Wunderlich Active Comfort heated seats review | BMW R1250GS test

Date reviewed: February 2025 | Tested by: John Milbank | Price: £499.90 each | www.nippynormans.com

Every so often I get the chance to review a product that really surprises me. Sometimes it’s disappointment of course, but others it’s a realisation of just how much better an upgrade part can be; what a difference it can make to a ride.

The Wunderlich Active Comfort heated seats on review here are not cheap, but they can make a big difference. Supplied by leading BMW accessory store Nippy Norman’s, having fitted them to my 2019 R1250GS I’ve been very impressed with their build-quality, performance and comfort. More importantly though, my wife Helen absolutely loves the pillion seat, and that means more chances to ride when the weather’s cold…

Pros & Cons

Who are the Wunderlich heated seats for?

Available in these heated versions, or non-heated for £369.90 front and £329.90 rear, the Wunderlich seats are designed to improve comfort not by being softer than the originals, but through careful sculpting that’s intended to relieve pressure and put your spine in a better position. They can also suit your height with low, standard and high versions available.

When I started looking at aftermarket seats it was for the heat, but I soon realised just how much better these can be…

Helen hates being cold. Not a rational ‘I’d rather be warm’ kind of emotion: it’s far more aggressive and all-consuming. If she gets cold, all bets are off. Play stops. We’re not going out.

When we reviewed the BMW R1300GS she absolutely adored the heated seats, despite it being a cold, wet day. Have a watch and you’ll see what I mean…

BMW R1300GS pillion opinion

Helen digs deep into the passenger comfort of the new bike

After that ride, I started looking at the cost of chopping my 2019 bike in for the new 1300, but it would have been at least £7,000 on top of the trade-in and honestly, I still love my bike.

So I started looking for a heated rear seat for Helen. The Oxford Hot Seat was an option, but the control is annoying.

I considered an OEM heated BMW seat but my bike doesn’t have the loom that’s needed. Still, the pillion one has its own onboard control and a two-wire input (the rider seat is controlled from the dash), so I was pretty sure I could get it wired into the Hex ezCAN power distributor. It might not work though, and finding a decent used one wasn’t easy…

The Wunderlich heated seats come with their own wiring harness, which is what I’m reviewing here, but there are also ‘plug and play’ versions that can plug straight into bikes that have the loom already.

Construction & build quality

Wunderlich’s seats are designed and developed inhouse, just south of Cologne, and handmade by Wolfgang Märkl, a small automotive upholstery company in Bavaria, near Ingoldstadt.

The build quality is superb, from the base – which pretty much matches the OEM, even down to the tool holder in the pillion seat – to the Alcantara trim and grippy-but-not-too-grippy cover.

On the rider’s seat, the ugly gap that’s usually seen between the rear of the tank and the front of the seat is neatly closed with an elasticated section on the Wunderlich, and while the stitching is white, with a light grey piping around the sides, I do appreciate that these are subtle-looking, with just a classy-looking logo on the side.

Once sewn, the back of the stitching is glued, taped and welded to prevent water getting through and slowly degrading the foam, and a ‘ThermoPro’ coating is claimed to reflect up to 70% of infrared heat, so in the summer you won’t be climbing onto a red-hot saddle. As I’m reviewing these in winter I haven’t had a chance to test that yet, but I’ll update the review later in the year.

Heated and non-heated versions are available, with the carbon element being moulded into the foam as it’s made, rather than simply laid on top, under the upholstery. This helps to give a more even heat distribution, and should protect the heating element.

It’s said that some heated seats can be damaged if straps are used to tie the bike down across them. This will be a particular issue on seats that have the element directly beneath the cover, but after asking Norman Birtles, owner of Nippy Norman’s, he told me that despite selling hundreds of Wunderlich seats, he’s never seen this happen. Brittany Ferries uses thick pads under the straps, but if you’re concerned, pop the seat off and have the strap run over the frame instead.

Being hand-made, Wunderlich seats can be repaired if they do get damaged.

Fitting the Wunderlich seats

As these versions of the Wunderlich seats are designed for bikes without their own heated seat circuit, you need to wire them in yourself. This is a reasonably simple job, with two wires going straight to the battery via a 5A fuse for power, and a third to a switched live. This can be any auxiliary power output, but do remember that bikes with CANbus can carry signals on lighting circuits. A Scotchlok connector is supplied, with instructions on how to tap into the bike’s circuit at the plug just under the seat, but I used one of the outputs from my Hex ezCAN as I prefer not to touch any of the original loom on my bike.

I stripped my GS right down so I could run the cables neatly under the tank and around the ECU, and didn’t have any issues tucking the four relays (two for each seat) out of the way, leaving the two pairs of connecting cables with enough length to attach the seats.

Four of the six rubber feet under the pillion seat also need replacing with the slightly thicker ones supplied by Wunderlich. You’re given six, but two are spare – the instructions are clear but do make sure you only change the four you need to.

Once wired in, connect the seats and latch them down into place in exactly the same way as the originals. The height-adjustment built into the R1250GS under the front seat – which allows you to set the front and / or rear of it in a high or low position – still works with the Wunderlich seats, but it’s worth noting that locking the pillion seat down can get tricky at times.

This is my only criticism of the Wunderlich GS seats – if set to the rear position, the Wunderlich pillion seat locks down fairly easily, but if you set it to its forward position it can be hard to get the lock to properly engage, especially if the rider’s seat is set to its high position.

The answer is to rest your elbow on the front of the pillion seat and put your weight down through that. Give the seat a tug to make sure it’s locked down, but this solution has certainly helped me.

I do think that if Wunderlich could tweak the design of the front corners of the pillion seat it’d lock down more easily, but once you have the knack it’s not really an issue, and as I tend to have the pillion seat set to the rear now, it’s much easier to lock down.

You could of course only fit a Wunderlich rider’s seat or pillion seat – you don’t have to fit both as a pair.

Low or standard – which Wunderlich seat is right for me?

Before wiring them in, I tried both the standard and low Wunderlich rider’s seats, spending a very long time trying to make my mind up.

While the differences might look small in the picture above, they make a huge difference to my confidence when moving the bike around at low speeds. I’m 5’10” with a 32” inside leg, found the original BMW seat allowed me to get my feet down pretty comfortably.

With the Wunderlich low seat I’m even more planted, but feel little more ‘in’ the bike, whereas the Wunderlich standard seat puts me in a more commanding-feeling position, but it’s a little higher than the original, which means I can only just get my feet flat.

For many people, this wouldn’t be an issue at all, but the GS is a heavy bike, and despite riding for nearly 30 years, I still prefer to be able to feel like I can hold the bike easily on a dodgy surface or awkward incline.

I chose the low seat in the end, but Nippy Norman’s offers a two-week trial period of any Wunderlich seat, where you can even ride with it fitted and return it at their expense for a full refund if you’re not totally happy.

On the left is the Wunderlich standard seat, on the right is the low. You can see how much work goes into the upholstery design by the differences in the panels

Are Wunderlich seats comfortable?

Comfort is of course subjective, but I seem to have a pretty sensitive bum, moaning if a seat’s not just right before most other riders when on bike launches. I’ve always been a big fan of the rider’s seat on my R1250GS, and Helen was happy with the pillion seat, which is why all I was really looking for was a heated unit for her.

I was sceptical that these Wunderlichs would be any better than what I had already, and when I first sat on them I have to admit that I wasn’t that impressed with how firm they felt.

The standard height Wunderlich felt better than the low to me, but because it has far less give than the original BMW seat, it put me that bit too high, so I went with the low, which is much more sculpted and shaves about 30mm off.

But there’s a lot more sculpting on both seats than you can see. Run your finger down the seat and you soon realise that it’s got quite a cut-away to the rear, which cups the bum and puts your back in a very good position. I injured my back over Christmas, but it’s set perfectly on the bike now, and swapping between the OEM BMW seat and this, I realised just how squishy the original is; that’s like sitting on an under-inflated football now.

This is the original pillion seat next to the Wunderlich

I still can’t agree that the original seat is uncomfortable, but the connection the Wunderlich gives to the bike is striking, and the very considered sculpting – while firm and taking a little getting used to – really does make for a very comfortable and much more luxurious feel. It’s hard to express just how higher quality this seat feels compared to the original.

My favourite setting currently is to have my seat in the high position on the front and rear adjusters that are a feature of the R1250GS, which puts me at about the same height as the original seat, but with what feels like a far improved posture. Note, in most of the pictures of the seat on the bike, it’s set at its low position on the front.

The front of the Wunderlich rider’s seat is slightly wider between my thighs than the original, and this was noticeable at first but again I got used to it. A bonus here is that the edge of the seat doesn’t catch on the seam of my riding jeans, which was a very annoying trait of the BMW one.

As for Helen… when she first got on the bike she said she loved how soft the Wunderlich seat felt, which certainly justifies the work that’s gone into the shaping of it as it is most definitely a lot firmer than the original.

Helen won’t pull any punches if a bike’s uncomfortable (watch this video of her trying a Royal Enfield Interceptor for example) and she’s always liked the GS’s seat, but she can definitely feel an improvement now.

I couldn’t justify the cost of a new pillion seat for Helen based just on the additional comfort as she was happy enough with the original, but combined with the heating it’s a different matter…

Restricted pillion space if you have a top-box fitted can be a bit of an issue with these bikes, and Helen found the Givi Trekker I have pushes her a bit too far forwards, so it’s worth knowing that the SW Motech Adventure Rack (with Givi adaptors) allows you to mount the box further back than Givi’s own plate allows.

The heating output is controlled by the relay on the right

Wunderlich heated seats temperature

Helen absolutely loves the heating on this Wunderlich seat.

On a Sunday ride together at 6°C she was raving about how great it was to be able to get out on the bike again. Granted, she had heated gloves and a heated vest on too, but when I asked her if she could only keep one piece of heated kit, what would it be, I was shocked when she said the seat, not the vest.

I do think though that’s because when set to high you can really feel the heat through the seat, whereas the vest and gloves become something you tend to get used to through the ride, so don’t notice their benefit as much. Wunderlich says the seats reach 40°C, but how this feel will depend on what you’re wearing and even your weight as your bum pushes into the foam.

Whether she’d moan more if I took the vest off her is a moot point though, as the fact that we can now ride more through winter without cold-rage kicking in has transformed biking for both of us. She’ll probably have the heat on during a lot of spring and even summer too…

I’ve been less bothered about heated seats on bikes in the past; while my old car does have them, I see them more as a luxury than an essential, but after using the Oxford Hot Seat on the Zontes I started to change my mind, and having the Wunderlich heating on my GS now is making for some much more pleasant trips.

I think that heated gloves / grips and a heated vest are more vital on winter trips, but I’d be very reluctant to give this up now.

Control

If heated seats were fitted as standard to my bike, control of the rider’s seat heat would be via the BMW’s bar controls and dash, but I much prefer the simple two-position and off rocker switch on the side of the Wunderlich seat. It’s the same for the pillion, being mounted within easy reach on the left, the only slight disadvantage being that I have to get Helen to move her leg to get to mine if she’s with me.

Having the switch built into the seat means there’s no extra wiring to worry about, and even with thick winter gloves on, it’s easy to feel between the bottom position for low (which is said to be 25% power), middle (off) and top (100%).

While Helen is happy with full power all the time, I find it can get a bit too hot for me after a while at times, so I switch to low mode, toggling back if I want a bit more heat again.

Starting a ride with it in the low settings sees the heat come through more slowly – it takes around ten minutes – while high heat takes less than five minutes to start feeling great.

Wunderlich explained to me that the seats have two elements in, which are wired in series for the low setting (where I measured the seat to pull 0.95 A) and switched to parallel via a relay for high (drawing 3.04 A). At the 13.4V that they were running at during testing, we can see that the Wunderlich seats put out just over 40W of heat in full power mode and almost 13W at the low setting.

I did notice that if I’d had the seat on for a while in high mode, then switched to the low setting, if I went back to high within a few minutes it would take a bit longer for the heat to come on again. This is due to the seats being controlled by a thermostat that’s also embedded with the element fairly deep inside the foam, so there can be a delay in the temperature inside dropping and the circuit closing again.

Three alternatives to the Wunderlich Active Comfort heated seats

The options available will of course depend on the bike you have. Wunderlich and Nippy Norman’s are dedicated to BMW, but here are some other options to consider…

• BMW heated seats, around £500 each | Prices are similar to the Wunderlich, but you’re not getting the vastly improved ergonomics and comfort. Also, if your bike doesn’t have the wiring loom for the BMW seats you won’t be able to use them.

• Sargent heated seat, £840 front, £670 rear | Sargent offers a low or standard version of the front seat, and also gives the choice of OEM control if available on the bike, or its own controller that’s mounted on the bars, though at 23W maximum they are lower power than the Wunderlichs.

• Oxford Hot Seat, £79.99 | A truly universal option for any bike, the Hot Seat puts out just 12W, but because it sits on top of the saddle – directly under your bum – it gets VERY hot! I only ever run it in the lowest (50%) power mode, which works out fine. The controller is too fiddly to use on the move, and it’s a shame you can’t buy the wiring loom separately to easily swap it between your bikes, but it’s worth considering if you want a relative budget way of warming your bum. Read the full review of the Oxford Hot Seat here.

These are just three of many alternatives – you can find all the heated kit we’ve tested here and be sure to regularly check for the discounts available through Bikesocial membership.

Wunderlich heated seat review: Verdict

​​With the original BMW set-up I used to have the pillion seat set in the forward position to give my back a little support and make me feel more cupped in place, but since fitting the Wunderlichs, I have Helen’s pillion seat set to the rear (which gives her more room), and my ‘low’ Wunderlich seat set in the GS’s high positions. The way the sculpting cups my bum and sets my spine into such a good position is, though it’s hard to say worth every penny, certainly a vast improvement. But then when you add the heating…

If you’d asked me before, I’d have passionately defended the GS as having a superb seat as standard, but when I put it back on now it’s way too soft, making me feel more detached from the handling of the bike and allowing me to slump much more as I ride.

There’s no denying that if you’re considering this upgrade it’s an expensive one, but combined with the superb heating it’s meant Helen and I can both enjoy the bike far more throughout the year. Given that you can try these Wunderlich seats for two weeks and send them back to Nippy Norman’s if you don’t like them for a full refund, there’s no risk if you’re thinking about making the investment.

If you put a lot of miles in and feel like you could benefit from a better riding position – and heat – the Wunderlich seats are certainly recommended, but perhaps more importantly, these also come highly recommended by Helen.

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How Wunderlich seats are made

Wunderlich’s own video shows some of the production process