I am pretty frugal (a cheap SOB ) and I was thinking about making my own cafe seat for the project bike I'm working on. I figure I would cut down this king/queen seat I have. Anyone ever do this? Got pics or suggestions?
cleveland
Ooooh, empathy. Pennies are important to me, too!
I started mine with a CB750 pan and a Gold Wind seat from a boneyard, because there was lots of foam to use. The result was too hard on my crouched crotch, not enough "give" (I don't have steel nuts, just bolts...
) . So, I started over with another used seat from a Yami Venture (REALLY big!) and carved it with my bread knife, was pretty good at it by then. Then I glued the foam to the Honda pan with contact cement, bent the seat brackets under ("Z" folded) to lower it, but I've forgotten what I did to make the latch. The pan had a key latch, but I removed that and made something else, but I have no pix (and some days, even less memory!) to remind me. The whole works cost me less than $25, even with 3 seats used. I sewed up a decent vinyl cover over that winter and attached it, looked professional. Someone offered me $50, so I sold it and made the one I have now, a semi-TT stepped seat with a place for my seldom-riding wife. This time, I made my own pan from .100" thick aluminum, used another Gold Wing foam and a key latch to protect my toolkit and battery. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it and post it here. RXman has seen it, and a couple of other SOHCers who were here one day last summer, before I got mine running good again (I missed the ride with them, was fouling plugs at that time.
). The cover was hand-sewn one cold winter by me, using heavy naugahyde-like vinyl from a fabric store, is now 14 years old with no visible wear!