draco_1967

Yeah, I'd consider that very low mileage for a 4 year old bike!

On the 2019-2020 models, the high beam LEDs are triggered by a -12v lead. It seems like a lot of modern LED headlights are triggered that way. If the unit received opposite current, the circuit may not have liked that. Hopefully something isn't fried.

Since your grip heaters only have 2 wires per grip, it won't really matter which wire you hook them to. Just connect one wire from each grip to each plug, and make sure they are connected to the wire on the customled connector that matches up with the wire on the bike-side connector. The grip elements you have don't have a + or - side, they are just a simple circuit that has resistance (the heater element) in the middle.

I have a JK3D kit I pulled of my bike (built a custom seat that eliminates the stock seat forward slope) that you can have. I hate to throw it away, if there is someone who could use it.

The clutch side tends to be cooler, because the bar acts as a heat sink for the heating element (if applied directly to the bar). You may not get enough heat from those if the resistance isn't right. There is a lot of information in this thread:

The Givi light bracket is a great option. On light position, if you want more light on the road, higher is better; if you want to be seen by other road users, lower is better (down on the crash bars gets them wider). Also, for fog lights, you want those low too. Amber lights are much better for getting noticed by others on the road.

As long as the roads are dry, I'll ride down into the teens (F). I have heated jacket, pands, and gloves. When riding in temps below freezing, the heated gear is mostly just to keep the cold from taking over. Too much heat gets sucked away over time at those temps. I only ride my short 20-30 minute commute at those temps.

You can't see it when you are sitting on it! Russell has a sport option that is not quite as wide, but if you are going to spend big bucks on a Russell seat, why not get the more comfortable version?

That's a very cool Idea. I wonder how water resistant they are. If riding in a driving rain at higher speeds, will water work its way in? I wouldn't expect them to hold water out if submerged, but I would hope they could keep stuff dry in a day riding around the PNW. The videos sound like AI generated press copy. There were a lot of statements in there that just didn't quite make sense. It was like they wanted to throw in fancy words just to sound cool, and didn't use them correctly.

I've looked closely at Seth's seats in the past. They seem to be very comfortable.

I thought about adding a heated element, but decided against it. Mostly, it was timing. I didn't want to wait for it to arrive, then fiddle with wiring. I have a trip coming up next week. I'll definitely add it if I decide to redo the cover. This cover was a big experiment for me. I used Sunbrella for the seating surface, and it is not as grippy as I hoped it would be. I did give it a test yesterday on my commute to work. It felt really good! I may change out the red/black speedblock for something to compliment the honeycomb pattern more. Then again, I can't see the honeycomb when my butt is covering it! I am also liking the Dunlop Mutants so far. Yesterday was very wet and cold (switching between rain and snow), and they felt very secure. The handling feels very precise, but there is always that "new tire feel" whenever I put on a new set. I will be testing them out on some good twisty roads in Southern California next weekend.

It is finished! I was able to finish sewing the cover over the last few evenings. The Nakajima started acting up as I was sewing the red top stitch (of course, that is the most contrasting, visible, and unfixable part! 🤬). Skipped stitches, and occasional broken threads made for a really frustrating evening yesterday. Usually, if the machine is doing something bad, it's user error. This time, I missed one of the little thread keepers when I rethreaded the machine. Too much slack was causing the thread to get caught in the hook at the wrong time. After I threaded the machine properly, it worked like a dream. Too late to fix a few mistakes, sadly. I got a few wrinkles when installing the cover at the back of the seat. Overall, I am very happy with how it turned out. It looks pretty good, and it is comfortable. There are two down sides to it: 1) the width makes it a little more challenging to flat-foot (I don't mind much), and 2) the Sunbrella fabric does not have much friction to it. At least when I'm wearing my Aerostich, if I brake hard, I slide forward. The seat is dished out and definitely slopes away from the tank, but with the front end dropping and the binders grabbing, momentum pushes me forward. It's not ideal, but really only a problem on hard, unexpected stops. If I squeeze the tank and am prepared. I don't slide. I think when I am wearing my Kevlar jeans, it won't be as big of an issue either. There seems to be more friction between the fabric and denim/cotton blends than the slicker Cordura. I am looking forward to putting it to the test next weekend. I'm riding out to California for a long weekend.

I'm not sure I could charge enough for the seats to make it worth it 😅

I made a ton of progress this weekend. I should have the seat done this week. I extended the seat pan, both front and rear. The rear portion was unsupported where the plastic trapezoid thingy used to be, so that needed something to hold up the foam. It seems I didn't get a picture of that rear support... Then I added a 1" layer of foam to fill in the base, and attached a bolster support of sorts. RDL use a steel spring support, but I don't have the material to make something like that. Hopefully this HDPE will offer enough support to keep things from sagging too much under my fat but. Next, I threw on a big ol' hunk of 3" foam to start creating the the main seat shape. I needed to hack some material to fit in the gaps left under the bolster support too. Did I mention this is messy work? I find an angle grinder with grinding wheel works best for shaping. A flap disk tends to grab much more. If I had an air sander, that would be even better... Finally, I arrive at a shape that I like. It has a slight slope toward the rear, rather than to the front like the stock seat. The front is narrow enough that I can straddle the bike comfortably, and the rear gives nice support for my butt! This got covered with a thin foam to help hide surface imperfections. It still looks a little lumpy, but it will look smoother when the cover compresses things a little more. I forgot to get a picture of this process, but I cover the seat in saran wrap, then a layer of blue masking tape. On that, I draw out the seams for the different panels for the cover. I mark the centerline of the seat and then cut up the panels to create a template. I am going to repeat the hex/honeycomb design, but this time it will be on a dark charcoal material with red stitching. I did a practice piece, and the contrast between the two really makes all the errors stand out! This is the first try: The red stitching shows my issues too well. Stitches overshot, lines not straight, and the rows of hexagons are different sizes. That's a result of the stencil using the same size hexagons, while the pencil traces around the inside edge of one row, and the outside edge of the other, creating a variation of size. I fine-tuned my stencil for the pattern, and started the rear seat again. If I go really slow, I only make minor mistakes that can be corrected. This is going to take a while, but it looks much better.