Customize Your Touring Seat (pg. 5 of 7)

Customize Your Touring Seat (pg. 5 of 7)
Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Step 5 – Fitting

On the front sides, I’ll narrow the area where my legs drop while straddling the bike. As I determine how much foam to remove, I am aware of how the cover will stretch back during reassembly. No crazy curves here, please. For this step, I mock up the seat on the bike and use a motorcycle jack to level the bike with wheels on the ground. I make sure the seat pan and foam are exactly where they’ll be when bolted back on the bike. Then, I straddle the bike and mark the areas to shape with my trusty Sharpie pen. Mark the center of your leg fall and draw where you want to remove the foam. This is more art than science. As usual, don’t go too far. You can always do more, I do a couple of passes here until it is just perfect. Finalize all changes at this time.

It’s time to mock setup the seat to make sure the height and side contour has the proper fitment.

When doing the mockup, make sure that the seat is in the proper placement… right up against the tank edge.

I use my motorcycle jack to level the bike. The bike is ready for me to sit on and test the new height and contour.

After sitting on the bike and seeing where my legs fall I draw lines on the foam seat to mark where I’ll want to contour it to fit. I am going to make it easier to drop my legs at a stoplight and remove 5/8 inch from the sides as well. The marks in the picture look wavy. Actually, the lines are smooth and will contour without cutting a curve into the seat. This allows the seat cover to lay smooth and tight. See how I have pulled back the top foam layer and will only be shaping the dense foam layer. After shaping the top layer simply rolls back down and fitment is not an issue.