seat making, foam density or type

[BentRod]

Hey everyone
My holiday project has been determined for me. I sat on my seat while it was covered in frost and it cracked up like a potato chip.
The foam is pretty rot now, so when i recover, I'm going to re-foam it as well. I was wondering, what type of foam have people been using? brands? weights? density? types? I was thinking of going to an fabric and furniture shop and just sitting on some, but that is kind of conditional of them letting me, and it being the right size to do a reliable test.

I have already read into materials people have been using, the barbique cover is pretty clever i must say, although I do tend to slide off the back a bit as i have mid pegs and i always wear my riding pants and they do slide.
I have also found the idea to put a gell pad in.. sounds nice, if i can find some.

Also, if anyone has any advice for stitching.. thread weight, spacing, do i need to double up the stitches? tripple up? any advice for stitching curves?

Thanks!
Bentrod

[spyug]

B-Rod,
Getting the right foam can be a bit of a trial. Regular upholstry foams can be too soft. I tried some from the fiberglass/ upholstrey supply guy on Kenilworth. Got the firmest he had and it was still too soft.

On one of my Tracker seats I used that foam, shaved it a bit and put a jell pad topper ( from a bicycle gell seat) on it before the cover. It still wasn't comfortable enough.

For the latest pad I got a "kneeler pad" from Princess Auto (about 2" of high density rubbery foam). It is firm but comfortable enough.

On one of the biker shows they made a seat from layers of carpet underlay foam. You can build it up to any dimension you like and shave it down to almost any shape ( use an electric carving knife).

If you want the pro stuff you could contact Goldstar auto Upholstry out in Stoney Creek. They'll have stuff but it might be a tad expensive. They will also have a large selection of vinyl ( I still get mine from the Kenilworth guy).Obviously, they could redo your seat if you wanted.

I didn't find making a seat pad all that difficult but i didn't use a stock pan either so I'm not sure how that would go.

If I can help just PM me.

Cheers,
Spyug.

[Ironriot]

Are you planning on recovering it yourself? If so, the thing that sticks out most to me is if you have any experience with upholstery. If not you might want to consider farming out the work to someone with experience. It'll look nicer and give you alot less headaches. Upholstry has never struck me as one of those do it yourself type of deals. You run a big chance of ruining alot of material.

As for where to find good foam. Try with upholsters in your area and see what they have to offer. The guy that covered my seat supplied the foam for the backhalf of the seat and all I can say is that its HARD. Plenty of support and it feels like its not going anywhere for a good long while. Its a bit too hard for my posterior though. I feel bad for whoever rides b!tch.

Also a good tip for saving yourself some cash is too buy the cover material yourself. Remember these guys make alot of money from marking up the materials that THEY buy and use. My guy originally quoted me at 60 bucks to recover my seat, along with refoaming. I bought my own material for 10 bucks and he only charged me $30. Saved $20 bucks

[gsgeezer]

+1 on local upholstery shop.

I paid around $120 to have seats completely redone. Custom shape, material and choice of foam density included. I would have been lucky to buy the materials myself for that, much less shaping the seat perfectly the first time or two (or three or four).

[BentRod]

hmmm.. may be I'll just stuff a burlap sack with cotton balls...

back to the serious side of life..
I'm really not wanting to spend a whole heck of a lot on this, so I'm definately going it alone.

If high density foam is really that much of a pain to find, then I may sow together a seat of the shape i want, and then cram in as much foam as i can.. ie, increasing the density. that however, has its own problems.

I'm still open to any suggestions.. and I will look up the place on kenilworth. the kneeling pad from PA sounds like a swell idea.

[BassCliff]

Have a seat

Mr. BentRod,

You may already know, but I wanted to remind you that JCWhitney has a seat foam repair kit for about $30. I recently bought a Travelcade Saddlemen replacement seat cover for my bike. DennisKirk, JCWhitney, and Z1enterprises sell them. My seat cover replacement adventure is documented here. But with the foam, the seat cover, and shipping, you're still looking at around $100. Or maybe a local mom-and-pop upholstery shop can give you a good price?

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Tazman001]

seat foam

probably the best deal on foam for your seat can be found at you local auto recycling yard. go out in the junkyard and look for a rear seat out of your favorite kind of junk car. I don't know how many different densities the auto manufacturers use but you can but back seats cheep out of several types of common compact economy cars, just my 2?. :-D

[bwringer]

I made an insert for my seat from a slab of Sargent's Supercell foam. The cutting and rough shaping was done with an old electric knife from Goodwill and shaping with a course sanding block. The SuperCell foam is VERY firm -- it's far beyond anything you'll find in an upholstery shop -- but it slowly molds itself with body heat each time you sit on the bike. Very nice stuff.

If you call them, Sargent will happily sell you a chunk. It's a tad spendy, though -- the piece I used in the photos below was about $60 delivered. But it was well worth it -- the seat doesn't pack down after a half hour anymore. I can ride alllllllllll day now.







The stitched cover was $80 delivered from B&H:

http://motorcycleseatcovers.com

Just don't get the textured material like I did -- it looks great, but it's perforated. The SOBs still don't mention this on their site. Get the regular or heavy duty solid material and you'll be happy.


You can also get a hunk of marine seating vinyl for not much money at most large fabric stores. This will work a lot better than some crappy BBQ cover. I re-covered my VX800 seat (and then some) with a remnant hunk of marine seating vinyl I got for $3. I also re-sculpted the seat and put in a Sargent foam insert, so I couldn't use an off-the-shelf seat cover.

Work under a heat lamp and use a hair dryer sparingly, and it's remarkably stretchy stuff. This isn't the greatest looking seat in the world (there are two big wrinkles at the back), but no one points and laughs either. Not bad for my first try, I guess:

[Joe Nardy]

I made an insert for my seat from a slab of Sargent's Supercell foam. The cutting and rough shaping was done with an old electric knife from Goodwill and shaping with a course sanding block. The SuperCell foam is VERY firm -- it's far beyond anything you'll find in an upholstery shop -- but it slowly molds itself with body heat each time you sit on the bike. Very nice stuff.

If you call them, Sargent will happily sell you a chunk. It's a tad spendy, though -- the piece I used in the photos below was about $60 delivered. But it was well worth it -- the seat doesn't pack down after a half hour anymore. I can ride alllllllllll day now.

Brian,

Are you sure about the price? I have ordered the Super Cell Atomic foam from Sargent a couple times. I remember the price being around $20 per square foot. Both my GS and FJR required one square foot to do the front portion of the seat.

Thanks,
Joe

[KGB]

+1 on the local upholstery shop.

Find one that does custom car work, not just granny chairs

The local guy here did my GS1000S seat, with the rise for about $110.
He used triple density foam, so it's soft on top, and gets progressivly
firmer. I sat on it for 330 miles with my wife.


Or look at jethro's home page...........Geofferysworld or something like that.
He has a step by step detailed, with pics when he re did the seat on his GS1100 or send him a PM asking where it is.

[BentRod]

gee guys.. I was hoping to hack this one off for around thirty bucks. guess not eh?
I'm turning 21 in January, so there is no need to worry about my butt getting sore.

I was thinking about marine type fabrics. but they seem a bit on the heavy side, and I'm not sure if my sowing machine can handle it.. they hard to work with? how do you stitch them?

right now, as far as fabric goes I'm think I'm going with rubberized bullistic nylon. should be easy to work with and water proof. I just hope i don't go sliding all over the place.

[willie]

I've learned a bit from recovering a couple of seats. For foam, I remove a slab of the stock foam and replace it with a layer of tempurpedic memory foam. I've found the best price for the stuff is from www.knoxfoam.com in Konxville, TN. The info on their website is very helpful for selecting densities. The local fabric store is the best place I've found for marine grade vinyls without having to buy a minimum amount and paying shipping. Its also nice to feel the stuff in your hands to check for stiffness and texture. Another option is to get the type of vinyl meant for bike or ATV or PWC seats. Its very elastic and can be stretched to conform to the shape of the foam. it'll reduce, if not eliminate, any wrinkles. I recomend using stainless steel staples to prevent rusting on down the road.
Good luck and happy new year!
Willie in TN

[gunbunny119]

I used thin high-density foam. I'm Army and I cut up one of our foam PT mats, but I believe it's the same stuff used used the exercise mats in the sporting goods section of Walmart. It doesn't look comfortable at first glance, but I recovered my seat using this foam and not only does it make it sit lower but I can ride for hours without pain.

Good luck

[bwringer]

Brian,

Are you sure about the price? I have ordered the Super Cell Atomic foam from Sargent a couple times. I remember the price being around $20 per square foot. Both my GS and FJR required one square foot to do the front portion of the seat.

Thanks,
Joe

Hmm. Now that you mention it, I think it was around $50 delivered, not $60, for a 16X16 inch slab of Supercell for my GS. That's about 1.77 square feet, or $35.55 for the foam at $20 a square foot.

They sent it UPS in a HUGE box with mountains of foam peanut packing (A hunk of raw foam needs padding?), so the total ended up around $50.

[TheCafeKid]

Will be attempting this soon myself with my 'glass seat pan/tail section, but there are a great many different opinons on this. Some guys have used carpet underpadding foam, and have found it to be most comfortable and durable. Probably have to use a few layers, or even use one or two and a different more "fluffy" padding for the layer your butt actually goes on.