Cafe Racer Seat

Timbone

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Apr 20, 2014
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Location
Louisville, KY
I am prepping up for Spring riding. I have ordered a new 2 stroke HT engine from a well known dealer. I will post a review of their product when it is delivered.

My latest obsession is the seat/saddle. My idea is to create a spring supported cafe racer seat.

I have procured:

A 2 feet long piece of hardwood to use as a base. I am forming it now, and it needs a lot more sanding. $7

A 3' piece of 12 gauge steel angle with predrilled holes. $11

Padding material. I'll glue that to the wood base. $5

Felt cover material. Free.

Stryrofoam (free). I'll glue the styrofoam to the wood base, then shallac or epoxy a cotton layer to it after shaping. Should be able to sand that down and spray paint it.

My idea is to set up a pivot allowing up and down movement on the rear of the seat which will be supported by:

Two big springs. $7

3/4" steel tubing,cut into two 12" sections (looks like good quality electrical conduit). Free. I cut to 12" length to make sure that, if there ever is a bottoming out, the seat will not hit the rear wheel.

Two used 5/8" combination wrenches with the open ends ground down to slide into the steel tubing. This will form a kind of shock absorber with the closed ends of the wrenches attached to 5/8" couplers on 3/8" all thread rod. $2

Two steel beam hangers (to be the bottom butt of the springs) and 2 side beam connectors that will attach to the 1/4"-20 hole that is usually for rack mount or rear fenders. These will be the bottom butts of the steel tube shock absorber. $4

I'll add pictures when all my pieces are ready.

=Timbone=
 
Felt cover material? How much upolstry do you know? Do you have a pattern? A cafe racer seat is long, and that front bump requires some sewing, and that felt better be serious stuff. Felt is not a high wear fabic. Other then that you sound like your on the right path. Cut your foam right, staple clean to the wood, pull it tight, really tight, make sure you screw the metal plate flush. Upolstry is my ****...
 
Styrofoam and felt, your living on the edge. Needs to be superdense high grade styrofoam, find another less dense foam to cover, a thick DACRON maybe. atleast half and inch to an inch, will compress when you cover and give you a seat.
 
Thread bump.

I actually made the seat/saddle using vinyl as the cover. It looked decent and feels comfortable enough, but it is just impractical. For one, it is far too heavy. And, quite honestly, my shock absorber design was bad - I can't trust my life to it, that's for sure. And it just doesn't look right on the cantilever style frame. I am sticking with my comfy spring saddle!
 
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