Budget of €500. Do I upgrade the seat or the suspension?

[betoney]

2 minutes ago, maximo said:

Turns out all he does is to put 5 inches of squishy foam and covers it up. That may work for a cruiser, where all your weight is on your tailbone, but for an agile, sporty bike it's torture! Not to mention my body angles are now off. 

5" of foam?  That's crazy...  😲

[maximo]

20 hours ago, betoney said:

5" of foam?  That's crazy...  😲

An abomination, really. The seat looks a lot like me after Thanksgiving dinner: every seam is bursting yet totally soft to the touch.

[Scoti]

I have at last made me a comfortable Tracer seat .

I thought I had it right ,but a long ride told me different .

It took three (3) more vinyl cover removals and some backside(bum), moulding and foam trimming ,its very good now.

Going from the OEM vinyl covered building / house brick to this tailored seat of mine was worth the effort .

And I enjoyed doing it .

I have ALL the upholstery gear and skills ,so that makes it easier as well .

I just tried to upload a few pics ,but it says  .....You are only allowed to upload 1,003.52kB.

So you don't get to see my near new Super Tenere seat foam getting cut and shaped to my butt contours  ,plus the mess in my family room and the finished seat .

And you definitely wont see me sitting butt naked  on a large tray of damp sand !!!

 

 

[BBB]

18 minutes ago, Scoti said:

And you definitely wont see me sitting butt naked  on a large tray of damp sand !!!

I’m genuinely thankful for the forum file-upload limits.

[betoney]

12 hours ago, Scoti said:

I have at last made me a comfortable Tracer seat .

I thought I had it right ,but a long ride told me different .

It took three (3) more vinyl cover removals and some backside(bum), moulding and foam trimming ,its very good now.

Going from the OEM vinyl covered building / house brick to this tailored seat of mine was worth the effort .

And I enjoyed doing it .

I have ALL the upholstery gear and skills ,so that makes it easier as well .

I just tried to upload a few pics ,but it says  .....You are only allowed to upload 1,003.52kB.

So you don't get to see my near new Super Tenere seat foam getting cut and shaped to my butt contours  ,plus the mess in my family room and the finished seat .

And you definitely wont see me sitting butt naked  on a large tray of damp sand !!!

 

 

You can resize your photos before uploading. 

[Scoti]

On ‎2‎/‎28‎/‎2021 at 8:25 PM, Scoti said:

I have at last made me a comfortable Tracer seat .

I thought I had it right ,but a long ride told me different .

It took three (3) more vinyl cover removals and some backside(bum), moulding and foam trimming ,its very good now.

Going from the OEM vinyl covered building / house brick to this tailored seat of mine was worth the effort .

And I enjoyed doing it .

I have ALL the upholstery gear and skills ,so that makes it easier as well .

I just tried to upload a few pics ,but it says  .....You are only allowed to upload 1,003.52kB.

So you don't get to see my near new Super Tenere seat foam getting cut and shaped to my butt contours  ,plus the mess in my family room and the finished seat .

And you definitely wont see me sitting butt naked  on a large tray of damp sand !!!

 

 

 

[Scoti]

Two more shots to show finished seat .

To recap ,I used a Super Tenere seats foam (a new 2018 model ) ,cutting the foam from underneath using old electric  carving knife blade (it cuts only on back stroke) .

It looks a bit rough but a few minutes with a 40grit sanding block and its fine and will never be seen .

It took (this time ), three vinyl cover removals to get it right , and for my butt,,, to fit .

Its not clear, but in the pics  the finished seat reassess slightly on both sides

I also used a Super Ten method of dropping the seat backwards a tad , using half sized rubber pads underneath and no pads at the back ,just a piece of flat rubber on rear legs .

I do need to adjust the main seat latch so as there is no up and down movement .

I do have a bit of Oil Canning in the seat and I refitted the water proofing membrane I left out on past fixes.

First pic

I've fitted most of the cover and stappled it secure ,with a hard corner pull (and heat gun ), being done to finish the  job.

Second pic.

Finished seat , with just a few  staples to be removed and aligned to look professional.

-

Edited March 4, 2021 by Scoti
update

[betoney]

9 hours ago, Scoti said:

Resize , how ?

 I don't do any social media ,but have Photo Shop

Thanks

If I take a photo with my phone it gives me the option to send it at different sizes.  Additionally if I store it on my PC, windows allows you to resize as well.

See upper right corner.

[Wintersdark]

Hah I was going to upgrade my suspension with this spare bit of cash, but this post inspired me.  I hadn't really thought of the decision in this framing before, but basically:

 

I'm aware having the bike sprung for my weight will be a huge improvement, but only academically. I've *never* had a bike sprung for my weight, and from my perspective the Tracer has the best suspension I've ever used, so while I'm aware of problems, I don't know what I'm missing, not really.  And those problems are really only an issue at edge cases (hard performance riding) which while very important to me, only affects me sometimes.

But my sore butt affects me every time I ride, be it performance or just riding to work.

So a new Bagster Ready Luxe is on its way

 

[fjray]

On 3/4/2021 at 11:41 PM, Wintersdark said:

Hah I was going to upgrade my suspension with this spare bit of cash, but this post inspired me.  I hadn't really thought of the decision in this framing before, but basically:

 

I'm aware having the bike sprung for my weight will be a huge improvement, but only academically. I've *never* had a bike sprung for my weight, and from my perspective the Tracer has the best suspension I've ever used, so while I'm aware of problems, I don't know what I'm missing, not really.  And those problems are really only an issue at edge cases (hard performance riding) which while very important to me, only affects me sometimes.

But my sore butt affects me every time I ride, be it performance or just riding to work.

So a new Bagster Ready Luxe is on its way

 

I know what you mean about not knowing what you're  missing,  if anything. I rode for years with  mostly the same set of friends and we all thrashed our Goldwings  down in the  mountains.  Most of their  bikes  had upgraded suspension ( Traxxion Dynamics ) and for years they  hounded me about upgrading my bike too.  I wondered why I needed it as being a Flatlander I was  mostly keeping up with them.  Finally I found a super deal on a refreshed set of forks and bought them and put them on and it certainly  made a difference right from the  first ride out my driveway.  But, after a few rides it seemed like it used to.  It was the new normal and I felt like I'd thrown away  my money.  I let a friend ride my Wing once and  he noticed right away that it felt better than his did.  Having grown up riding around with clapped out bikes I just  learned how to ride with what I have.  

[Wintersdark]

Hah that's exactly it.  Decades of old beat up bikes before my MT07 and the Tracer.  The MT07 had a rather poor suspension but it was light years beyond the old 80's bikes I had been riding.  The Tracer's, while horrifically undersprung for my mass, is still dramatically better.  

One day!  I just wish shocks weren't so stupid expensive.