Yamaha Ténéré 700 saddle from Seat Concepts

When it comes to stock motorcycles, the two items that owners are most likely to change ? especially those who like to pile on the miles ? are the windscreen and the seat. Folks typically want windscreens that offer more protection and seats that offer more comfort. The Yamaha Ténéré 700 is no exception.

We recently published our review of the Yamaha T7, an off-road-focused adventure bike with a long, narrow dirtbike-style seat. The stock seat has two parts: a long rider portion that slopes down from the tank to a low point and then up toward the separate passenger seat. The rider and passenger seats form a uniform surface, but it?s sloped rather than flat and is narrow and firm.
The Yamaha Ténéré 700 stock seat (photo by Kevin Wing)

Yamaha Ténéré 700 saddle from Seat Concepts

The rider portion height is 34.4 inches. Yamaha makes an accessory low seat ($129.99) that reduces seat height by 0.8 inch, but the lower height is achieved by eliminating much of what is already minimal padding. Yamaha?s accessory rally seat ($219.99) is 1.6 inches taller than stock, and it has a flatter surface and thicker padding. However, both of Yamaha?s accessory seats are just as narrow as the stock seat.

Seeking more comfort, we turned to Seat Concepts, a company based in Idaho that makes replacement seats for adventure and dual-sport bikes. I?ve had a Seat Concepts saddle on my KTM 690 Enduro R for the past five y...