Seat mod (adding foam)

 

I'm thinking of adding another layer of foam to my seat
to try to fix the sore tailbone that I get at the end of a
day of riding.

I'd happened to find a hunk of 1 inch (polyurethane ??)
shipping foam that feels like the right stuff for a top layer.

I tried shaping it with one of those perforated metal
rasps that you use for rough woodwork and auto
body repair and it shaped very nicely.

I formed a "tractor seat" type pad and it feels pretty
good with the pad sitting on top of the upholstery.

The spot where I want to put it, I think there's enough
fabric that I can remove the pop rivets holding the
cover, add the pad and refasten the old cover.

I figure I can turn the seat face down and put some
weight on the back of the pan to slightly compress
the foam while I refasten the rivets.

Not sure if I want to use a spray adhesive or double
sided tape to fasten stuff in place.

Anybody done a similar project ? Thanks for any
thoughts or suggestions.

 

wrote:

I would recommend 3M General Purpose Adhesive for securing the new
foam piece under the vinyl.  My concern would be that the underlying
foam is softer than your new piece of foam.  Isn't the firmer foam
generally underneath any softer foam, for support?   Kind of afraid
that the new foam will shift or squirm on top of the old foam, even
with adhesive, even with a noce, tightly pulled cover.

 

Tim M. wrote:

I think the key for comfort is inserting some sort of structural
reinforcement inside the seat to maintain the tractor-seat shape.
Like the "wing" thing what Russell builds into their heavy duty
seats.  Otherwise it all just mushes into a ball no matter what
shape it started out as.  I'm currently trying out a Roho Airhawk
pad which is pretty good as pads go but it suffers from the same
problem- if the underlying seat contour isn't right no amount of
added padding can fix that.

 


This started life as an inch thick hunk of foam that I added hollows
to for the "tractor seat". It will be sitting on a flat surface that
already has a gel insert and it is softer than the underlying layers.
Thickness on the high parts is still about 1", while the thin parts
are probably 3/8" or so thick.

I'm not so worried about wadding or mushing as long as it
doesn't shift position on the underlying foam. I'm thinking maybe
a layer of fabric like they put on those foam stadium cushions
might help hold things together.

It feels great when it's on top of the seat, but the point about
squirming is a good one. I'd be especially worried about
front/back motion. I suppose I could also cut it down some
more and add a shell of stiffer foam for the wings.

I'll avoid any drastic mods to the existing seat when I try
to graft this on, so in a worst case scenario I'd hope it
could be surgically removed again.

 

Rob Kleinschmidt wrote:


I'm a little less confident than you in my ability to Ctrl-Z any changes
to my existing saddle, which I why I plan to buy a spare and experiment
on that.  I've got a couple of pieces of "memory" AKA Tempur foam that
were intended for a do-it-myself custom seat for my departed SV650S.
I'm convinced that stiff foam and the proper shape (with support) will
make a comfy seat.

I think it's probably not all that difficult to come up with a more
comfortable seat than stock, given sufficient determination and plenty
of experimentation. The hard part is making it not look like crap.