I went from the stock seat on my 2005 Road King to a Corbin Dual Tour. That stock seat was so bad. 30 minutes and my *** was in pain.

Why the Corbin? Because Hollister is 45 minutes from my house and they custom fit it for me right there at no extra charge.

They gave me the "you want a firm seat" story as well. I didn't know if I believed them until I road to Sturgis a month later.

I could sit on that seat and my butt never ached or got tired. I did 12+ hour days on that thing and all my riding buddies would be wiggling around in their seats and I was good to go.

I sold the bike with the seat. The stock seat on my SGS is better than the stock seat on the Road King.. but I do see another Corbin in my future.

 

Stories like that keeps me looking at Corbin. I kind of believe the hard foam thing. It seems like the seats I bought after about a hour or so the foam bottoms out. I press on them after ring a while and it’s like they are compressed to the pan.

 

Go by a local Indy and see what kind of inventory they may have. I picked up a 2 up Corbin for cheap so I could still use my back rest. I had to modify the tongue to work on my '96 but it's all good.
My bike came with a solo Corbin and back rest that I use every now and then to change things up.
Support your local Indy shop.

 

Trial and error. Bought and sold a lot of used seats. I've had Mustang touring seats on my '95, '00, and '01 Road Kings & '07 Street Glide, and liked them a lot. I recently took the plunge and got a Corbin for my '14 RK. Very happy with the comfort and look. Only reason I didn't go with Mustang again is that I couldn't find one that was as visually appealing as the Corbin Gunfighter with back rest. They're not cheap and production lead time is 3-4 weeks for standard build and 6-7 weeks for a special build.

 

Sargent is what I use. Much firmer than stock, but not as board-hard as the Corbin. The Sargent has some give to it, that you don't really notice until you're riding on some rough pavement. Sargent, like Corbin uses closed-cell foam, so they don't compress or bottom out over time like stock.

 

So, I just purchased a Mustang Wide vintage solo with backrest to replace my police seat.
I am going to have to go against the grain here, but after riding with the cop seat for the last 8K miles, I must say that is by far the best seat I've ever tried.
I wish I would have bought a back rest for it and just kept that instead, but now I have the mustang which wasn't cheap, so, I'll keep the new one on the bike and store the cop seat until I make up my mind.

In comparison, riding the same road with both seats, the mustang feels like stepping out of a Cadillac and driving a Porsche 911... I mean, you can feel every single bump on the road on your kidneys.
A second thing I like about the cop seat is the amount of low speed control you get, it really is unreal, night and day difference.

Now, the cop seat is not the prettiest of them all, and is not for everyone. I am 5'11" with a 33" inseam so the added height didn't affect me at all.

With that said, the cop seat makes you feel like you are riding on a cloud.

 

I have a mustang seat and a mustang solo seat for my Road King. They both are pretty hard. I can do a tank of gas without hurting very much on either seat.
I have a back rest that I don't use because it keeps me from moving around when I need to if I start feeling some pain down there.

 

worth noting a lot of seat suggestions you get here may be too big for your frame (2001) and could rub on the saddlebag lids as seat will be too wide. Also, the curvature of the seatpan may not fit the frame/rear fender. HD's frame change after 2008 made some of those seats fit awkwardly (if at all) on the older frame. I know as I've tried.

Its almost worth just going to a Pro-Pad or a sheepskin on top of a seat and keeping the seat (if ya can)....the Pro Pad has a mesh on top that helps w/ Monkey Butt. That can be so painful. As for "Corbin" suggestions, I won't even go into Corbins shitty customer service here. Never again. Ever.

 

Didn't like my Corbin or their attitude either.