R3T...the original one was pretty comfy for me (on my Rocket Classic I would go about 80 to 100 miles and have to get off and walk around some before writing further) I didn't really notice any discomfort but I did move up to the Long Haul Touring seat with the backrest as I do like that backrest for good support while traveling. On my recent "almost" trip to Daytona in March I rode comfortably and didn't stop once for a "break" other than filling up the gas tank.

Good luck in whatever way you choose to handle getting comfortable in the seat.


Dennis