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Air Rider Articles

Air/Gel By Laura Brengelman
Originally Featured in Motorcycle Tour And Cruiser

My Kawasaki ZRX1100 is on the tall side, and putting a gel pad or other cushion on top only makes it worse. The stock seat was in perfect shape, but didn't do it for long hauls. So, the solution was to have something inserted in the seat. Talking with Jerry Daniels and his son Chuck at Ooltewah Manufacturing, I decided to try one of their seat inserts.

"Oolte-what" you say? Jerry started the company over 30 years ago, naming it after his hometown. Since then, it's gone through lots of changes and focused on several areas. One is motorcycle communications systems. Another is air seats and gel pads; the Air Rider Air/Gel system I chose for my bike combines the two.

Chuck said they'd never modified a ZRX seat, but told me to send mine along. I also asked if he could lower the seat. The day he received my package, Chuck called and told me there wasn't enough depth to the seat to insert the Air/Gel and lose much height. I decided to go ahead with it and look into lower shocks.

The Air/Gel insert is a plastic-encased bladder made with a layer of medical-grade gel on top with open-cell foam below. A short piece of plastic tubing inserted in one side connects to a valve that's used to release air and re-inflate the bladder.

I sit pretty far forward on my ZRX, so I'd marked the seat with chalk to show Chuck where to position the insert. He carved a bowl-like hole out of my seat's existing foam and inserted the Air/Gel bladder. It's also available for passenger seats, but  I ride solo so I only have one installed.

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