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Remodelling the stock seat for enhanced comfort...


Guest lawrenceofsuburbia

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Guest lawrenceofsuburbia
A recent write-up on the new Tracer in a respected UK motorcycling magazine said that the seat appeared to be as comfortable as an oaken pew in a church! I wouldn’t go quite as far as that, but I have found the seat extremely uncomfortable. I’m pretty lean – 80kg with all gear on - and so have little in the way of fat or muscle on my buttocks to cushion me. Something had to be done, or I’d not be able to use the bike for the long-distance touring I’m so fond of.
 
Looking closely at the rider seat, I noted that it had a pronounced ‘shoulder’ running fore-and-aft along the seat, towards its outer edges. Comparing the location of these shoulders with the sore parts of my own seat, I figured that maybe if I rounded-off these shoulders to give a much smoother transition between the horizontal and the vertical (side) elements of the seat, it might improve things.
 
And it did! Removing the cover was easy enough, just requiring many staples to be pulled, but leaving the front few so that the overall location of the cover on the seat wasn’t disturbed.
 
Once the foam filling was revealed, I drew a line along each shoulder [em](see pic)[/em] and then proceeded, with a very sharp knife, to slice away a ~5mm thick (in the middle) length of the foam, looking for all the world like taking a fillet off a fish [em](see second pic).
[/em]
Once done, I then set-to with an even sharper scalpel and smoothed-out the freshly cut edges, until there was a pretty smooth transition.
 
Re-stapling was a bit of a chore, making sure that the seat cover was pulled tight for a good fit all round, but I got there. A 120km ride today confirmed that I’m on the right track. I’ll leave it there for the time being and see how it is on a much longer ride in a week or two’s time, once back from short holiday away. If successful, and if the improvement is maintained, I’ll probably then get a pair (rider and pillion) of the exquisite LUIMOTO seat covers, to complete the transformation.
 
Worth a try if you too find the stock seat hard and unforgiving – but don’t blame me if the same approach doesn’t work for you!
 
Now to deal with that nasty suspension!
 
Lawrence of Suburbia [em](‘39 model)
Brisbane
Queensland
Australia
 
2015 Matte Grey Tracer – now at 636 km
 
http://i.imgur.com/reSBVF0.jpg[/em][em]http://i.imgur.com/ub72gVQ.jpg
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