There is a BMW seat from a different bike that is lower by about an inch and a half, but it is not available on the Adventure because the Adventure seat is color coordinated with the rest of the bike. Our rep was a bit vague about which bike it was off of, pointing out that a regular R 1200 GS was a couple of inches lower in seat height and was essentially the same bike. Moral of this story is that if you have short legs and want the colors of the Adventure, you need a friendly dealer to find the right seat and order you one.

The Adventure suspension's does come with a range of adjustments that you can make yourself.

Suspension settings on the Adventure are set on the soft side for street riding. However, it does come with a range of adjustments that you can make yourself. Up front the BMW telelever suspension uses a central strut, with a preloaded spring that has five mechanically adjusted settings. My tester was at the factory setting and at 220 lbs. (99 kilos), I thought the compression and rebound was pretty darn good.

At the back, I never did take a look at the setting, but the rep assured me was set to the same as the front. On the Adventure, BMW uses a die-cast aluminum, single sided, paralever suspension utilizing a single strut with a preloaded spring that also increases dampening with increased travel. This unit uses hydraulics for spring adjustment and does not have individual steps, but rather a small hand wheel for infinite adjustment.

So far all of this is standard equipment, but BMW Canada does put a few options out to make your Adventure (urban or off road) a bit more comfortable. At the top of the list is an Enduro transmission which has a different first gear ratio for some real rock work. Off-road tires, an alarm system and a luggage rack are the other stand alone items.

After that you have to order “packages” and there are three main ones. The Safety Package includes items like is a linked ABS system that can be disengaged if the rider desires. Tire pressure control and Stability control round the package out. The highly original names of Equipment Package 1 and Equipment Package 2 have things like a trip computer or electronic suspension in them as well as other new items and upgrades to existing equipment.

One thing that I did find is that after an hour or so, my butt was ready to give up on the stock seat. A couple of others that I was with said, rather rudely, that I was probably suffering from “spring butt” and that it would take a day or two of riding in the spring to get used to any seat. Normally I would agree, but this was the first ride of the day and I had only been on the bike for an hour or so. Verbal abuse aside, I think my butt would need to have me spend more time on the pegs or get a different seat. I’m not ready to recontour my backside for any bike, BMW or not.

BMW Canada does put a few options out to make your Adventure (urban or off road) a bit more comfortable.