Looks great! Love what you did with the seat. Now the all important question, is it comfortable? I'd love to do something like that with mine, especially if it would increase comfort. Thanks.

Jay wrote on 01/26/09 at 21:50:49:



I love it.  I always thought I needed lots of cushion to ride comfortably. I unexpectedly found out otherwise.  A bit of history here to help explain- I was doing some extensive mods last summer on my M50 seat.  It was slow going but it was summer so i wanted to ride.  I rode for about a month on just the plastic seat pan.  I discovered that I liked it better than with all of the soft cushion.  So I ended up doing this mod to my M50 seat and loved it.  The longest I rode on the modded M50 seat it in a day was about 7 hours.

Then I bought this '06 S40 new last summer.  After the 30 minute ride home my butt hurt so bad.  Parts of my legs and butt were numb in areas I've never been numb before.  Getting back on the M50 the next day was like pure luxury compared to the stock S40 seat.  Now, I ride the S40 about 30 minutes to work and back with no problem.  

I'm 6 foot and weigh 240.  I used to think more padding was the answer.  For me, thin, dense padding plus a shape that "holds" me works best.  There is more contact area now for my butt.  It feels a lot like sitting in a saddle.  Saddles are hard and have no cushion but people can sit in a saddle for hours without a problem.  I noticed that most people that I knew that rode horses can sit in a saddle for much longer periods of time than most people that I knew that rode motorcycles.  To me it didn't seem to make a lot of sense.  That's when I realized that a good seat shape with minimal padding is more comfortable than a not-so-good shaped seat and lots of padding.    

If you happen across a an used seat pan or if you ever take yours apart, try laying a thin piece of padding on it and go for a ride.  You might like it too.

Jim, your bike looks amazing, elegant lines.  Like everyone else here, I particularly like the seat - streamlined, great looking.

Amy

are those stock risers? and where did you get the straight bars?  As everyone is saying...Holy Crap, awesome job, I'm jealous.

oksavage wrote on 01/27/09 at 17:14:26:


I had trouble finding a broomstick drag bar that was over 30", unknurled and undimpled (both for HD installs).  You can find unknurled and undimpled and 26" or less sizes.  At least at the time I searched.  I think mine were 32" and dimpled, but unknurled.  I have trimmed it down to about 27 inches to fit me just right.  I think I paid about 25 with S&H included on ebay back in maybe October of last year.  The bar-end mirror is one of the $15-20 ones you see on ebay.  I love it.  It's for 7/8" diameter bars but I used a home crafted adapter.

Good point. I have the 32" no dimples, no knurling..but, at first the guy accidentally sent me the dimpled ones. Set me back a few weeks sending bars back and forth but I finally got the right ones. I think I also paid $25

Jay, try a layer of cotton batting, put the seat cover on, tack it underneath in a few places to hold the cover on and see how it looks.  Spray the seat cover with some Armor All and examine the seat in a very well lit room or outside on a very sunny day.  This will will help reveal any high places in the seat cushion that show through.  Then do the same in a not so well lit room.  Doing so will create shadows and help you identify low spots.   More than once I thought a seat looked good when looking at in in the living room with only a ceiling light only to find later, when the seat was on the bike out in the sun, that it still had some fairly obvious bumps.  If the imperfections are present but minimal, a second layer of batting will likely be the perfect solution.  If bumps are fairly obvious then a little more shaping and a second layer of batting should be perfect.  

Other tips: If you are going to do a really low profile seat like mine, you will see a few high spots on the seat pan that you may need to grind down some.  Putting the seat cover in the dryer to warm it up will allow it to stretch and fit better when putting the seat cover on for good.  Use an electric staple gun.  I picked up one from Lowe's for about $30.  It will have the power to drive the staples into the plastic.  

Here's what i did with that M50 seat about 2 years ago. You can see how it was more of a saddle shape and so comfy.


Here's the M50 before I sold it.  I had designed and sewn an OD green canvas seat cover that matched the tank/fender paint but the sun quickly faded it.  I was going to have a local guy make me a brown leather seat cover to match the saddlebags but I sold the "Hellcat" to a very motivated buyer before I got that done.  He crashed it a month later.  

diamond jim wrote on 01/26/09 at 21:10:48:


Great Post!  Thanks for sharing and great looking S40.  Love to see how customs come about on these bikes.