I picked up the Softail Slim on Thursday.  Pretty happy with it

Some pics a friend took on last weekend's ride.

Nice looking bikes. Just curious what are the seats like after an hour or so, are they short rides only or good for 1/2 day or all day?

Hi Captain, I was shifting around in the seat a fair bit after a few hours... an aftermarket seat and possibly even a detachable windshield to take the strain off the arms when your charging into a head wind, are things I'm thinking about... worried about wrecking the look of the bike though so I'll I wont be rushing anything...

Like the blue paint voigtstr, was curious how it was going to come out, looks good. Yeah Captain, the stock seat does get a little hard when on the longer rides, I sent to the states for a Mustang vintage wide tourer solo just for the over 200k plus rides. The profile of the seat puts you just a tad higher than the stock but that's ok....Keep to the stock when riding around town because of this reason...but the Mustang suits the look of the bike and I got to say a hell of a lot comfier on the longer runs.

Thanks for that, they are a nice looking seat and was thinking of putting one on mine. Maybe have a upholsterer reshape the seat a bit, might do it if you want to keep it. Screens are good, even a small one takes away the windsock effect from the upright Harley riding position.

Happy as with my "Older" Softail Slim.

Seats fine.

 

Hi voigtstr, I like your new ride, I too ended up changing the seat, I ended up going to a thinner one with springs and just fitted forward controls, I'am 5"7 and found stretching out a little seem to make all the difference, the funny thing is once you start playing with the look and get bitten with the custom bug, look out, it seems never ending hahaha.

I've found that being conscious of my posture is important for longer rides. IE lean in from your hips into the wind, at 100Km/h or above rather than using your arms to pull you forward.. probably sounds obvious, but my arms were wrecked after the first decent ride... On a different ride using the muscles of my abdomen and hips to lean me forward it was much more comfortable.

Will give that a try, but the main problem is not an aching back, it's the sore butt from the poorly constructed seat as it begins to feel like a church pew when the tank is getting empty. A screen, even a small one helps alot too, also a piece of sheep skin is as good as a $150 dearer seat.