xs1 Gel seat up date

[richard]

I’m sure you guys remember this my gel seat project
xs650forum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=projects&action=display&thread=2759
Well that poly fill Nu-Foam didn't hold up to my big behind as well as I liked. It started to compress slightly leaving a small wrinkle in the seat, so I pulled the top poly layer off and replaced it with two inches of high density foam and then formed it with the belt sander, then put it all back together. I would post some pictures, but the end product looks exactly the same so it seems unnecessary. I have come to three conclusions about building seats. One the top should be soft foam about 1 inch thick and the layers should be the densest next to the seat pan. Layering it one inch at a time seems to work best. The second lesson I learned is that it’s amazing how well a coarse belt sander works on smoothing out foam and lesson three is no matter how good my seat is after riding nonstop for a couple of hours I still have to get off to stretch and get gas or something. It seems like building the seat is a tradeoff between so soft that it flattens out to the pan or so stiff that it doesn’t absorb bumps well.

[G Man]

Well I think the seat and the bike look great!

It was a good re-read on the seat project. Very informative. I am about to do something with a spare seat I just bought on the bay.

Love your bike!

[richard]

Thanks. I ride the bike as often as I can. I rode it 75 mile yesterday to test the seat which worked really well. Half the distance was windy mountain road so it took about an hour and a half. The seat felt pretty good the whole time and with the rear sprocket change the bike can handle 60 mph much better. When I first started riding the bike the transmission was stiff but after about 2000 miles and a couple of oil changes it straightened out and shifts smoothly now. It’s amazing how a bike 41 years old which sat so long can come back to life and ride like it’s new. I can see why they have such a big following.

[slide]

Richard, that is a very nice looking bike and seat. However, I feel your theory on seats is a little off. Corbin probably makes the most popular seat and they are as stiff as a board. It takes a few rides to break them in and then they are good for 600 mile a day rides. I've owned a few of them and they work. I liken them to horse saddles. Stiff as a board, contoured properly and built to have your butt in them all day long.

[richard]

You may be right. Both my Sportsters and KZ had Corbin seats on them. I rode my bike this evening with the new seat and it felt perfect. As I was riding it occurred to me that maybe seat has to break in and will improve over time. My first XS1 seat felt great from the start, but after a about three hours in the summer if would compress to the pan. I think I solved that problem with the new gel seat, but Sunday I rode it a couple of hours for the first time, it seemed like it needed be a little softer to top. Then today it was about 70 and felt just about perfect. I think I’m just going to call that good and ride it for a while. Funny how people talk about engine vibration being bad on the XS, that has never bothered me. It’s still about 65 degrees most days here so it will be interesting to see how it is when it warms up. The corbin on the KZ was the best seat I ever had it had some contour to it.