RE: pillion seat

after doing online research i was confused about RE pillion seats.  some fitted the 350 and 500 models,  some didn't;  some fitted only late models,  some didn't; some needed to be bolted through the rear mudguard, some didn't; some needed a separate rack and some didn't. 

=> I needed to handle one in real life.

Ordering online seemed to fall into two categories too. One was the expensive British option ( this applied to ordering locally too), or offer from India which was a cheaper lucky dip. The Indian ads are more about garnering positive feedback than describing the hardware ie: please leaving a positive feedback. We are being best experience off you are having problem please call us too resolve. 

With my heart in my wallet,  I plumped up to my local RE dealer.  I was prepared to pay about $100 extra to get the right pillion seat system, and one of known quality.  

At the shop, near a dusty box of Butt Plugs, which the heavily tattooed attendant informed me were used to block exhausts while hosting bikes down,  the aforementioned fellow addressed my needs. He took a while to sort the model out,  despite me asserting they are all the same,  then moved into the seating system.  He toted up; seat,  rack,  rear grab handle,  various fastenings ... about $256. (This was $50 above my pain threshold but I was biting down. ) He then told me it would have to be ordered in ... several weeks blah, blah, blah. 

So I said: "what about the one on the shelf out there?"

Spares guy #1: "Say what (you possibly senile older fellow)"?

He goes on doing the quoty stuff and drags Senior Attendant Cal in to check his preorder calculations.  Cal goes over it,  trimming some fat of the order a d be repeats something around $250.

I say: " ... the one on the shelf ... it's near the new bike display".

Attendant #1 says: "computer is not showing any in stock".

Cal sees some flicker of intelligence behind mny greeting eyes or is just curious and says "come on lets have a look". 

Within a few minutes,  the computer is lied to and I walk out with a new seat for $180. Sweet!