Butty Buddy on my VTX1300C

First off, yes it's called "Butty Buddy", yes it's a comical name, and yes, you're the first person to point that out to me :joker:

My 2007 VTX 1300 C came stock with a pretty neat looking gunfighter seat. It's not the most comfortable seat I've sat on, but it's not too bad overall. The passenger pillion, however, leaves a little to be desired to say the least.

Once my girlfriend started riding with me, it became painfully obvious (pun intended) that something had to be done about the passenger seat. So I set off looking for replacement seats.

Found some great reviews on Mustang seats (VFRWorld's very own tinkerinwstuff has one on his Shadow and likes it) so checked those out... talk about sticker shock!!!
:jaw:

Another option I found some good reviews on was the "Butty Buddy [link]" for $150USD + shipping... a clip on seat that claims to provide a solution to uncomfortable passenger pillions. They state that gel pads and foam covers provide a more cushioned seat, but do nothing for the real problem - a narrow seat that provides no support to the rider.

The Butty Buddy seat is a snap-together platform that clips onto the stock passenger pillion and provides 13+ inches of width for the passenger.

Here are some pictures:







Stock seat, for reference.



What comes in the box.



The three-piece snap-together design.



Mounted on the passenger seat.



Two retaining straps are located on each side to secure it to the fender/frame rails/sissy bar/etc.



It is indeed much wider and contoured for the passenger's comfort.

So we took a ride to try out the seat. Comfort wise, it was definitely an improvement, but she didn't like how much higher it placed her. In addition to this, it made the sissy bar hit her lower in the back which was uncomfortable. So I began to price out taller sissy bars, which did not exist unless I custom fabricated something, which I wasn't too keen on doing.

Bottom line (pun NOT intended this time) it wasn't exactly what we were looking for, so I returned it. For $150, I expected a little "more" for my money. For us, it wasn't going to cut it for "long rides" (more than an hour on the bike). For someone who rarely takes passengers, but wants to have something in the saddlebags ready to go for a quick trip around town, it might be just the ticket.

So, on with the search. I ended up reading a DIY on a local VTX board that I'm a member on, which detailed the modifications required for fitting the stock seat from a VTX 1800 C onto my VTX 1300 C [link]. This seat offers several improvements over my stock seat.

First, it's a two-piece design which allows the possibility of going "solo" with just the driver's seat.

Second, the passenger pillion is considerably cushier, wider, and more comfortable.

There were several for sale on VTX message boards, as well as on eBay. I ended up buying one from eBay for $70USD. Then I proceeded to cut the base of the seat pan for fitment, and shave and reshape the foam on the sides of the driver's seat for clearance with the side covers.

The end result:



This ended up being more comfortable for her than the Butty Buddy, as well as more affordable. We rode for 2 hours on this seat with no issues. Additionally, if necessary I can use the difference in money saved on the Butty Buddy seat to have the passenger pillion professionally modified to add gel pads and memory foam inside the seat cover.

Thanks for checking it out!

-elwray

 

One word...Airhawk. They work like a champ...about $120 for the pillion at Airhawk Seat Cushions | Airhawk Seat.

 

Passenger pillion on the new seat is ~10" in the front, 9" in the rear as far as width goes. Looking at ~2.75-3" thick.

It's a similar look to the Mustang, except yes the Mustang is "deeper". To be honest it's not a huge difference for me ... it's a little firmer than the stock seat (which is a good thing, I was "bottoming out" (look another pun!) on the stocker and hitting the plastic...) but I think I will have both seats sent out to get memory foamed... they can shave out some of the drivers seat and make me sit more "in" the saddle instead of "on" the bike.

I have heard great things about them... but I'm happy I went with a "permanent" solution for a little less than that.

 

My bad, I didn't read the whole thing...thought you were still looking. I bought a used Mustang for my Vulcan 900 Custom and never could get it to sit down right and latch. Gave up and bought the little Airhawk and she's happy. Just need to get the Mustang posted up for sale...