Well my new to me one week ago 08 Ultra just got a big boo boo on it's right butt cheek,Last night a guy I work with rear-ended me in the parking lot with his bike and he hit my right saddlebag pushing it up into the side of my seat,so....I will be needing a new seat among other things.This will be on his insurance company's dime.

I am contemplating having them put a Sundowner on it instead of a new stock 08 Ultra seat,I am 5'8" so I don't want to go back any farther than stock,also I don't want my wife to lose any comfort. Do you guys think this would be wise to go with the SD over the stock Ultra seat? I also wonder if any of the other HD seats would be a better choice,like the harley Hammock seat,I'll go with something from Harley because the local HD dealer will be doing the repairs. Any other things you guys can think of that I should be concearned with on the repairs,also any potential upgrades like the seat thing that I'm not thinking of,Thanks in advance!

 

I use the sundowner on my 08 and love it way better than stock. My question to ask, If I may ask a personal question, is do you own the bike outright whereas an insurance check would be made out to you? If so, I would get the estimate of cost to replace all the damaged parts, order them myself from Zanotti's and do the work myself. That would leave you with cash left over. That's just me, but to answer your question yes I'd go with the Sundowner.

 

Unforunatly I have a loan on the bike. Thanks for the help though,I had a sundowner on my 04 Lowrider and I loved it but even a steel plate would be more comfy that the stock lowrider seat,lol. How did your Sundowner effect the seating position on your bike? being foward and closer to the ground would be good for me cause I'm short on one end,lol.

 

It does make you a tad closer to the ground. I don't believe it pushed me forward though. A reach seat would accomplish that.

 

Foward is not that big a deal,closer to the road would be nice.

 

I had the Sundowner on my '06 RK and really loved it. I put over 20K miles on it and thought it was very comfy. However, being 5'8" myself, the Sundowner still kept me a bit "tippy toed" on the RK but I just learned to live with it.

When I recently traded up to my '10 Ultra, I decided to go with the Reach seat. While not as comfy as the Sundowner, it certainly put me in a better riding position and for the first time, I can actually put both feet down on the pavement.

Another cheap investment you might consider, get some floorboard extensions from Harley Goodies. Those really made a difference too.

JMO

 

Well I dropped the bike off at the dealer saturday,they said that once they get the repair estimate OKed by his Insurance company,that they will let me swap in a different seat and different style heated grips if I want,or whatever else I want to swap out so it may end up working out pretty good in the end,just sucks being bikeless in the short term,lol.