My Bagster comfort seat review did not go the way I expected when I ordered it. I bought the Bagster seat for my 2022 Yamaha MT-09 SP because the stock seat is genuinely terrible for anything over an hour. Thin foam, no real padding to speak of, and the pressure points show up fast. I wanted a fix before I even took delivery of the bike.
The obvious choice was the Yamaha Comfort Saddle. I’d watched a video by Blockhead where he installed one and said it made a real difference for longer rides. At around $230 it seemed like a reasonable upgrade. I went to the Yamaha online store, found the seat, selected my year, and it was backordered. That was March. By mid-July it was still backordered with no end date in sight and no way to queue up for it. So I started looking elsewhere.
A friend of mine suggested I check out an aftermarket option. He’d just ordered a Bagster seat for his Aprilia through a company called Chromeburner
and pointed me in their direction. That’s where this whole thing started.
Table of Contents
Finding the Bagster Seat Through Chromeburner
Ordering from a company I’d never used before gave me some pause. This was right around the time the Bike Bandit situation blew up where they were taking orders and then going dark with people’s money. I wasn’t thrilled about handing my credit card to a Netherlands-based retailer I’d never dealt with. But I decided to go for it and use my credit card so I could dispute the charge if things went sideways.
It turned out to be a completely smooth transaction. Chromeburner shipped fast, the packaging survived international transit better than I expected, and their customer service reviews were solid. I was genuinely impressed. The seat arrived looking good in the box and went right on the bike without any issues.
The only wrinkle on the aesthetics side was that the seat I ordered was technically spec’d for the base MT-09, not the SP. It was the only color available and it has blue piping and a blue print on it. I was a little worried it would look off but it actually ties in well with the blue accents on the SP’s wheels. It works.
First Impressions on the Bike
First ride was 50 miles. I came home happy. No pressure points, noticeably more comfortable than stock, and it looked right on the bike. But 50 miles isn’t a real test for a comfort seat. You need more than that to know what you actually have.
That Saturday I mapped out a 100-mile loop on Pennsylvania back roads. That’s a better gauge. The Bagster seat is considerably thicker than the stock seat in the areas that matter. The stock MT-09 seat foam is stiff and thin and there just isn’t much there. The Bagster foam is softer and the difference in pressure point buildup was noticeable.
My one concern going in was the raised back section on the Bagster. With the stock seat I could scoot back progressively as I got uncomfortable and redistribute the pressure. I was worried the Bagster would lock me in place and make things worse faster. That didn’t happen. Because the foam is softer the pressure points don’t develop nearly as quickly and that raised back section wasn’t the problem I thought it would be.
I did stop once on the 100-mile loop because my hips were getting stiff. That had nothing to do with the seat. Riding a standard position bike for three hours without being able to stretch your legs forward is just going to catch up with you regardless of what you’re sitting on. Highway pegs would probably solve that. The seat itself was doing its job.
I put the bike away happy. $340 well spent. Or so I thought.
Where the Bagster Comfort Seat Falls Apart
The next morning I was getting ready to ride with Steve again. I pulled the bike out, fired it up to let it warm, walked past it gearing up and noticed a white spot on the seat. Went in for a closer look. It was a split in the material.
At that point I had ridden the seat exactly twice for a combined 150 miles. Nothing unusual happened on either ride. The split was tucked up underneath the seat in a spot that nothing else on the bike could have contacted before the seat would have had to contact it first. This wasn’t wear. This was a defect.
I emailed Chromeburner with some photos. They were responsive and apologetic and said they’d contact Bagster directly. A couple days later they came back with Bagster’s position: accidental damage, not covered under warranty. They offered to repair it for roughly 65 Euros.
I declined. I wasn’t going to pay to have them fix something I believe they shipped defective. I told them I’d source my own repair.
Getting It Fixed Locally
I started calling automotive upholstery shops in my area. Eight calls, three callbacks. I went with a local guy in Pottstown, FC Restorations. They do leather work in cars, vinyl repairs, boat interiors, some bar and restaurant seating. The seat was right in their wheelhouse.
He looked it over and said I had two options: patch and dye to blend, or pull the cover and replace the entire bottom panel. He suggested the patch given the location of the damage. It was tucked up underneath where it wouldn’t be visible and it would save me real money. Even though Chromeburner had offered to cover the repair bill I wasn’t going to go send them a $150 invoice for a full panel replacement when a $65 patch would get the job done. The margins on aftermarket seats aren’t that high. They’d already been more than fair with me.
Two days later he called. $65. I went to pick it up and while I was standing there paying him he noticed a second split. About two inches long, in a different spot. Then he pointed to a third area where the material was beginning to separate near the tank contact point and said it would open up on its own if left alone.
He fixed all three. Total bill: $85.
Here’s the thing. He noticed the second split while he was holding the seat to hand it back to me. He wasn’t looking for it. It just appeared. At that point I wasn’t even surprised anymore.
The Verdict on Bagster
Chromeburner handled this situation well. That part needs to be said clearly. They moved fast, they were caught in the middle between me and their supplier, they never pushed back, and they paid the repair bill without hesitation. If you need to order European motorcycle accessories and Chromeburner carries it, I have no problem recommending them based on how they handled this.
Bagster is a different story. Three splits in a seat I’d owned for less than a month. Two of them found by an upholstery guy just handling the seat in his shop. Their response was to call it accidental damage and quote me 65 Euros. I don’t accept that. A product that splits three times in 150 miles of normal riding wasn’t built right.
The seat is comfortable. I want to be honest about that. The foam does what it’s supposed to do and it’s a real improvement over the stock MT-09 seat. If it held together it would be worth the money. But a comfort seat that fails this quickly isn’t a comfort seat you can trust. And a company that won’t stand behind a clear defect isn’t one I’ll do business with again.
First and last Bagster product I’ll ever own.
Ride With Me
If you made it this far you probably found this review because you’re trying to decide whether to buy one of these seats. I hope it helps you make a better decision than I did. Subscribe to the WaltInPA YouTube channel for more riding content including the full video version of this story. If you know an MT-09 owner who’s been eyeing this seat, share this post with them before they pull the trigger. And if you want to talk bikes, gear, and this kind of stuff with a solid group of riders, come hang out in the WaltInPA Discord where good people talk about riding.
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