New Seat butchery !! IDIOCY OR GENIUS ?

harlequin6

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Comfortable seats are allways a hot topic here so I thought I'd geve my take. As with Most folks with a low 1150 gsa seat I find it's not the most comfy for distances . I have tried sheapskin etc and I have an Airhawk, which is pretty good but I am almost on tiptoes as it is and never feel 100% secure. I also worry about it getting nicked when I am away from the bike .

I am off on a 12 day trip down to Gibraltar in 3 weeks so need to resolve the comfort issue. I recently nipped into the Baglux shop in Abergele to get a replacement clip for my tankbag and had a look at the seat options. They had an Adventure seat in stock and I got Farkles in my eyes I bought it on spec !

Anyway It was a bit to high for me when I got it home but I persevered for a while . Still not happy I stripped off the front rider part of the cover to have a fettle
with it . Now the upper surface of the seat has a gel inset so I couldn.t do anything with that so I carved out a couple of inches from the bottom and that still left the gel etc.

After a couple of weeks I was still not happy and I started to think I had wasted the money and it just didn't suit me. I tried the airhawk with it but it still left me feeling on tiptoes and would have been a complete waste of time and moneybuying the new seat.

In a flash of potential idiocy or genius I stripped the whole of the foam out of the rider section put the gel back onto the base place , sculpted foam around the shape of the airhawk and recovered it. I made a bit of an arse of where the valve was to exit and had to stitch it up again. If the airhawk fails I know I at least have an inch of gel in there as a backup.

Anyways I can now inflate or deflate as needed without the worry of losing / puncturing the airhawk and on the couple of shortish runs if feels great - Goodtimes !

On the downside I'm not sure I will be able to sell it if I needed to and I gave in my original seet os part of the deal. - Bad Times

A couple of oics but I forgot to take one with the Airhawk in place prior to recovering ... Doh

Anyway I am pretty happy with it and will give it a full test when I go down to Gib and back .
 

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Love it - great idea:thumb2 Now how about incorporating a separate (smaller) airhawk for the pillion for the ultimate set up.
 
That's a great idea. Wonder if you could add one of those "rugby ball" air pumps they have on blood pressure cuffs so the Airhawk could be inflated/deflated on the fly
 
Love it - great idea:thumb2 Now how about incorporating a separate (smaller) airhawk for the pillion for the ultimate set up.

Grandtrousers ,

Could be done I guess but I dont have a pillion :fiddle

So I'm off to shake hands with the unemployed :tosser

I did a 250 mile ride out yesteday and I am pretty happy with the result

Cheers,

Harlequin6
 
mmmm airhawk within a seat now thats a good idea
also saves time no need to keep taking airhawk off everytime you stop for a break
 
Ultra seal .. Nice one ,:clap:clap

Yeah a puncture would be a pain in the ass. Although thats why I left the gel in the base plate. at least it would still be rideable until I could get the staples out etc,

It's gonna get a bloody good test to Gibraltar and back though!

Harlequin6
 
Can we have an update on the Airhawk/seat modification - how did the Gib trip go?
 
Hi Kritou,

The Gib' trip went well . I had to get the amount of air in the air hawk correct but everyone will tell you that. All in all I am happy with it although I had a couple of late days with some pain . I always get it in the back of my legs but we were doing long days ( longset 600 miles ) I think you'd get a bit of pain enven in an armchair for 9 hours or so . Certaily loads better than the seat I had.

The only thing I want to do is find a way to hang on to the valve. A couple of times its popped back into the seat but its easy to pull it back out with some neadle nosed pliers. I might cut a thin length of bike tyre innertube ( elastic band size ) , tie one end around the valve and put a press stud on the other to be clipped down under the seat base. That way it will be thin and unobtrusive.

The valve never causes me any pain where it is , it just squashes in to the seat .

I don't know whether anyone elso would do it . I already had an airhawk and a seat I wasn't 100% happy with so I had nowt to lose. It may be better to get an old cheap seat and have the airhawk inserted and recovered profesionaly. ( donor seats have sold for £40 on here and fleabay )

It is a real advantage not to worry about the airhawk left sat on the bike. I used to leave mine "balanced" on the seat and then roll it up into my topbox when off the bike . I still had the problem of it possibly disapearing from under me if I " Stood " on the bike . It's just me but I was always worried about someone nicking it if I tied it on and left it on the bike. .

Overall despite my hamfisted installation methods I am happy with it.

Cheers,

Harlequin6
 
That's a great idea. Wonder if you could add one of those "rugby ball" air pumps they have on blood pressure cuffs so the Airhawk could be inflated/deflated on the fly
The think I thought of using was the inflater from a sphygmomanometer set (for taking blood pressure), they usually have a valve on the bulb to release the air, with a suitable extension hose it could hang under the left bar, swaying gently in the breeze :)

I asked reception at my local doctors if they had one spare a few weeks back, after some very odd looks I was turned down :o

Great mod to the seat though, it looks way better than I thought it might, very well done :thumb
 
ebbo,

It would have been nice to have my bulb swinging in the breeze through the heat of Spain !!:D

The blood pressure bulb could do the job remotely though. . I just blew into the valve and added or reduced air as I felt like it although it may have looked like I was sniffing the saddle to a passing Gringo !:eek:

The benefit to this would be running the tube off the valve under or out of the side of the seat baseplate rather than having to open the upper surface like I did.

Something to think about though ,

Something it will try is to run a bead of silicone sealant into the material opening . This will stop water running in and hopefully stop the valve popping back into the seat.

Chears for the input


Harlequin6
 
The think I thought of using was the inflater from a sphygmomanometer set (for taking blood pressure), they usually have a valve on the bulb to release the air, with a suitable extension hose it could hang under the left bar, swaying gently in the breeze :)
Great mod to the seat though, it looks way better than I thought it might, very well done :thumb
attachment.jpeg

Get a sheepskin cover, and a pair of the above, and it'll look the "sheep's testicles".......:P
 
I have a couple of old Honda Preludes knockin about someplace, i am about to scrap them. both have inflateable seat backs, i'll pull one out to check how it works:D
 


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