Bead seats....how do they work?

Thousands of taxi drivers swear by them.

Hundreds of motorcycle riders do as well.



http://ift.tt/Q62PhC



You can see it on my ST1100 I ride in Australia.







We are trying to figure out why it works and the only thing I can think of is the rounded surface of the beads actually distributes the pressure over a wider area than a flat surface of a seat.



Cuz it really does work well even tho when you first sit on it it feels hard and you would think it would be uncomfortable over time but it's not.



I wonder if a math wonk might tackle a 14x14 beadrider shape ( assume 15x15 round beads for the sake of the exercise and do a rough guess on the extra surface the rounded beads provide.



How much less pressure per sq inch would that be over a flat seat the same size given a 200 lb rider. assume 100 lb of the riders weight is on the seat for the exercise purpose.



What difference would the beads make to the psi. ( assume the riders butt conforms to the beads perfectly for the exercise. )



Thanks

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