Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Speedmaster solo seat

Hi all

Just got my single seat for the speedy.
Guess what it doesn't fit....
The speedmaster seat has a locking pin type connection to the frame. The new seat has a hole for a bolt to go through.
Looking under the rear fender I can see the locking pin is hled onto the fender by a couple of nyloc nuts (which turn unless you hold them with a spanner) For me to get to these nuts its a wheel out job as there is no way I can get my hand under the fender with the wheel in. These does seam to be a captive nut on the underside of the fender for a bolt to locate into.
The other way I can see the job going would be to enlarge the mounting hole to get over the retaining pin, this would them mean the seat is held in place by the rear pad only. The rear pad would be locked into the retaining pin.

Either way would leave one seat a bit on the vunerable side for my liking, though I could use a penny washer to cover the larger hole on the rear seat pad.
How would you go about this?
Have I been sent an america solo seat?

I'll wait for some answers before I head down to the garage and start knocking lumps out of things lol.

Here was me hoping I could chop and change between seats easily.......

Locking pin will come off. Just have to get a hand in there to put a spanner on. Under the pin is a threaded hole for seat bolt, no problem, unless you have normal sized hands. Raise bike on a lift/jack, remove shock bolts, whatever it takes to get a spanner in there. Probably not easy to change between seats though. Just did mine last week, took about half an hour. Good luck.

Try adjusting the shocks all the way to their stiffest setting. Might be able to get your hand under there that way. You married? Get your wife to stick her smaller hand up there. Maybe stern12 will send his wife over to do the job. I hear she's a top notch mechanic.

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Have I been sent an america solo seat?

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Isn't that what you ordered?

Cheers guys
Thats what I thought...hmmm bigger than normal sized hands here, gettin gthe better half to hold a spanner on a nut sounds like a recipe for ww3....

I'll try and improvise a tool at work for this job.
Can't understand why they use different seat fixing methods though?

Sal the shocks are at the stiffest setting all the time

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Have I been sent an america solo seat?

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Isn't that what you ordered?

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no it was called a speedmaster solo seat on Jack Lilleys website......

Sounds like you'll be taking the shocks off. Or you could borrow a neighborhood kid; "Hey kid, come here...want to help me work on my motorcycle? Take this spanner and stick your hand up underneath the fender".

Just looked at Jack Lilley's site. Speedmaster solo seat = America solo seat. Same thing.

Just thought of something to try. If you have a long 1/4" extension, put a union on the end, and then the right size socket on that, you might be able to get to those small nuts that way. Those little nuts take an 8mm socket.

Close to the idea I had sal thanks

I was going to cut the handle off an 8mm spanner and weld a rod onto the spanner end.

Just didn;t want to remove the locking pin onto to find I should have been sent an interface of some sort.

I guess I could have phoned Jack Lilley but the last time I did that it took an age to tell them what I wanted...same language different accent sort of thing I guess

Maybe let the air out of the tire and push it down towards the rim to get more space.
Just a thought!

I tried that vintage.......got the scrapes on my wrists to prove it lol

I was just able to reach under the fender with a pliers to reach the nuts with the shocks set as high as possible, it only took a few minutes. I have big hands,too.

buy me and the wife roundtrip tickets, pick us up at the airport, and I'll do the job no charge. Heck I'll even wash and wax your bike too.
Seriously, try taking the chain off rear sprocket, move wheel back as far as it will go, should be enough space to get hand in there.

Don't forget to reinstall the chain. And of course, before you start-------------- Disconnect the battery!

If you can get the rear wheel off the ground, you can unhook the shocks, dropping the wheel. Then you can get your hand up under the fender. Here's some pics of a cheap center stand I cobbed together out of scrapwood 2x4s and 2x6s and long drywall screws. I use it for checking and changing oil and a bunch of other jobs where it helps to have the bike upright. I just push the lever down and the bike pops up. It ain't purdy, but it works great.




Cody

a wee bit welding of 1/4" steel and an 8mm socket sorted me out in the end cody

thanks