Ive now done aprox 600 miles and find that the seat has 'mellowed' a bit. I have a very sensitive arse (wouldn't fair well in prison!) so have tried almost everything. I have tried an air hawk seat pad, padded cycle shorts as I initially found the seat way to hard! the air hawk does help but I still get numb bum at around 200 miles, the padded cycle shorts work for about the same distance! I haven't tried both at the same time yet! but will try this combo next time out lol.... I did however go for a ride yesterday for 300 miles using cycle shorts and found that the seat seems to be moulding to my rather large posterior! and wasn't too bad, so maybe they do need some breaking in. Either way its much better than my old 800GS seat which was bad! Next to try out will be a sheepskin to see what that's like. Or even a sheepskin, air hawk cycle short combo!!!!!!pmsl, plus it will raise my ride height at the same time hehehehe...