The Seat Cushion That Got Me Through Day Two to Myrtle Beach

Somewhere around mile 400 on day two, I pulled into a rest area outside Fayetteville, North Carolina, and just stood there for a minute. Not because I needed gas. Not because I needed coffee. Because my backside had gone numb somewhere around Roanoke, and by the time I hit the North Carolina line, every bump in the pavement felt like it was landing on a bruise I hadn't had an hour earlier. This is the part of the ride nobody puts in the brochure: the last 200 miles of a 600-mile day, when the bike is running fine and you are the only thing falling apart.

I'm Hank Sobczak. I'm 61, I've been riding about 35 years, and every year I point my 2019 Indian Chieftain south from Pittsburgh toward Myrtle Beach. Linda takes the car and meets me there; I take the long way, about 600 miles each way, usually with an overnight stop in Virginia. I've done that ride on the stock seat, on a seat with extra padding, and on one memorable trip with a folded towel duct-taped to the cover. Last season I finally ordered a SKYJDM gel seat cushion, and it changed the worst part of the ride.

The idea came from a buddy at the union hall who rides a Gold Wing. He told me he'd been running a gel pad on long trips, and I said what I always say, which is that I've been riding longer than some of these products have been on the market, and I didn't need a fancy cushion. He let me take his bike around the parking lot with the cushion on it. I changed my mind before we got back to the parking spots.

The listing calls it a shock absorbing, pressure relieving seat cushion, large size, and the specs say the fill is TPE gel with a breathable fabric cover and a foldable design. I can tell you it folds flat enough to go in a saddlebag, and the butterfly shape gives your backside room to spread out instead of sitting on one spot all day. That's the whole trick, and I didn't believe it until I felt it.

The first test was a weekend run from Pittsburgh down to the New River Gorge, about 150 miles each way. I'll be honest: I didn't notice a huge difference on the way down. The stock seat on the Chieftain is not a bad seat, and for the first couple of hours, my backside wasn't complaining yet. It was on the way back, around hour three, that I realized I wasn't doing the little shift-and-squirm dance I usually do. I wasn't counting down the miles to the next rest stop. I just rode.

The real test was the Myrtle Beach run. Day one, Pittsburgh to the Virginia overnight stop, about 340 miles. Fine. Day two, the long haul from Virginia to the coast, and that's the day that usually breaks me. Somewhere around the North Carolina border, I caught myself waiting for the familiar ache to start. It didn't. I got to the hotel in Myrtle Beach, rolled my shoulders, and realized the worst thing I could say about the seat was that I'd forgotten I was sitting on it. That's the highest compliment a seat cushion can get.

I got to Myrtle Beach and realized the worst thing I could say about the seat was that I'd forgotten I was sitting on it.

Now, a couple of honest notes, because every piece of gear has them. The SKYJDM cushion is not a cure-all. If your stock seat is genuinely broken down, or you've got a back problem that needs real medical attention, a gel pad is not the answer. It's also not a passenger seat solution; my wife rides pillion on shorter rides, and I haven't talked her into testing this one yet. And the care instructions say to avoid prolonged direct sunlight or extreme heat, which matters if you park in the open at a rally all day. I take mine off the bike when I'm parked for more than a few hours, and it lives in the saddlebag.

The other thing worth saying: it's not a small purchase, but it's a cheap experiment. I've spent more money on a single tank of gas and a mediocre lunch on that trip. The cushion paid for itself on the first long ride, and I've used it on a couple of Myrtle Beach trips and a lot of weekend rides since. It's held up fine, the gel hasn't shifted, and the cover still breathes. The 3D honeycomb structure in the interior does what it's supposed to do: it moves air instead of trapping heat against you.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If we were sitting at my kitchen table, with Biscuit the dog asleep under the table and Pepper the cat pretending she's too good for us, here's what I'd say. You don't need to spend a fortune to make a long ride better. You need to fix the one thing that's actually bothering you, and for most of us, on a stock seat, that's the pressure on your backside after hour three. A gel cushion like this one from SKYJDM is the cheapest fix I've found in 35 years of riding.

I'd also tell you to try it before you write it off. I was the guy who made fun of the Gold Wing crowd for their comfort gadgets, and then I rode 600 miles with one and changed my mind. I'd tell you to read the specs and buy the size that matches your bike, and to remember that it's a tool, not a cure-all. It won't fix a bad seat, a bad back, or a bad attitude. It will fix the specific problem of your backside going numb at mile 400, and that's a real problem worth fixing.