Summer Seat?

[BigFish]

Has anyone considered making a custom seat for their Kat. I'm thinking some sort of mesh fabric that allows air ventilation. Though a quick thought or two suggests that even making a ridged seat would be cooler in the summer than the stock seat.

The problem with motorcycle seats is that the foam acts as an insulator. With enough exposure even insulators act like conductors of heat, plus they tend to store more of it. They also have large amounts of area available to the sun, while having the least amount of area possible for air ventilation. A counter example would be the heatsinks we place on computer CPUs and various other electronic chips that dissipate a lot of heat. They have fins to increase their area. The ratio of area to heat is then increased making the affected area cooler.

So any thoughts on a mesh fabric, or seat design that would keep me from burning my buns on an otherwise comfortable bike?

Edit, I'm thinking that a tennis raquette string hand woven over the seat of the bike, with a 1-2 inch gap between the weave and the foam would allow more air circulation, and it would stretch enough to be comfortable. In order for this to work the edges of the seat would have to collapse when you sit on it via spring load or flex of some sort. Lots of work...better ideas?

[kevin2502000]

Sounds like it would be hard to keep dry. Just buy a gel pad to sit on top of the seat, they are less than $100 from dennis kirk.

[rexazz2]

my brothers new F150 has all the bells and whistels
Not only does it have heated seats but also COOLED seats
I hate leather because of the heat issues in summer
I must say the coooling is a great option
Afraid to find out what makes them work

[BigFish]

I thought of doing that as well

Heated & cooled seats on a motorcycle! I like your thinking. Cooling and heating are more complex but better options for year round use. It could work much the same as it does in a car. There would be 4 basic parts to this system:

1) A series of tubes that stay open, but are somewhat flexible would be run through the seat.

2) A switch would allow cool, heat, or off to be selected. It could be made similar to a fuel cock, or from one for that matter.

3) A heating circuit would connect to some sort of heat absorption unit (called a heat exchanger?) on the engine or exhaust and then connect via in/out hoses to the seat. Radiator fluid would work well for this in areas where the temp doesn't exceed about 270 degrees (depending upon the fluid)

4) A cooling circuit would connect to the seat. A radiator and in/out hoses would connect to the switch and then the seat. This is where things get a little tricky. Cars use freon and fluids that need to be compressed. Adding a compressor saps power and adds weight. A passive system weighs more, but doesn't directly draw as much power. I'm not sure what would be best for this.

Thanks for the ideas!

[dlmerdian]

Heated & cooled seats on a motorcycle! I like your thinking. Cooling and heating are more complex but better options for year round use. It could work much the same as it does in a car. There would be 4 basic parts to this system:

1) A series of tubes that stay open, but are somewhat flexible would be run through the seat.

2) A switch would allow cool, heat, or off to be selected. It could be made similar to a fuel cock, or from one for that matter.

3) A heating circuit would connect to some sort of heat absorption unit (called a heat exchanger?) on the engine or exhaust and then connect via in/out hoses to the seat. Radiator fluid would work well for this in areas where the temp doesn't exceed about 270 degrees (depending upon the fluid)

4) A cooling circuit would connect to the seat. A radiator and in/out hoses would connect to the switch and then the seat. This is where things get a little tricky. Cars use freon and fluids that need to be compressed. Adding a compressor saps power and adds weight. A passive system weighs more, but doesn't directly draw as much power. I'm not sure what would be best for this.

Thanks for the ideas!

I'm still thinking on how to add cooling to the seat. You could use electrical heating though. Just be careful how it is set up cause you could end up getting a little too warm

[JayBell]

I have seen a custom heated MC seat... from what i understand, they used the leather and electrical setup from a Volkswagen Jetta seat...

as for cooled, I got nuthin..

[diavolo]

Another simpler method would be to have a reservoir holding an anti-freeze mixture, along with a heating element, a small continuos duty pump, and a compact radiator. Now, when heat is required, the heating element warms up the mixture in the reservoir, and circulates through the seat tubing. For cooling, simply turn the heating element off, and let the radiator extract the heat from the antifreeze mixture to cool the seat. Depending on size/location of the reservoir, you could also add some ice cubes to really cool the seat down during high temperature rides.

[dlmerdian]

I'm really liking where this thread is going .. I'm gonna have to get a 2nd seat to practice with.

[Astro4x4]

http://wardsauto.com/ar/cooled_seats_mpg/

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/mosehekit.html

[dlmerdian]

http://wardsauto.com/ar/cooled_seats_mpg/

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/mosehekit.html

Don't really understand how to make the cooled seats work

But Great find on the heated seats.

[BigFish]

Don't really understand how to make the cooled seats work

Diavolo's suggestion was to essentially run antifreeze through tubes in the seat and then cool the antifreeze with a small radiator. This would work with one major problem. Antifreeze is great for cooling an engine that can easily hit 300 degrees (F) because there is a large difference between the air passing through the radiator (up to 120 degrees) and the coolant (up to about 280 in most systems). A seat that's been sitting in the sun might hit 150 on a hot day in direct sunlight. The difference here might be as little as 30 degrees depending upon what part of the country you're in.

The truth is that I've more or less solved this issue for my specific bike. I recovered the seat with metalic silver vinyl. It still gets a little warm, but only enough to make me sweat a little, never enough to burn me. I might buy a new seat and apply Diavolo's solution though in about 6 months.

[dlmerdian]

Diavolo's suggestion was to essentially run antifreeze through tubes in the seat and then cool the antifreeze with a small radiator. This would work with one major problem. Antifreeze is great for cooling an engine that can easily hit 300 degrees (F) because there is a large difference between the air passing through the radiator (up to 120 degrees) and the coolant (up to about 280 in most systems). A seat that's been sitting in the sun might hit 150 on a hot day in direct sunlight. The difference here might be as little as 30 degrees depending upon what part of the country you're in.

The truth is that I've more or less solved this issue for my specific bike. I recovered the seat with metalic silver vinyl. It still gets a little warm, but only enough to make me sweat a little, never enough to burn me. I might buy a new seat and apply Diavolo's solution though in about 6 months.

Yea .. I just wasn't sure if the antifreeze would get cool enough to actually make cooled seats. Just not as hot seats. So I definetly see your point.