DIY - Custom Saddle

[shaggystyle]

So I've been contemplating getting a new seat for the bike....but instead I think I'm going to try and modify my stock one instead. I found a really good site with tons of info (Modify Seat). I'm pretty much going into this completely blind.....anyone have any good advice/suggestions they are willing to share?

I probably won't actually start this project for a week or so, but I'll be sure to document and share everything that goes wrong. In the mean time, consider this a thread in progress....

[wrightme43]

Just like this.

YouTube - ECHO 2005 Chain Saw Carving...

[Nelly]

Originally Posted by shaggystyle

So I've been contemplating getting a new seat for the bike....but instead I think I'm going to try and modify my stock one instead. I found a really good site with tons of info (Modify Seat). I'm pretty much going into this completely blind.....anyone have any good advice/suggestions they are willing to share?

I probably won't actually start this project for a week or so, but I'll be sure to document and share everything that goes wrong. In the mean time, consider this a thread in progress....

Hey Shaggy,

One of our guys with a red FZ6 just trashed his bike from a rear end. The seat is totalled. Maybe ou could get it cheap and do the mods on that until happy?

Nelly

Good luck

[doc_simple]

your braver than I am! I have read up on doing this by adding some gel type material under the seat cover and that looked doable but i dont trust my skills at arts and crafts too much.

[shaggystyle]

Originally Posted by Nelly

Hey Shaggy,

One of our guys with a red FZ^ just trashed his buke from a rear end. The seat is totalled. Maybe ou could get it cheap and do the mos on that until happy?

Nelly

Good luck

I was thinking about picking one up from ebay (~$60 shipped) and working on it. But I'm trying to keep my costs at a minimal because I'm fairly certain that I'm going to hose this up in some horrific fashion. If I don't spend a lot of money and I fail so miserably as to make my seat unsalvagable, I'll just order a new seat from corbin or sargent or whoever and I won't have lost too much money. That being said, if someone wants to donate an old seat for cheap, I won't turn it down.

[billm]

That's great you're doing this cause I was actually thinking of tackling that project also.
I've been to that DIY site & it doesn't look hard. The only thing is getting the staples back in the base. Let me know how that is & if you have to get an air or electric stapler w/some power to punch 'em in. I was actually wondering if you could just use spray on glue & the same staple holes?
So keep us posted on the mod.
(BTW - I just did your light mod. Works great)
Thx,
Bill

[shaggystyle]

Before I tell you what I did I should warn everyone that this is my first attempt at any upholstry work. I knew going in that the results were not going to be pretty. I was ok with that as long as it was comfortable. If it lets me ride longer and farther, I could care less what it looks like. Nobody's going to notice as long as I'm sitting on it. That being said, here's how I did it:

Step 1) Gathered all of the materials:

1. 2 Inch think rebonded foam (base material)
2. 1 inch thick high density polyurethane foam (top layer, really soft stuff)
3. 1/4 inch neoprene foam (covering/smoothing)
4. Angle Grinder + sanding pad
5. Staple gun with 3/4 inch staples
6. Dust mask and saftey glasses (foam particles get EVERYWHERE)
7. Spray adhesive (for gluing foam together)
8. Some high grit sand paper (for roughing out cuts)
9. A sharp box knife or razor
10. Poster board (not really necessary)

Step 2) To figure out how I needed to shape the saddle to make it more comfortable I had a friend take some pictures of me sitting on the bike. It's pretty obvious from those that my main problem is my long legs and wide hips.



In order to figure out just how much wider/longer I need to make the saddle I sat on a piece of poster board and traced the outline of my butt, then I identified the points where the majority of my weight was resting (sitting bones)



Step 3) Remove the cover from the saddle. At first I thought I was going to be able to reuse the original cover so i didn't take it all of the way off. Later on as you see how much material I added it's pretty obvious I was being overly ambitious. In the end I bought some new material and recovered the seat with that.



Step 4) Using the grinder and being very careful/gently I removed as much of the material from the back of the seat as I dared. I wanted to make the drivers seat longer so that my long legs wouldn't force me to sit so close to the tank. By the time I was done, the original foam was only about an 1/8 of an inch thick at the back. I also removed material from the seat pan to try and decrease the incline (again to stop from sliding into the tank). The last major subtraction was a large rectangular cut towards the front of the seat. My plan here was to widen the seat out and provide aditional support for my thighs.





What's not easily visible in these pictures is that I used a piece of high grit sandpaper and roughed out a couple channels in the foam under the points I identified earlier as bearing the most weight when sitting. I hoped that this would better distribute my weight across the whole of my butt.

Step 5) Now I started to add more foam to the seat. I started by filling in the channel I cut in the front with a 2 inch thick piece of rebonded foam (this stuff is dense and makes good support material). I added a couple small triangular pieces to the edges where it stuck out to help support the "wings".

[shaggystyle]

Step 6) Next I added a nose by taking a few piecse of the soft poly foam and gluing them together into a pyramid. I attached this to the front of the saddle on top of the new rebond and then smoothed it all out with the grinder.




At this point I decided I wanted a little bit more support around the edjges so I cut some 1x1x8 inch pieces of rebond and glued them around the outline of the seat. With this done I roughly cut a piece of the soft poly foam and place it on top of the seat. This was more of an afterthought, the more soft foam, the more comfortable it's goign to be.....right?



The last piece of foam was a shet of neoprene roughly cut and shaped to cover the entire drivers seat. This was mainly to hold everything in place and smooth out the imperfections.

Step 7) As I mentioned earlier, I had initially planned to reuse the original seat cover. But it's pretty obvious that I added WAY too much foam for that to be an option. I puchased a yard and a half of boat seat material from a local upholstry store and recovered the seat with it. I didn't take any pictures of this step (sorry), it's basically just stretch the material and staple it in place. I would recomend starting at the back and moving forward in a zig-zag fashion. Saving the front (where it contacts the tank) for last. Once everything was secured I cut off the excess and tightened up a few places.

Here it is mounted. It's not pretty but it's damn comfortable. I'll probably end up making some adjustments to it over the next few seasons. Maybe build up the front a bit more, try and take down the back a bit....not really sure, I'm just going to have to ride it for a while and figure out what I do and don't like.

Before:

After:



All in all, I put about $115 into materials and I bought way too much. I have enough left over to do at least 2 more seats, maybe 3 if I can reuse the cover on one. Point being, if you are a little more realistic in how much foam you buy, this is completely doable for ~$50.

Comfort rating: 1 hojillion points
Style rating: -12

[grommit]

Nice write up.

What is boat seat material?
Sounds ideal.

[Botch]

Impressive!