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Guts Replacement Seat Cover and Foam



When your butt and your seat disagree



One of the first impressions offered by a motorcycle is its seat. Throw a leg over a dirt bike and you'll immediately notice is how it feels against your backside. If the seat is like a wooden chair, your reaction will fall into two general categories. Either you won't care because you rarely use the seat when you ride, or like me, you'll already be thinking about alternatives.


I use my seat. I like my seat. I want a comfortable seat! My 2020 Beta 300RR came with an awful seat. This wasn't the first time I bought a bike with a rock-hard seat. My 2009 KTM 250XC seat was as firm as the Beta. In 2009, all it took were a few mouse-clicks, and a reasonably priced complete seat from an aftermarket company arrived at my door.


Complete seats existed for the Beta in 2020, but came at a high cost. The few available options were typically more than twice the price of a similar KTM complete seat.


Enter Guts Racing and their seat foams and covers. Guts opened their doors in 1985 and seem to know a few things about seat covers. Sure, I would have preferred the simplicity of a complete seat, but Guts had foam and they had a cover and that's what I needed.


I ordered a "Hardcore Gripper" seat cover in red, along with stock-height foam with medium firmness. At $150 in 2020, this was the going rate, but was still more expensive than many complete seats for more popular dirt bikes. I also ordered a can of their fancy seat foam adhesive.


The seat cover itself does not require staples. Guts developed a relatively new method for connecting the cover to the seat base, using Velcro. How, you may ask, is it possible for a seat cover to stay put without staples? I asked the same question and then viewed a Guts instructional video a couple of times to see how this was possible. It works because of where the Velcro is placed on the seat base, and the forces acting on the seat cover at that location (watch the video).


I liked what I saw, so I ordered the Velcro-fastening version of the seat cover. This does not completely eliminate the need for staples, however. The images below explain why. Here's how the process went.





Installing the Guts Gripper Seat Cover and foam



Old Seat



The stock seat foam is hard. The cover is fine, although not especially grippy.



Removing the old cover



First order of business is pulling out the old staples.



Staples removed



Now take off the cover and the foam.



Old and new



The stock foam is able the same thickness as the Guts foam.



Smooth out the staple holes



Probably not required, but Guts recommended smoothing out the holes left from the staples in the seat base.



But they're so new....



The old seat cover and foam, before they were tossed into the "maybe I'll need it someday" box.



Ready for adhesive



All cleaned up for foam. But first, the Velcro goes on.



Apply the Velcro



The Guts instructions do a good job showing how this works....sort of like a puzzle. The Velcro is adhesive-backed.



Puzzle solved



Velcro application complete.





The just-in-case staples



Guts recommends stapling the Velcro pieces to the seat base, for extra piece of mind.



Spray-on



I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives, but the Guts seat foam spray was easy.



Cover installed



This was the most remarkably easy seat cover installation ever.



All done



Ready for mounting



Turned out great



If you don't like the way the cover went on, just rip it off the Velcro and try again.



Decent color match



The color is not quite as bright as the old cover, but still looks good.



Testing





The feel of the seat is a huge improvement. I've raced the bike several times with the new foam and rarely even notice the seat at all. For a seat-hugger like me, that's a win.


There are instances when the seat feels just a bit soft, but that's only when I'm sitting through a rough impact, such as a higher-speed rutted corner with tree roots or rocks. I've never figured out how to be comfortable standing up through those types of corners, so the seat is pretty important. The old foam gave me a hard spanking in those situations.


With any product, durability is important. As of this writing in October 2021, the verdict on this is still out. Once I get a few more punishing rides on the seat cover, I'll report back. But so far the Guts seat cover/foam combo is a winner.


Update October 2021

At the Bucky dual sport ride, hosted by the Madison Motorcycle Club, I had my first chance to put the seat cover to a test. The Bucky is a great ride, nearly 100 miles in length, covering the hills and valleys near Cross Plains, Wisconsin. Mixed in with the main "blue" trails were red ("hero") and orange (hard enduro) trails. The orange trails were usually brief but challenging, and the Beta survived several floggings. I dragged the bike several times up and down steep, rocky hills. I even teetered on a log, using the seat as a fulcrum. The cover held up just fine.




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