Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Frame and seat update

I recently welded on the new tail section for the seat I ordered. I ended up hating the look so I'm returning the seat and buying something different. 


The problem was the frame. The original upper tubing section of the frame (just behind the gas tank and before the shock mounts) is slightly bent from factory. This was a major oversight on my end. Most custom builders will cut out the whole top rail section and weld on a completely flat one. Like this.


Notice the completely flat line from the tank to the kick tail on the seat. I have decided a frame modification of this magnitude is not justified at this moment. This realization has changed a lot with this build. I'm going with a more flat seat which will provide a look almost identical to this.


Notice the obvious bend in the tubing behind the seat. Yea, that's stock. If I had done a bit more homework on this before cutting I could have utilized the rear light bracket as well. The only modification (from what I have gathered) done to the bike above, was cutting off the  fender mounts. Looks like a homemade seat as well. This is definitely a more cost effective way of doing things. Lesson learned. Here is a picture of me cutting off the rear light mounts...DOH *Homer Simpson voice.


And the frame as it sits now:


After the fact I have become somewhat of an expert on identifying the seat setups builders use. This is another interesting option I could go with.


Might be hard to tell from the picture, but that guy just cut off the rear light mounts and called it a day. Here's another shot:


No tail loop just seat pan. He doesn't have passenger pegs so I guess this is acceptable. I could do something very similar for relatively cheap but I don't think it's safe enough for passenger weight. My new seat parts should be in within the week, and then I'm redoing it all. Lesson learned at the cost of about 90 bucks. 

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