|
|
| Marauder M50 Secret Hideaway It's for Marauder M50 owners! |
 |
| | LinkBack | Thread Tools |
02-07-2006, 11:00 PM
| #1 (permalink) |
| Newbie Join Date: Aug 2005
Bike: 2005 M50 Red
Location: Port Orchard, Washington
Posts: 16
|  Possible seat fix.
As I have previously mentioned, the stock M50 seat and I do not get along. Nor do the Suzuki gel seat and my tailbone. Those things are just plain evil to a tall rider. I decided to take my stock seat and do some animated rodent engineering on it, seeing if I could fix the hump of doom in the easiest and most effective way possible. I do not have any pictures because I lack a digital camera, but you should get the picture easily enough. I have not tried it out on the bike yet (Washington in the winter is not my preferred riding conditions), but I can already tell that it will make a huge difference. What I did: 1) Procure one can of lightweight Bondo, soup can size (1Lb., I think - $4.99 plus tax). 2) Take the seat cover off and get total access to the seatpan. 3) Drilled 4 small holes (1/4") in the seatpan on either side of the hump, to allow the bondo to grip the seatpan. I also scuffed the seatpan where the bondo would be applied to aid in adhesion. 4) Applied the bondo to either side of the seatpan, initially ensuring that a small amount was pressed into the 8 drilled holes to give it grip. I then proceeded to build it up to the hump level over the course of 3 applications, making a smooth transition from the seatpan to above the hump. The bondo goes about 3 inches toward the front of the seatpan in a wedge shape and from one edge to the other. It is less than 1" thick at it's thickest. The final effect is to make the hump completely disappear and the bondo extend from one side of the seatpan to the other at a level slightly above the level of the hump. 5) Replaced the padding (which contoured nicely to the new seatpan) and restapled the cover back on. I didn't even put any additional padding in the padding gap at the middle of the back of the seat, figuring that I wouldn't need it. Note: To restaple the seatpan, you need to have it up against a hard surface. The seat looks remarkably similar to the stock seat once the cover is back on, but there is no more hump at all. The bondo may move your seating position forward a small amount (1" or so), but that shouldn't affect anyones riding. I was squirming all over the seat to try to find comfort after about 20 miles anyhow pre-fix. Final cost: $4.99 plus tax, plus about 40 staples. Beats the $169 I spent on that near-worthless Suzuki gel seat - which is next to get the bondo treatment if this actually did the job like I strongly suspect. |
