Improving the Stock Seat

[Fireball18]

Well, here's doing things in reverse. I was contacted today by someone interested in buying my Sargent seat. I had listed it for sale back in October, but had no serious inquiries, so I forgot about it. Anyway, in anticipation of his buying my Sargent, I pulled out the stock seat and doctored it up a bit.

Earlier on, just before WeSTOC IX, pulled off the seat cover and sanded out some of the foam at the extreme rear of the seat to level it out. The trick worked, but as stock seats go, this one had too soft foam, and not enough of it. So I got the Sargent, which is everything a stock seat should be but isn't. Anyway, I got a wild hair and bought a piece of what the upholstery guy told me is a high density foam. Could have fooled me, but then, I'm not in the upholstery business. So once again, I pulled off the seat cover and cut a piece of this foam to the proper shape, cut the edges to a bevel, made sure it fit OK, and then glued it in place with upholsterer's spray glue. Then I pulled the vinyl seat cover back over the top and stapled it back on. I didn't have a lot of vinyl to play with after installing the piece of 3/4" thick foam so I had to pull on it pretty hard, but I got it done. It's back in place and actually feels pretty good. I haven't taken it out yet to see how it feels while riding.

Since I merely laid the new piece of foam on top of the stock foam that I had earlier modified, it should take the same shape, so it won't slide me forward into the tank. At least that's how it feels while sitting on it while on the center stand. I didn't take any pix of it because I got too engrossed in the project, and forgot about doing that. Sorry guys. But considering how hard it was to restaple the seat cover back on, I'm not going to take it off again to take a photo. I will let you know how it does while riding, though.

[number9]

Yes please update. I have thought of doing something like this to my stock ST11 seat as well but haven't got around to it yet. I would be VERY interested in hearing your thoughts after a long ride on it.

[Joe_Urban]

Before customizing the seat you might want to consider the AeroStich tapered black sheep skin cover, cost is $67, delivered $75. It feels real good to me, heard it works like a cool cushion in hot weather, guess I will have to wait for a few months to find out.

[Fireball18]

Before customizing the seat you might want to consider the AeroStich tapered black sheep skin cover, cost is $67, delivered $75. It feels real good to me, heard it works like a cool cushion in hot weather, guess I will have to wait for a few months to find out.


That's where I save a couple bux. I already have a sheepskin cover from Alaska Leather. Funny thing is, I bought one for my wife's ST1300 last fall, but she didn't care for it, and gave it to me. I thought I'd replace the one I already have because I've been using it for several years. Surprise! It didn't feel any better than the old one, which fit my seat better, so I took it off and put the old one back on. I agree, a sheepskin cover is much cooler in the summer, and warmer when it's cold out. Nothing worse than coming out after lunch and sitting on a COLD vinyl seat.

Looks like the weather will be good this weekend, so we'll go for a ride somewhere. I'll update this after we ride. As a preliminary observation, after I modified the stock foam, by shaving some off the rear portion to flatten out the sitting position, it felt about right. Problem was, it felt like there just wasn't quite enough foam. I'm hoping this will cure the problem. If it does, I may not need to get an aftermarket seat. That remains to be seen. But if so, then I'll probably go to an upholsterer and have him replace the vinyl seat cover with a leather one. :03biker:

[Mr.Brownstone]

Where is a good place to get foam?

[eddiemack]

I got memory foam off ebay, but you can get foam of all density at a fabric store or upholstery shop(s). I peeled back the seat cover, cut a 7"x7"x1" slab out of the seat, and glued in a piece of memory foam. Staple the cover back on the seat pan and wahlah. This was a winter project so I have yet to test it out on a log ride due to snow (four letter word). But I sit on it making vroom vroom noises and it seems fine.

[Dave Wicks]

:04biker: I'm not sure of your size so this may not be helpful. I'm 5'7" so I have the seat in lowest position..Felt the slide forward thing..hate that. Looked under seat pan..two rubber blocks holding up back of seat.Popped them off..drops back of seat 1 1/2 inches, took away the slide forward feeling.

Take Care
Dave :)

[Fireball18]

OK, here's a report on my modified seat. As I mentioned above, I cut a piece of this supposedly closed cell foam, the size of the stock foam and glued it in place, then pulled the seat cover back over and re-stapled it.

We went for a short ride of around 127 miles today. On the first leg of the ride I wasn't too sure I'd done the right thing, however when we got to where we had lunch, I moved the seat from the middle to the lowest position and it was much better on the ride back. Tomorrow we will be taking a much longer trip, so will have a better opportunity to evaluate the seat as modified. At the very least, it was more comfortable than the stock set up. The one thing I did notice was that it definitely is not as wide across the main part of the seat as the Sargent. I know of no way to remedy that except by having a Russell built on the stock seat pan. I felt like I was hanging over the edges of the seat slightly. Kinda weird feeling until I got used to it. I experienced no back discomfort, which I seemed to have with the Sargent. That may be due to the absolutely flat seating position of the Sargent. The stock seat leans you slightly forward, but not enough to cause undo pressure on the wrists or hands. So we'll see how it is tomorrow.

[Fireball18]

Well, day two of the modified stock seat test. Went about 225 miles today. The jury is still out on this one. I was pretty comfortable until we stopped for lunch. After lunch my rear end was getting a bit sore and my upper back hurt. My wife told me I should just get a Russell. Guess she's right.

Final analysis--modifying the stock seat the way I did improved it a fair amount over bone stock, but still not in the "good" category. I think the big deal is that the stock seat is not wide enough, and slopes away from the center. The aftermarket seat makers have the right idea--slope inward toward the center of the seat. I think this helps to even out the pressure points. So this wasn't a bust, just not as good as I had hoped.

Anyone else out there modified your stock seat, how, and what were the results?