GS550l seat (pic loading hazard!!!)

[bexabarr]

My bike:

well not exactly...

ahh yes!! this is more like it.

well I was tired of the seat... and being a college student with little $ and perhaps too much time, I decided to make my own seat (ran back home to mom to get some help lol).

I began cutting the seat foam down...

then made a template...

 

[bexabarr]

then cut drew around the template and cut the vinyl ( and the sides too, they are not in the pitures.

made the lining, with a think string in between

tried it on for size...

got some thin foam and glued it to the top of the seat (so the imperfections wouldn't show up on the seat surface.

 

[bexabarr]

put some thick wires through the ends of the ends that go over the edges of the seat pan (when you tighten the two wires it pulls the seat together, this way I avoided using the sharp metal point on the pan- hopefully this way it will last longer.

final look on the bike...

only differences from the first and second picture are the lowered front forks, seat, and no break light... I know that the bike has a loooooong way to go before it looks anywhere near decent... but I think I made a decent leap in a couple days work. Sorry for the dull write-up, but I have a paper that I now have to pull out of my a** somehow.

By the way.. I have nothing against the ?L? models.. if my bike would of looked originally like the first picture? I would have left it alone

 

[rkubik]

nice one

nice one

now THAT is what custom bike really means - DIY.

 

[Roadwarrior]

Good Job! I wish I wasn't so intimidated by a sewing machine.

 

[bexabarr]

Good Job! I wish I wasn't so intimidated by a sewing machine.

lol... that's why I ran home to "mama"... she "guided" me through the process hehe.

A few side notes for anyone doing something similar... make sure to get extra strong sewing string... and when cutting the foam, leave the front part alone so it still wraps around the tank nicely. And if you decide to put on the extra thin sheet of foam (again to smooth out the final seat surface...) glue it to the original foam with some spray adhesive.

total cost didn?t make it to $20 (if you are still young enough [no pun intended hehe] to have a mom around to correct your many mistakes--> even better if you get her frustrated enough to get her to do it for you!!!)

anyways back to the paper... it's looking like another all-nighter :/

 

[beby99]

Good job man......where do I send my seat

 

[ddaum]

From your pictures, it looks to be shaping up nicely. Good job. I'm just wondering though, did you re-use the seat pan? Kind of a dumb question, but in the pictures, with the thickness of the seat, it looks to be gone...

 

[bexabarr]

same seat pan ... the "L" model bikes seem to be extra wide... I solved that problem by hammering the sides in a bit (not that much though). If I get a chance today I'll take better pictures in the daylight. Also I didn't use the metal prongs that are supposed to hold the seat down, you can on one of the cover pictures two wires coming out...

put some thick wires through the ends of the ends that go over the edges of the seat pan (when you tighten the two wires it pulls the seat together, this way I avoided using the sharp metal point on the pan- hopefully this way it will last longer.

when you tighten these two wire with pliers it tightens the seat around the seat pan from all directions.

 

[bexabarr]

Sorry about the billion pictures... but since I like to see pictures on other threads, I figured someone out there also will enjoy to see these.

here is the seat from underneath... you can see how I pulled it together by twisting the wire.

and here is the bike.. a little better pics (now it shows all the imperfections... so just focus on the seat hehe).

 

[XJeRge]

Nice job !

 

[mapball]

very frickin cool!!! It gives the bike a smoother look without the aggressive step down. excellent excellent job!

I did the same thing last weekend... well almost. I was getting sick of my seat, and being only 5-6 wanted to get more foot on the ground. I simply started ripping foam by hand out of the seat!!! being careful not to change the contour shape of the seat... after some trial and error... the seat feels terrific!! fits my ass perfectly LOL. bad thing is i still cant flat foot the ground!!! DOH!!

So does your seat feel better than the old seat?

 

[bexabarr]

I'm 5-7 and now I can put both feet flat on the ground. I feel a lot more secure because of this. The seat is obviously a little bit stiffer (if this becomes a problem I know that there are all kinds of patting that I can buy to fix this, but I don't foresee this a becoming a problem). For me it is very comfortable, but keep in mind that I'm a relatively small guy.

 

[jimcor]

That's a great job! Good idea running a wire to keep things tight.

 

[ron bayless]

Brother,that is a dang goodlooking seat! That's how Corbin got started.

 

[Llamaguy]

Did you use a thick vinyl? If not, be carefull when It gets cold because it will crack, this happened to a custom shift boot for my car Just make sure that it ian't stiff before you sit on it.

 

[bexabarr]

Thanks guys for the comments + advice!

Did you use a thick vinyl? If not, be careful when It gets cold because it will crack, this happened to a custom shift boot for my car Just make sure that it ian't stiff before you sit on it.

Unfortunately I did not! This is my first attempt at this. This type of vinyl was on sale for $7 a yard, the very thick stuff was for $15 a yard. Since I had never worked with the stuff, I wanted to start with some stuff that was easy to work with (the thick vinyl is really stiff). The good thing is that I feel comfortable now with the material, and if it does crack next winter or something, I'll take your advice and use the thicker stuff or other materials all together. In fact, I already have good ideas going on how to put seems on the top of the seat with extra cushioning (so it doesn't look so smooth). Thanks again!