I'm 6'2" and the bike has always felt very cramped for me. The pegs are much higher than I was used to on my old bike so this really put a lot of pressure on my bad knee. Seriously, I limped around for a week after getting into some frequent Summer riding just from having my knee bent so sharply...
Being a cheap bastard and also deciding I wanted this done in a hurry, I decided to build up my seat instead of purchasing a tall foam replacement. The other issue was I really didn't know what density my current seat was (soft/medium). I also thought the seat may have been lowered previously so I wasn't sure if a "Tall" seat would be too tall, or not tall enough, because I didn't know what height I'd been working with.
I opened the seat up and found that it HAD been worked on before. It had some high-density foam with a small layer of soft stuff to make it comfy. The whole thing was wrapped in felt.
I picked up $18 worth of 1/4" thick high-density (unsure of actual density rating) closed-cell rubber foam from the local foam shop. It was suggested to me that the thinner foam would be easier to shape and layer up. I think next time I'd go with 1/2" just to reduce the amount of time cutting and gluing. In total I used 5 layers for 1.25" taller.
I cut the sheet into separate layers and glued with some 3M 08088 spray adhesive. I shaped them with a belt sander and some 36 grit. It made a damn mess but shaped them quickly. In hind sight I would have done more masking to keep the rubber bits out the air filter.
All glued together
Almost finished shaping
I reused the soft foam pad for the top layer and wrapped it in some new felt
All done. Covered with some Factory FX gripper seat material I had left over from my last bike. It would probably look more "factory" without the soft foam top layer, but the comfort is worth it. The seat is nice and firm with just a little cushion on top.
As for the ergonomics, the bike fits me sooo much better now. It's actually beyond just comfort as I can now slide my weight forward on the bike more and I actually feel more balanced when sitting down. I also have an easier time switching from seated to standing (which means I end up standing more).:thumbleft:
Being a cheap bastard and also deciding I wanted this done in a hurry, I decided to build up my seat instead of purchasing a tall foam replacement. The other issue was I really didn't know what density my current seat was (soft/medium). I also thought the seat may have been lowered previously so I wasn't sure if a "Tall" seat would be too tall, or not tall enough, because I didn't know what height I'd been working with.
I opened the seat up and found that it HAD been worked on before. It had some high-density foam with a small layer of soft stuff to make it comfy. The whole thing was wrapped in felt.
I picked up $18 worth of 1/4" thick high-density (unsure of actual density rating) closed-cell rubber foam from the local foam shop. It was suggested to me that the thinner foam would be easier to shape and layer up. I think next time I'd go with 1/2" just to reduce the amount of time cutting and gluing. In total I used 5 layers for 1.25" taller.
I cut the sheet into separate layers and glued with some 3M 08088 spray adhesive. I shaped them with a belt sander and some 36 grit. It made a damn mess but shaped them quickly. In hind sight I would have done more masking to keep the rubber bits out the air filter.
All glued together
Almost finished shaping
I reused the soft foam pad for the top layer and wrapped it in some new felt
All done. Covered with some Factory FX gripper seat material I had left over from my last bike. It would probably look more "factory" without the soft foam top layer, but the comfort is worth it. The seat is nice and firm with just a little cushion on top.
As for the ergonomics, the bike fits me sooo much better now. It's actually beyond just comfort as I can now slide my weight forward on the bike more and I actually feel more balanced when sitting down. I also have an easier time switching from seated to standing (which means I end up standing more).:thumbleft:
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