Long-Term Triumph Street Twin: Seat Options Explored

One of my original complaints about the Street Twin was cramped ergos, due to the low 30.1-inch seat height. I appreciate that this little Bonnie was built for shorter riders, but I've still got 30 inches of inseam to accommodate. I first got the Triumph Brown Ribbed Seat, which was about an inch higher, but I was still looking for more legroom. That's when I decided to order up the British Customs Brown Diamond Stitch Slammer Seat, to see if it could give the perch a boost.

Now sitting at 31.7 inches tall, this seat height is ideal for me. My legroom increased from 18.6 inches (stock) to 20.6 inches, and my knees feel so much better! The Slammer name is apropos, however, as this seat is punishing on rides longer than 15 minutes. Resident video master, Spenser Robert, agreed, “It’s just rock hard. The shape doesn’t help, but the shape wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the saddle wasn’t made out of granite.” That being said, the folks at British Customs claim there is a known break in period that makes the seat foam feel hard at first, but over time will conform to your derriere. When the British Customs seat arrived and I took it out of the box, it was noticeably heavy, so I took all the seats to our shipping scale. At nearly 9 pounds, the British Customs seat is about twice the weight of the other two seats. Granite, indeed.

The thing about these flat bench seats is that they lead to more sliding in the saddle. You slip back during acceleration and forward during braking, and even from side to side mid turn. (Thanks, physics!) Without the contour of the stock seat, the fore and aft movement can't be helped, unless I'm willing to consider a custom suede upholstery job. I'll give that a solid maybe. But the side-to-side movement can be helped with a little assistance from Triumph's Rubber Knee Pads, which give a grippy surface to dig your knees into while turning. Thumbs-up for these—they've helped quite a bit. Application was super simple. Just clean the sides of the gas tank with the included wipe, and stick the knee pads on where you want them. Now to find an upholsterer…

Wrist Julia LaPalme
MSRP (2016) $8,700
Miles 5,830
MPG 55
Mods Seat, tank pads
Update 5