[PNWSC1000]

I'm building a custom seat for a customer's 2006 SC1000 and thought I'd share the process. Warning: lots of cringe worthy photos below.

The basic guidelines were:
- All black leather solo seat with more aggressive styling.
- Keep the frame 100% stock. No de-tabbing or modifications.

The stock seat on these are absurdly wide so I wanted to slim it up a bit. I aimed to not go too far outside the frame rails, which would probably trim off a few inches of width. I also liked the idea of exposing those frame rails so this new seat would sit just above them.

I decided to try to use as much of the stock seat pan as I could for it's mounting, rubber bushings and rear latch mechanism.

Step 1 - I took off the rear cowl, pulled the upholstery staples and peeled off the seat vinyl and seat foam. Sorry, forgot to take photos of this but it's pretty straight forward. I used a small screw driver to pull the staples up enough to grab them with some needle nose pliers. The cover and foam are 100% reusable still. The seat pan however... well, on to

Step 2 - Trim everything off the seat pan that gets in the way of the new design.

I continued cutting, mocking it up on the bike, stepping back and cutting more...

The tool box storage was too tall, so it had to go.

 

[PNWSC1000]

Here's what was left after the first pass with the die grinder.

Ok, the hackery is almost over I promise. More to come soon.

 

[PNWSC1000]

After more pondering this last bit of height came off the rear of seat pan.

Time to start adding structure back in. First, cardboard templates.

Then transferred the template to aluminum. The fold over tabs in front are going to be for attachment to the pan.

Tack welded it together and rolled some beads to add structure to the flat areas

I then attached the aluminum to the plastic pan with pop rivets.

Next up, I'm going to tackle the rear bushings and seat latch.

 

[runpasthefence]

This is looking really great - excited to see how it turns out.

 

[FourRings]

Great write-up and photos! Thanks for taking the time to share this.

 

[PNWSC1000]

Ok, time to fit the rear section from the original seat pan that has the bushings and seat latch pin on it. I was originally going to just transfer the bushings and pin right to the aluminum pan. Then I realized all that stuff is at a different angle than the subframe. It would have required me to essentially make that plastic housing from scratch, and why do that when I can just use the stock piece that already has everything built into it?

So I hogged out some holes in the aluminum for the bits to protrude through and riveted the piece in place.

So there it is. The pan is complete and I was able to keep what we call in the design world, the "user interaction", intact. Same front hook and rear latch connection as the stock seat. Time to start laying on the foam.

I'm using 2" rebond foam, adhered with 3M Super 90.

I carve out the overall shape with an electric carving knife and do the fine tuning with a flap disc on a grinder.

It was looking a little too tail-heavy so I kept removing material from the top.

 

[PNWSC1000]

Here's the finished foam shape. I drew in stitching reference lines for the upholsterer. That's where the seams will be. The idea behind the design was to mimic the trapezoidal protrusions in the tank.

 

[suruppak]

I can't see any photos, is it just me?

 

[adidas]

I see them.
adblock, firewall?

 

[motoFiend]

Excellent thread PNW. Look forward to seeing the finished product! Thanks for taking the time to take all of the pictures.

 

[PNWSC1000]

The seat left for upholstery. Here's a rendering I did for the upholsterer of what I'm looking for.

 

[bobby]

The seat left for upholstery. Here's a rendering I did for the upholsterer of what I'm looking for.

Wil this reduce the ride height at all?

 

[chill]

Seat rendering looks sharp! Thanks for sharing.
Can't wait to see the final product.

 

[nzdave]

The seat left for upholstery. Here's a rendering I did for the upholsterer of what I'm looking for.

Have you thought about making the lower small side oblong panel on the seat the same color upholstery as the paint work, like a type of number board?

 

[PNWSC1000]

Wil this reduce the ride height at all?

Nope. The seat foam thickness is still 2" in the seating area like the stock foam.

 

[PNWSC1000]

Have you thought about making the lower small side oblong panel on the seat the same color upholstery as the paint work, like a type of number board?

I could I just like the all black better. Plus it's very difficult to match upholstery to paint. They likely won't stay matched for long with dirt and UV exposure. It'd be better to do a number plate out of plastic / metal and actually paint it to match.

 

[hypermo]

I like the seat but now the tail light looks out of place to me.

 

[PNWSC1000]

I like the seat but now the tail light looks out of place to me.

Yup I had the same thought, so I moved it in between the seat and frame. Pics later

 

[Kaeae]

looking good (but u already know that)

 

[PNWSC1000]

Seats done! Here are some final update shots.

I had a brass logo die made so I could punch out leather tags to be sewn onto the upholstery. I have friends that own a motorcycle luggage company so I hopped up to Seattle to use their 30 ton clicker press.

Those and the seat went to the upholsterer (Newchurch Moto). I got the seat back the other day and it came out great! Her stitch work is phenomenal. We went with a marine grade "perforated" vinyl. The vinyl allows you to do a looks-like perforation that doesn't actually put holes through the material. This means it's still water proof. The sides are leather.

You can see the new placement of the LED tail/turn light strip inbetween the seat and frame. I don't remember if I mentioned it but I built brackets to mount Scrambler fenders front and rear. I also machined the triple to accept standard bar clamps and fitted some Moose Racing aluminum CR-HI bars. Just a little scrambler-style flare within the owner's budget.