Bandit Alley
MODEL SPECIFIC => BIG BANDIT BANTER => Topic started by: trotsky on March 09, 2005, 01:13:13 AM
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Anyone have a good seat mod for a 97 bandit? I just got back from a 1500 mile round trip to Vegas from the SF bay area and my arse is killing me.
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You plan on doing the mod yourself?
Most competent local upholstery shops can do some shaping, add some foam or change the density of the foam, and recover it to look decent.
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I am in the same boat, I was thinking about trying to trim my stock seat myself. I am 6'8", 300 lb bandit rider who took a beating last weekend riding 240 miles on a stock seat. Legs and arms were fine, but my @$$ was hurt'in.
Corbins are nice, but if I am going to spend the money, I would like to get a seat that was fit to my unusual frame. That is, I would like to have the pilot seat raised an inch or so and slid back about an inch.
Anyway, I found some good sites online that will reshape your stock seat based on your weight, height, inseam etc, but they are expensive! So before spending the $$ I was going to try to do it myself and see how it works.
Please, let me know if you have success, I will do the same!
(http://firedonkey.com/~jwalters/tmp/meOnBandit.jpg)
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will do. I know a friend of mine did a mod on his FZ1 and that's what got me thinking that there should be one out there for the Bandit.
Am also thinking of the corbin, but figured I would try a mod myself before shelling out that kind of dough.
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I tried to modify my seat myself.
It came out ok but i ended up getting
a corbin gunfighter anyway.
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me too...i got one from ebay a month or so ago. Was a little wierd at first but now I am used to it and I love it. No more sore ass and a cool little back rest for the wife :)
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I'd go with a Corbin. Makes those few hundred mile rides much easier. Plus, you can probably pick one up on FleaBay for about $200 shipped to your door.
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That sore arse could be from the SF bay area no?
A cheap laternative is a gell seat from Suzuki. I paid 130 USD for mine. Some hate em, I love mine. A huge improvement over stock on long rides. I went straight from numb ass after an hour to 16 hours in the saddle. I am old, so all of me hurt then.
Bazza
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Here is what I did. I looked in the yellow pages for my area. Found a custom upholster took the seat to him told him what I wanted. He called me back in a couple of days to come check it out before he covered it. It wasn’t quite right so he worked on it some more. Called me back to try it. It needed just a little more tweaking. He adjusted it. Called me back it was perfect. He covered it and it cost me $325.00. Most of the cost was for the expensive cover I used. Had I gone with regular black it would have only cost half that. But here is a note. If you are planning on getting a gel pad inserted in your seat go with a lighter cover. I have been told that the black covers really soak up the heat from the sun and make the gel hot. So now I have a form fitted custom gel seat for my Bandit and riding long distance is no problem.
:motorsmile:
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It wasn’t quite right so he worked on it some more. Called me back to try it. It needed just a little more tweaking. He adjusted it.
:?: Tweaking :?: What did they tweak?
I understand chaning the stuffing but how do you decide what to tell them on shaping? I get figity on a long ride but not sure how I would change the seat to fix that.
I need to be as cost effective as possible (duh) and insure my co-pilot feels a marked diff or :soapbox:
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I sat on the uncovered seat. Where it was too high he shaved some foam. Where it was to low he added some foam. Where the rise in the back of my portion was not high enough he added some foam. He just kept working the seat till I was comfortable on it.
:motorsmile:
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I have heard good reports about Sargent seats. (They custom modify your standard seat). About 230 USD and up to re-do your stock seat.
I have spoken with several people who have had their stock seats done (not Bandit riders however) and they swear by them. In fact one of the people was an ex Corbin owner and says the sargent seat was better.
You can find Sargent here..
http://www.sargentcycle.com/default2.html
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I reshaped the foam on the stock seat myself. I mainly wanted a flater area to set on and a little more room to move back from the tank. Removed the cover then with the seat on the bike mark the trim area with a marker. Used an electric carving knife to slowly slice away thin strips. Remove the seat from the bike and use rough sand paper to smooth the seat shape. I repeated this process 3 time untill I got the feel I wanted. Then I went to a local upholstery shop picked out the material and showed them how I wanted it pieced together. Total for recover $80.00. Here are some photos of the finished seat. I can ride for hours now without monkey butt.
http://home.att.net/~s.h.posey/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html
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...(http://firedonkey.com/~jwalters/meOnBandit.jpg)
Dude, off topic, but, you make that bike look positively tiny. D@mn! Stop taking the vitamins! :stickpoke:
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Recovered my seat this weekend. shaved the back of the riders seat down so I don't slide to the front all the time, then added 3/4" of a medium foam to the whole seat. While I had the seat apart I added a heating element to the seat.
Results: On commutes the seat is very comfortable. The heating element is to hot (need to do something to fix that) After 10-15 mins I had to pull over and unplug it.
Need to do a long distance test when it warms up a bit more. 20 degrees is just about my limit and I am caging it as the temps are less than that when I drive to work.
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The heating element is to hot (need to do something to fix that) After 10-15 mins I had to pull over and unplug it.
I bet a Heat-Troller like the one Dual-Star sells for their heated grips would do the job!
http://www.dual-star.com/index2/Rider/heated_grip_kit.htm - scroll down below the grip heaters to see their Heat-Troller.