Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner Worth sending to the trimmers?

I ripped up my stock seat when I came off and took delivery of another one today.(thanks Mackdaddy). So as ya do I went straight out to the shed to fit it up Then I remembered just how flat and uncomfortable the stock seat really is. I had already done some chopping on the original seat way back when and dishing the foam out a little turned it into a very comfortable all day rider. I also have Brents low profile seat but I dont really like the way it shows off the frame rails and it to is only good for short hops. So I took to the original stocker, cut the sides off the pan to narrow it down and spent the afternoon trimming down the foam pad. Before I commit it to the upholstery guy I thought I might get some critique from the style gurus at BA.com. Let me know what you think!


Full sized pics are HERE

Mate I like it.
What colour are you going to do the trim in?

hey buddy thats gunna make a good looking seat
she looks a little narrower then the stock seat is that a result of sending it to Jenny Graig
all jest aside did you start with a stock seat?
if so well done

Davo, This one will prolly be your basic black.

Benny, yeah mate just chopped away at the old stock seat. I wore a fair bit of the right hand side off when I came off so it was good to experiment with.

I will be interested in the finished product.
The low profile seat I have looks the part but is no good on a decent ride.
I think you have shaped this well. Make sure you post a pick as soon as you trim it.

VERY well done! I like the way you kept a nice profile, and the narrowing is perfect.

Keep us updated for sure!

I like what you are doing, I can't wait to see the final product.

Looks good, Brett. A few years back I too cut the sides off and squared the seat very similarly to what you did here because I never particularly liked the look of that wide "tractor-style" seat either, and because I like to see the tops of the shocks.

However when it came to shaving the foam off the top area, I did the complete opposite. I actually added about an inch and a half of foam to flatten the seat out.

You see, I came to the realization years ago that even though that dished out seat "looks" like it would be more comfortable, it's actually more comfortable to have a flatter saddle so you can move around a bit on it, whereas a dished saddle locks your rump into one position and you quickly start experiencing "hot spots"(aka "monkey butt").

I can now ride for hours on my BA in relative comfomfort, whereas before I altered it, I was about to look into buying a Corbin or Mustang aftermarket seat, which aren't cheap, ya know.

What kind of foam did you build it up with? All I can find is too soft.

Dwight, I've had this seat dished out like this for a fair while now and have put in a fair few 1000 km days with no problems. I just find that being "planted" in the seat gives me total support over my whole ar$e. I chopped out a little more foam right under my ar$e bones so I dont get those hotspots. But dude, arses are like opinions. Everyone has one and they are usually all different in some way

Good point, Brett.

Lon,
I went to an upholstery supply shop near by my house here in L.A. that has a wide selection of foam in different densities, and picked as dense a foam as they had available in a 2 inch thickness.

I then cut the thickness of it in sort of a laid down "D" manner before I sprayed foam adhesive on the seat and this piece and glued them together.

And then I took an electric carving knife and shaped down the sides a bit so the new piece of foam flowed into the original seat foam as well as possible.

I then glued a slightly softer piece of 1/4 inch thick foam over the whole thing in order to smooth it out completely and so there would be no bulges or unevenesses that would show through once I reattached the original seat covering.

Brett I have the Triumph touring seat on my Speedmaster.After last weekends ride I decided I needed to do something about it.I took the cover off and cut 2" out of the back side of the riders seat.I hardly ever take a passanger for a ride anymore,so to bad for her.So far I like it better.I guess the next all day ride will be the test.At least this way I have more room to move around.The way it was it was hitting my tail bone alot.Seat looks good.Good luck.

Micheal, Yes mate! thats the problem I have found with all of the Triumph seats. I just get more support over the whole of my butt with the seat dished out a little more in the back. I think you're gonna be happy with what you have done. I also put two small divots in it right under each of my ar$e bones. I used an angle grinder with a flap wheel to smooth in the divots and the rest of the seat. Finish it with some 80 grit sand paper to take out the marks left by your electric carving knife. My seat is at the trimmers now and should be ready Friday. Picking colours and patterns is quite harrowing, ya never really know what its gonna look like until you see the finished product. Come on Friday.

For all you dudes interested in seat modifications I found this web site on MODIFYING MOTORCYCLE SEATS . Explains all the theory and practice needed to give you a real comfortable ride.