First thread WOOOHOOO
Ok so heres the deal. Let's just say I don't have much natural cushioning on my rear end, so while the seat foam on my '01 600 kat is adequate for most...after about 45 minutes, my bum starts to get soar. I did one trip that was about 130 miles, each way, and i was walking like i had a load in my diaper for the rest of the day. not very comfortable, and really hard to pick up girls when you look like that.
At the same time, I am really tall (6' 4"), so for me, the post kat sits waaaaay too low, and sometimes i feel like im sitting way too upright and look like I'm riding a scooter.
So I figured out a way to try and tackle this two problems with one project. I was going to build up the seat height with some more, softer foam. that would give me a little more ride height, and I could flatten out the seat a little so I could sit further back, and it would be a little more forgiving on my bony bum.
I used this thread and [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eZGTe32ulQ"]This video[/ame] as guides.
The project is not completely done yet. This is just a trial run. I did not have a heat gun. so the seat didnt come out as tight as it could.
The culprit
The cracks in the seat vinyl....I'm sure I'm not the only person who has seen this happen.
The workshop......i.e. we took over my buddies kitchen while his girlfriend was at work....ssssshhhh don't tell.
marking the seat and the foam to keep it centered while shaping.
The seat pad all trimmed up. The trick here was keeping the scissors parallel to the foam and just trimming a little at a time. You want the foam to be as smooth as possible, because every little ridge that you leave from the scissor WILL show up under the vinyl. This is something that will be experimented with in the follow up posts so keep following.
Now I forgot to get a picture of the start, but if you watch the video, the guys gives you a good idea as to where you should place your first staples. It should be somewhere right around the back of the rider's seat. This is just a good point to start stretching from. I started mine just at the ridge between the rider and passanger, and that ended up causing some problems when I started to wrap the front. So I removed staples and started again with my first staples just in front of the ridge (just incase you were wondering, I mean putting the staples on the under side, don't put any staples where you can see them).
Some interesting pics of me wrestling with the vinyl.
The "Finished" product. You can definitely see where I added foam. I don't think it looks horrible, but it could be smoother. I'll be playing around with this on rainy days until I get it right.
Let me know what you guys think, or if you have any tips to make my life easier.
Ok so heres the deal. Let's just say I don't have much natural cushioning on my rear end, so while the seat foam on my '01 600 kat is adequate for most...after about 45 minutes, my bum starts to get soar. I did one trip that was about 130 miles, each way, and i was walking like i had a load in my diaper for the rest of the day. not very comfortable, and really hard to pick up girls when you look like that.
At the same time, I am really tall (6' 4"), so for me, the post kat sits waaaaay too low, and sometimes i feel like im sitting way too upright and look like I'm riding a scooter.
So I figured out a way to try and tackle this two problems with one project. I was going to build up the seat height with some more, softer foam. that would give me a little more ride height, and I could flatten out the seat a little so I could sit further back, and it would be a little more forgiving on my bony bum.
I used this thread and [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eZGTe32ulQ"]This video[/ame] as guides.
The project is not completely done yet. This is just a trial run. I did not have a heat gun. so the seat didnt come out as tight as it could.
The culprit
The cracks in the seat vinyl....I'm sure I'm not the only person who has seen this happen.
The workshop......i.e. we took over my buddies kitchen while his girlfriend was at work....ssssshhhh don't tell.
marking the seat and the foam to keep it centered while shaping.
The seat pad all trimmed up. The trick here was keeping the scissors parallel to the foam and just trimming a little at a time. You want the foam to be as smooth as possible, because every little ridge that you leave from the scissor WILL show up under the vinyl. This is something that will be experimented with in the follow up posts so keep following.
Now I forgot to get a picture of the start, but if you watch the video, the guys gives you a good idea as to where you should place your first staples. It should be somewhere right around the back of the rider's seat. This is just a good point to start stretching from. I started mine just at the ridge between the rider and passanger, and that ended up causing some problems when I started to wrap the front. So I removed staples and started again with my first staples just in front of the ridge (just incase you were wondering, I mean putting the staples on the under side, don't put any staples where you can see them).
Some interesting pics of me wrestling with the vinyl.
The "Finished" product. You can definitely see where I added foam. I don't think it looks horrible, but it could be smoother. I'll be playing around with this on rainy days until I get it right.
Let me know what you guys think, or if you have any tips to make my life easier.
Comment