zenwhipper
Well-known member
Folks- I decided to mod my seat. Believe it or not, I was very happy with the stocker seat on my 2008. Had even done some 4-500 mile days on it. Then in the late summer of 2008 I sustained a pesky tailbone injury. The injury hurt like a MoFo for four weeks and then settled into a chronic low grade PITA. Riding the motorcycle causes the most issues.
I looked into buying a custom seat from all the icons in the business (Rich’s Custom Seats, Russell Day Long, Mayers etc). But was not sure how they would address the tailbone issue. I knew I needed a channel in my seat, just like a bicycle seat (curiously enough… I have zero tail bone issues on a bicycle).
I had seen enough info on the web of people modifying there own seat. I thought why not. If it does not work out I can get a used stock seat on the board or go with a custom seat from the pros.
First off… this is a lot of work. :blink: It was a lot of it trial and error. All told I probably have 20 hours in this thing. But the process is forgiving. After all its only foam.
I ordered some Rebond foam off the web. As as a covering for the seat I envisioned vinyl that I would sew to a ‘form fit’. I bought some 3M Foam Spray Glue.
My two main goals were to have a tailbone channel and make the seat with less forward tilt. It also needed to be a firm seat since from my bicycle riding I knew that if the ishial tuberosities (sitz bones) bore most of my support and the tailbone had no involvement then I was good to go.
Off I go.
Getting the stock seat material off was no problem.
Next I split the seat into two sections with a piece removed in the middle. This was tough… I thought once I cut – there is no going back!
Then I started to cut out the sections to add the firmer foam (Rebond).
Then I started to add foam in layers and blocks to get it heightened and widened. It was really starting to look like a monstrosity! :bad:
Then I started to trim it back. Used a handy dandy electric meat slicing knife. :assassin:
Then I went to work with a 90 degree angle grinder with sanding pad.
And ended up with something like this.
I shaped it as one solid seat for ease of convenience and to get the profile the same on both sides. I put it on the bike and took it for a test ride of about two hours. It felt good. Time to cut the thing in half again!
I then realized the Rebond I had is pretty chunky and did not smooth out too well with the sander. So I needed to add some ‘smoothing’ foam. I went to a craft store and purchased some 1/2” very light and low density cheapo foam and covered the seat.
Once I had it all covered with the smoothing foam now was the time to cover the seat. I went to a outdoor fabric store and purchased some exterior vinyl. I borrowed my ma-in-law’s 1953 Singer sewing machine and started to sew the cover, all the while learning to sew for the first time! Well… it was going pretty good and then I had to correct one of my seams and the vinyl started to tear and I said this is not going to work. I had researched using neoprene as the cover and had some sitting around. Wow – it would stretch all around the seat and I would not need to do any sewing! Swell! Here is the final product.
I added some thread details to make the seat a bit interesting to look at.
I road it to work today and it feels very good. It will take a while to know the in and outs of the seat. My first impression is that I need to make some adjustments in that it added about an inch in height (a bit too tall for me) to the seat and its still a bit too slanted to the front. But, I can remove the cover and start reshaping with out much trouble.
I have about $150 bucks in it. Not too shabby really. All in all, I give the seat a "B-" grade. :clapping:
Here are more piccies:
I looked into buying a custom seat from all the icons in the business (Rich’s Custom Seats, Russell Day Long, Mayers etc). But was not sure how they would address the tailbone issue. I knew I needed a channel in my seat, just like a bicycle seat (curiously enough… I have zero tail bone issues on a bicycle).
I had seen enough info on the web of people modifying there own seat. I thought why not. If it does not work out I can get a used stock seat on the board or go with a custom seat from the pros.
First off… this is a lot of work. :blink: It was a lot of it trial and error. All told I probably have 20 hours in this thing. But the process is forgiving. After all its only foam.
I ordered some Rebond foam off the web. As as a covering for the seat I envisioned vinyl that I would sew to a ‘form fit’. I bought some 3M Foam Spray Glue.
My two main goals were to have a tailbone channel and make the seat with less forward tilt. It also needed to be a firm seat since from my bicycle riding I knew that if the ishial tuberosities (sitz bones) bore most of my support and the tailbone had no involvement then I was good to go.
Off I go.
Getting the stock seat material off was no problem.
Next I split the seat into two sections with a piece removed in the middle. This was tough… I thought once I cut – there is no going back!
Then I started to cut out the sections to add the firmer foam (Rebond).
Then I started to add foam in layers and blocks to get it heightened and widened. It was really starting to look like a monstrosity! :bad:
Then I started to trim it back. Used a handy dandy electric meat slicing knife. :assassin:
Then I went to work with a 90 degree angle grinder with sanding pad.
And ended up with something like this.
I shaped it as one solid seat for ease of convenience and to get the profile the same on both sides. I put it on the bike and took it for a test ride of about two hours. It felt good. Time to cut the thing in half again!
I then realized the Rebond I had is pretty chunky and did not smooth out too well with the sander. So I needed to add some ‘smoothing’ foam. I went to a craft store and purchased some 1/2” very light and low density cheapo foam and covered the seat.
Once I had it all covered with the smoothing foam now was the time to cover the seat. I went to a outdoor fabric store and purchased some exterior vinyl. I borrowed my ma-in-law’s 1953 Singer sewing machine and started to sew the cover, all the while learning to sew for the first time! Well… it was going pretty good and then I had to correct one of my seams and the vinyl started to tear and I said this is not going to work. I had researched using neoprene as the cover and had some sitting around. Wow – it would stretch all around the seat and I would not need to do any sewing! Swell! Here is the final product.
I added some thread details to make the seat a bit interesting to look at.
I road it to work today and it feels very good. It will take a while to know the in and outs of the seat. My first impression is that I need to make some adjustments in that it added about an inch in height (a bit too tall for me) to the seat and its still a bit too slanted to the front. But, I can remove the cover and start reshaping with out much trouble.
I have about $150 bucks in it. Not too shabby really. All in all, I give the seat a "B-" grade. :clapping:
Here are more piccies:
