Found some time to get back into the garage. November weather was very nice here in Spokane, WA. Warm enough to ride comfortably and very little rain (no snow at all).
One task I had planned was:
Changing the contour/profile of the rear portion of the Bandit's seat. From the beginning of this project I've planned to install a
Solo Cowl in place of the bike's passenger seat. This is something that I have to do because I've relocated the bike's battery into the passenger seat area to make room for the FI system's Fuel Pump. The battery is now located in the space where the passenger seat used to be, plus a whole bunch of other Fuel Injection System electrical and control components are now there too.
When I started looking at the original B4 rider's seat profile I didn't like the way the rear end of it pitches upward. I wanted a rider seat that stays flat until it meets the Solo Cowl (like the seats on later Suzuki models like the GSX-R600). I plan for the front end of the Solo Cowl to have a small pad mounted to it (this will substitute for the rear end pitch-up of original rider's seat).
I purchased a "lightly used" GSX-R600 seat off of Ebay. These are plentiful and cheap on Ebay. By disassembling this I got the hard plastic seat-pan and the contoured foam seating material.
To get a nice, new-looking seating surface for this project I purchased a new GSX-R600 seat cover from Luimoto in Vancouver B.C.
I cut down the rear end of the original Bandit seat, then I cut off the front end of the GSX-R600 seat. I pop-riveted the two pieces together.
Next I had to make a couple of cut-and-glue changes to the GSX-R600 seat foam to make it conform to the front end of the Bandit seat-pan. Then I covered the whole assembly with the new Luimoto GSX-R600 seat cover.
So here's what the B4 looks like now:
(In these last two pictures it's important to know that the B4 is up on a rear-stand so it looks like the seat is sloped uncomfortably downward as it goes forward, which it does not do.)