Cafe Racer Help

[Wrxben]

Hello all, this is my first post. I just purchased my first motorcycle ever. It is a 1979 gs425! only 6000 miles! Im super excited about the bike and love riding it, but now I want to get started on the whole reason I bought the bike, cafe racer. The things I want to do to start are handlebars and seat. Ive been researching seats for days but you can't find much on actual fitment and ease of mounting without talking to someone who has done it and I don't want to do a ton of modding to make it fit. So anyone who has put a cafe racer seat on your gs425 or gs400 please let me know the company that makes it, the model, and how easy it was to mount on? Post pics if you have them. Im also looking for style of handlebar and how comfortable it is to ride, I know comfort and cafe bike really don't go together I just don't want my back to hurt from 15 minutes of riding so anything relatively comfortable. Also feel free to post anything you think I would find helpful in my cafe racer build. Post pics if you have them! Thanks to all!

[kb_air]

please is the word your looking for young padawan

[Erki]

Im just guessing, But probably most cafe racer seats may need a little modding to get them mounted. Most are just a shell are they not? As for bars. Something low will either have to be clip on bars or clubman bars. With a low bar and leaning forward. you'll probably want some rear set pegs to put your feet back a little, But that is more modifying in making mounting brackets for them. Anyway. lots of stuff to think about.

[kb_air]

go to ebay and type in cafe seat, they have some pretty good deals and you can get them in ready to mount condition. if you order a new one they cost about 100 bucks and another 100 bucks for the padding and they are just a white unfinished shell. i have drag bars on mine but i kept the stepped big cumfy seat, the wife insisted. as for rearsets i just pop my feat on the passenger pegs when im in 5th on long stretches, like backward cruzer pegs. * disclaimer thats probably not very safe and i in no way condone you doing that and killing yourself

[tkent02]

Hello all, this is my first post. I just purchased my first motorcycle ever.

Newby, welcome to the forum.

I want to get started on the whole reason I bought the bike, cafe racer.

Already racing? Excellent.

Also feel free to post anything you think I would find helpful in my cafe racer build.

Learn to ride first.

[kb_air]

Learn to ride first.

In all honesty this is sound advice brother. take a year to learn how to control your bike before you start focusing on looking good while doing it. Its probably a good idea to look into taking a rider safety course, they teach you proper riding technique, you will really be surprised what your bike can do once you're taught the right way to do it.

[LoopGaroo]

Dime City has a bunch of seats and universal mounting kits

[Wrxben]

Thanks to all for their responses. I appreciate all the people looking out for my safety, after all it is the most important things. Although I have over 10 years dirt bike riding experience. But I know those skills aren't exactly the same as street riding I have a strong base in motorcycles and I am signed up to take the advanced rider road safety course next week. And just clarifying that Im using the words cafe racer just to describe the look, I guess I could've just said cafe bike. Either way Im not doing any racing, Im more of the slow peaceful ride type of guy.

[Wrxben]

Im just guessing, But probably most cafe racer seats may need a little modding to get them mounted. Most are just a shell are they not?

Thanks for the reply, I figured any seat will need some level of modding. I was just looking for if there are any to avoid because they had a ton of trouble getting it to fit right or maybe they are all basically the same.

[pete]

Hey mate, welcome!

I can't really think of anything to add at the moment, except to say that mounting an aftermarket or home made cafe type seat will always require some sort of fabrication as there's just nothing made to suit the GS specifically.

If you're going for the minimal look of the cafe's, you can always re-trim your existing seat as a flat seat, you don't actually need the bubble at the back.

The "real" cafe's back in the day were about minimal weight and maximum speed, they didn't worry about what the seat looked like or anything like that, that's a current "trend" thing...

[tkent02]

Im more of the slow peaceful ride type of guy.

In that case you will really hate the clubman bars. They are very uncomfortable unless you are hauling ass.

[MisterCinders]

Here is the thread from rigging up my seat.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=182785

HTH