Seat Pad
Pro Pad
Real Sheepskin Top Pad—$129.95
www.thepropad.com
800.403.2714
You’ve hooked up with some new riding buddies that have invited you on a cross-country adventure. They’re planning on crossing two and a half states the first day. No, not Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont—Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas. They’ve been running fast and hard since early morning, stopping only 20 minutes every couple hours.
Your rear end is reminding you of your high school football initiation where you were on your hands and knees, rolling a peanut with your nose down the street, while the seniors were beating your butt with boards. Or perhaps when you pledged your college fraternity, grabbing your ankles and shouting, “Thank you sir, paddle me again harder sir!”
Finally you break down at the next gas stop and ask, “How do you guys do it?” They smile and point to that thing on their motorcycle seats and reply, “Pro Pad Top Pad!”
Of course it doesn’t have to be that severe to enjoy the benefits of a Pro Pad Top Pad. Even if you’re only going for a couple hundred miles round trip for the day, the Pro Pad Top Pad will keep your seat feeling just as comfortable at the end of the ride as it did in the beginning.
Pro Pad Top Pads incorporate a viscoelastic dry polymer seat insert, which is the key to longer riding comfort. The same polymer is used in the medical profession in wheelchairs and on treatment tables. I’ve heard that Nascar drivers use Pro Pad seat pads. The viscoelastic dry polymer helps decrease pressure points to allow for more blood flow, causing less pain when sitting for long periods of time. The polymer is a stable solid, which does not build and hold heat during the summer.
Pro Pad Top Pads are a significant way to remain more comfortable on your longer motorcycle rides. They offer luxurious real sheepskin motorcycle seat pads, smooth leather motorcycle seat pads, and durable quilted-cloth covered pads, all in a variety of sizes. I chose the sheepskin pad. According to Pro Pad: “Real sheepskin is super luxurious and functional: a natural fiber that repels water, keeps you cooler in the heat and warmer in the cold.” I also chose the large size. The large measures about 16″ wide by about 12″ long. My wife (my passenger) and I share the top pad, and trade off at gas or comfort stops.
One thing you have to consider when you add a top pad to your motorcycle seat is the fact that your seat surface will be about an inch higher than without the pad. If you happen to be of the shorter riding stature, like me, you will be more on your toes when you come to a stop. Pro Pad claims their pads compress to only about a half inch when you’re sitting on them.
They say the top pad is easy to install, but there is not really any installation to it. You can simply put it on your motorcycle seat and sit on it. The full nonslip bottom will keep it in place. The nonslip bottom looks like a bunch of rubber BBs strung together. For a little more security, Pro Pad has an elastic strap under the front of the pad to slip under your motorcycle seat, which keeps the pad in place when you climb off the bike. Pro Pad also supplies two quick detachable coated-metal clips that you can use to secure the back of the pad, but we’ve never even taken them out of the package.
We’ve really enjoyed our Pro Pad Top Pad on our cross-country motorcycle adventures. With the sheepskin, it is true that it is cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. And it can be dried quickly after it’s been rained on. If we’re stopping for a quick road food snack in the summer, I will usually flip the top pad upside down if the bike is parked in the sun. But when we stop at the end of the day, my Pro Pad comes into the room with me. I even use it on unpadded chair seats at home.
So, if you’re into maximum comfort for maximum riding fun, that’s what the Pro Pad Top Pad is all about—more fun—because riding in pain isn’t fun for anyone. You can even get them for RVs and trucks.
