modding my seat

[usntony]

I've gotten a lot of great ideas from everyone on the site. Tonight I decided to try modding my seat. First I removed the back half of the seat cover enough so that I could fold it underneath out of the way. Then I marked the dimensions of the seat pan as best I could on the side if the foam. I also marked a general area that I wanted to shave off. This was a good starting point but I ended up taking off a much bigger area. So far I've taken off about 2 inches from the seat. I'm going to hold off on stapling it back together until I get it right. From just sitting on it, it definitely feels better. I'm lower and more into the bike. I used a dremel with a wire brush set at 4000 rpm's to grind down the foam and a piece of 60 grit sand paper to smooth it out. More to come...

[landkrshr]

Lookin good, nice beer.

[ulfire911]

Originally Posted by landkrshr

Lookin good, nice beer.

Samuel Adams...always a good decision!

[usntony]

[SNAFU]

Looks good so far Tony. If you got an angle grinder it would probably be faster than the dremel.

[usntony]

Originally Posted by SNAFU

Looks good so far Tony. If you got an angle grinder it would probably be faster than the dremel.

Yea. it took about two hours to do what I've done so far. The dremel is a little time consuming but it works so I'll stick with it. I went on a 45 minute ride earlier to test the seat out and there really is a noticeable difference in comfort and it felt like it handled better. The handling part might be in my head though.
I'm going to grind a little more from the seat on the back side where it meets the tailbone. There was pressure there that felt like it could become painful on a long ride. I'm also going to grind the bottom down more and maybe cut down the rubber padding on the bottom that sits between the battery and the seat. I've got to check clearances first. I'll keep posting pics

[usntony]

I worked on my seat again last night. Here are some pics of the progress. At one time I installed the seat pan on the bike without any foam at all. After sitting on it for a few minutes putting the foam on and off, I realized that the seat pan without foam is more comfortable. From cradling my arse to sitting "in" the bike. I shaved the foam down to 1/4 inch in places trying to get as close to nothing as possible. Since I've got plenty of carpet padding left over I'm going to play around with making a seat out of this padding by itself. All it really needs is a couple layers and it would be good to go.

[bootsie]

Any progress?

[diamond_jim]

At this moment I have only the bare seat pan om my M50. I rode twice with it around town and it actually feels better than the foam. I think it's because I usually sit towards the back of the seat and I think it pushes my pelvis forward just a bit. After riding for a while my butt felt about the same as it did with padding but my lower back felt fine. I'd love to make a fiberglass mold of the seat pan (so that it's nice and flat), then add maybe an inch of padding and have it recovered. I'm gonna try out the local community college's upholstery class and see if they'll recover it. My wife, before I met her, had taken a 4-wheeler seat there and they recovered it for about $30. That was about 4 years ago and it still looks great.

[bootsie]

So you just uncover the seat and the foam piece comes off? I think I will give that a try

[xtenzzive]

barely any foam at all and I cut the hell out of the plastic like you were talking about. I had to go back and 1/2 inch memory foam, and I love it . Much more control to the bike due to positioning.