hemibee
Texas Tiger
I've had a small problem with the seat on Black Betty not fitting like it should. I've tried raising and lowering the seat to try and fix this problem. Back when I was having the alternator problems I noticed something a little extra that was causing the actual fit issue, the seat pan is bent and is hitting the gas tank. This bend is the cause of my problems and it is slowly rubbing away at the gas tank.
I've attempted to heat the pan up to try and reshape it to allow for better fit but have been unsuccessful in the attempt. I'm afraid to apply too much heat as this might cause other issues with the seat pan. I've also looked at but haven't broke out the Drimel Tool to remove the bent area.
I've been searching for a replacement seat but all I've been able to locate were custom built seats complete with new seat pan or original replacement seats from Triumph. But being the cheap feller that I am, I couldn't see paying $300 to $900 USD for any of them. As luck would have it, I located some seats on eBay last week. One of them was a custom reworked original seat that looked like I would really enjoy but I'm cheap and wouldn't get into a bidding war over the seat as it did show some wear and I could be too sure how long it would last with the two wear areas the photos showed. There was another seat I was looking at but I had the closing bid date wrong and missed the auction by 6 hours. Should have bid on it early but I didn't. As luck would have it, the seat wasn't purchased and came back on the auction list and I bought it this time. I hope to have it here on Tuesday.
Since this is a newer seat, less than 6000 miles on it, it should be a better seat than my 42,000+ seat with the bent seat pan and the rip in the top seat cover.
Now to get to the point in this post. I was in the local Sam's Warehouse store a couple weeks ago and they had sheepskin rugs for approximately $39.00, I don't remember the exact price. The rug is large enough to make a couple seat covers so I have some extra if I should mess up the first attempt at making a seat cover. I'm looking at putting four grommets in the cover to fasten it to the bike and then using velcro straps to actually mount the cover. I'm still debating it it will be just a seat top cover or if I will have it also cover the sides of the seat too. I might just do one of each since I have enough material to work with. The cover will only be for the riders seat since I only ride solo.
I will grab photos along the way and post them once I get the project going. I think I will wait on the new seat instead of starting on the project this weekend.
Here's what I'm starting with...
I've attempted to heat the pan up to try and reshape it to allow for better fit but have been unsuccessful in the attempt. I'm afraid to apply too much heat as this might cause other issues with the seat pan. I've also looked at but haven't broke out the Drimel Tool to remove the bent area.
I've been searching for a replacement seat but all I've been able to locate were custom built seats complete with new seat pan or original replacement seats from Triumph. But being the cheap feller that I am, I couldn't see paying $300 to $900 USD for any of them. As luck would have it, I located some seats on eBay last week. One of them was a custom reworked original seat that looked like I would really enjoy but I'm cheap and wouldn't get into a bidding war over the seat as it did show some wear and I could be too sure how long it would last with the two wear areas the photos showed. There was another seat I was looking at but I had the closing bid date wrong and missed the auction by 6 hours. Should have bid on it early but I didn't. As luck would have it, the seat wasn't purchased and came back on the auction list and I bought it this time. I hope to have it here on Tuesday.
Since this is a newer seat, less than 6000 miles on it, it should be a better seat than my 42,000+ seat with the bent seat pan and the rip in the top seat cover.
Now to get to the point in this post. I was in the local Sam's Warehouse store a couple weeks ago and they had sheepskin rugs for approximately $39.00, I don't remember the exact price. The rug is large enough to make a couple seat covers so I have some extra if I should mess up the first attempt at making a seat cover. I'm looking at putting four grommets in the cover to fasten it to the bike and then using velcro straps to actually mount the cover. I'm still debating it it will be just a seat top cover or if I will have it also cover the sides of the seat too. I might just do one of each since I have enough material to work with. The cover will only be for the riders seat since I only ride solo.
I will grab photos along the way and post them once I get the project going. I think I will wait on the new seat instead of starting on the project this weekend.
Here's what I'm starting with...
Hopefully I'll have a little time to play with it over my weekend (Thursday & Friday) and can get the project off to a good start.
