Making a custom seat for my Vulcan 500

[burkbuilds]

Well, I'm at it again. This will be my second custom seat for my 500, 3rd custom seat I've done overall. I would love be able to just purchase a seat that is comfortable to me and meets my specs, but that just doesn't seem to be an option on this bike. So, I've taken what I have learned from my previous two custom seat builds and started working on a new seat. It will probably be about another 3 weeks before I am finished, but here's what I've done so far with pictures. I started by purchasing a seat on e-bay that I could modify using part of the original seat pan. I wanted to have a single seat and I wanted it to have a release lock instead of bolting down like the Vulcan's OE seat does. I also wanted to be able to switch back to my old seat if I wanted to so the lock couldn't interfere with the OE fit.
After stripping the padding off the OE seat, I started cutting with a hacksaw to modify the pan.




I found a GZ250 seat and lock on e-bay and installed them.


Then I checked to make sure it latched properly.




I started by using some cardboard to make a template for the shape I wanted.




Next I transferred the pattern to some 1/4" plywood.


I glued and screwed some blocking to the underneath side of the plywood to give me a place to attach some supporting material.


I thought I had some more pictures of some blocking I screwed into the seat pan but I seem to have missed those shots somehow. Here's a shot of some OSB screwed into that blocking.


Next I added some more blocking to attach my perimeter plywood to.


I then cut some 3/8" "bending" plywood to get the shape I wanted and then glued and stapled it to the blocking.



Okay, I'm having some connection problems here, so I'm gonna post this much and then make a second post with the rest of the stuff in it.

[burkbuilds]

Still having trouble uploading the pics. Hopefully this will start working again.


I cut and shaped some pieces to go on the sides up towards the front.


In case anybody is wondering why I'm using wood, it's just that my skill set is in wood. I've been a woodworker since childhood and a carpenter and cabinetmaker most of my adult life. If I was a welder or sheet metal worker, then this would probably be done in metal. I've always believed that you should lean on your strengths whatever you are doing, so I chose wood as my material for the base. I realize that this has some weaknesses.
To help solidify all of this and make it watertight, I fiberglassed the entire structure back to the seat pan.







Well, I still have a lot more to do, but I had to stop and head back to school, so I'll have to wait until next weekend to finish the fiberglass. I'll try to post updates as I go. I'm hoping that I can finish the fiberglass and the foam next weekend and maybe get my wife to take it to the upholstery shop for me.

[SuziQ07]

This is so interesting. Thanks for posting the detailed explanations and great photos. I'm not a fan of the seat on my 2009 Vulcan...it looks like an overstuffed pillow in my opinion. Of course I looked at various after market websites such as LePara and Mustang. There doesn't seem to be any other options out there. Did you already post a photo of the first custom seat you made for your Vulcan? Your woodworking talent is impressive!

[burkbuilds]

Suzi, here's the current seat on my Vulcan. Not much to look at, but it's more comfortable to me than the stock seat was.







As you can see, I mostly just added foam to the original seat and had it re-upholstered. This time I wanted to create a completely different shape for the base and then just add about 2" of foam. I want more support under my thighs and on the sides of my butt to help distribute the load over a larger area, hopefully making it much more comfortable. I could just spread out the seat pan where it is, but I'm long legged and wanted to have the additional height so I'm sitting more like I would in a comfortable chair. I do a lot of riding, and I'm on this bike for several hours at a time a couple of days each week. I've put just over 24,000 miles on her since I bought her new 18 months ago.

[alanmcorcoran]

This is great! I can't wait for the ending. I'm looking at it on an iPhone but I want to check it out on a full size screen when I get home.

[Water Warrior 2]

Wow, looks like a work of art in the making. I thought the first seat mod was impressive but this one looks to be a real winner from the ground up. One more week eh, then some updates.

[burkbuilds]

Okay, well over the weekend I managed to get the rest of the fiberglassing done, painted the new pan, and installed the foam. Then I test rode it several times and made adjustments to the foam until I was pleased with the way it felt to me. Here are a few shots of the progress I made.

Here is the pan after I added some more layers of fiberglass, sanded it down and then painted it with some high gloss black spray paint.





Next I glued some 1 1/2" seat foam from Sargents Cycle products to the pan. I shaped it with a hot knife I bought on e-bay and a surform file I got at Lowes.





I use a spray on contact cement to adhere the foam to the pan and the layers of foam to each other.

Once I had this to a shape I liked it was time to put it on the bike and try it out.



After about a 45 minute test ride I decided that it was comfortable to sit on, but it was a little to high, so back to the shop for some trimming down work.

I took the hot knife and removed about 3/4" and then used the surform file to smooth everything back out. Then back to the bike for another test ride. I did this two more times and my final result looked like this.




Friday afternoon I spent a few minutes at the upholstery shop talking with Ron, owner of Brothers Upholstery, about the project. Ron has done two previous seats for me and he does great work. He's also a rider and he has a good understanding of bike seats. We discussed my project, materials and shapes and schedules. If my wife can get this to him early in the week he should have it back to me in a week or two at the most. That's pretty consistent with the time for the other seats he's done for me and I feel confident that I should have this back no later than two weeks. Ron would love to make this a more decorative work, while I'm more interested in smooth lines and function, so he's probably a little disappointed, but since I'm the one paying, it will be just plain smooth seat vinyl, not patterns or logos or mixed colors. In the past he's used a high quality seat vinyl and I've had no problems with either seat. They have held up well. I put about 11,000 miles on the first seat and over 24,000 miles on my current seat, with not tears, abrasions or anything at all wrong. Ron tells me he now has an even better vinyl, thicker and the new stuff can stretch in two directions not just one, so this should be a very good quality cover. When it all gets finished I will post some more pics.

[Water Warrior 2]

Hmm. Looks much more supportive than the factory seat and the other one you created. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[burkbuilds]

I got a call from the upholsterer today, so he's already working on it, maybe I'll get it ahead of schedule.

[burkbuilds]

I think my upholsterer likes working on bike seats. My wife dropped it off Monday afternoon, and the man calls me Wednesday afternoon and says it is ready for pick up, yeah.
I got home late this afternoon and the seat looks good, so on it goes. Here are a few shots of the finished seat. Now I've got to build a new trunk to go with it.






Got my wife to snap one with me sitting on it in the driveway. Tomorrow, road testing.