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Just had my seat reworked by a local upholsterer here in SLC:

Ramseysteve

Ramseysteve

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Came out pretty good! Got rid of the forward slope, widened and lowered the back half (ie the bit we actually sit on), and recovered it with that graphite looking vinyl. Jack (the upholster, and a big biker himself) offered to recover the pillion seat to match and to add the fancy seam, which matches between the two seats. Hard to see in the photo, but the side panels below the graphite looking vinyl are a contrasting plain vinyl. Looks very sharp.

Bottom line is it looks much better, feels much better, and gave me at least an inch more ground reach, which I needed - All for $150.

NC Seat Reworked.jpg
 
Last edited:
turbodieseli4i6 said:
Looks great! Hope it fits you like a glove.
Click to expand...

It's pretty good, not sure if its like a glove though!

Truth is, it didn't have to be that good to be an improvement, but it is good. Having Jack the upholster eyeball me sitting on the stock seat beforehand probably helped him understand fully what I needed doing, better than me just saying make it lower, wider, and cut out the forward slope as much as possible.

Interestingly, I no longer have to slide to the front of it to most easily reach the ground. My reach from the normal sitting position is about the same as when I'm sitting at the most forward position. Doesn't seem possible with it being slightly wider at the back, but I think it's because of the amount of height at the rear he was able to take out.
 
Looks great. Glad it works so well for you. Too bad I don't live in Utah!
 
danrev said:
Looks great. Glad it works so well for you. Too bad I don't live in Utah!
Click to expand...

Well, I had no prior connection with Jack, got onto him through the shop where I bought the bike. May be worth checking with your local dealership to see if they have a guy they like to use. Maybe worth even chatting up the sales guys in some other dealerships.

The job I had done was a pretty comprehensive seat overhaul, and still only cost $150. Jack was willing to take the stock seat apart, reshape the foam and refit the stock vinyl for $40 or $50. It's definitely a cost effective mod, and I was only without the seat for 24 hours.
 
Does Jack have a shop? I am in SLC, and am thinking of looking around for someone to do a custom seat.
 
One aspect discussed with the upholsterer in figuring out what to do was whether to change to a different foam.

He actually thought the density of the stock foam was a pretty good compromise. He said I could go harder but I'd be getting into the "Corbin" end of the hardness scale, and softer, well obviously that would make it difficult to get the seat much lower, which I did want to do, along with flattening and widening. He told me that the gels and memory foam options are mostly just for the HD guys trying to deaden the big V-twin vibes.

He and I were both surprised at how deep the foam was towards the rear of the stock seat. It seems Honda made a conscious decision to have that forward slope. Curious, eh?
 
Ramseysteve said:
He and I were both surprised at how deep the foam was towards the rear of the stock seat. It seems Honda made a conscious decision to have that forward slope. Curious, eh?
Click to expand...

There is no question the forward slope was by design..........many other bikes have this same trait......reason????????
 
showkey said:
There is no question the forward slope was by design..........many other bikes have this same trait......reason????????
Click to expand...

My own guess is they wanted a certain amount of height for the ADV ergos, but didn't want to lose sales to those of us with lesser inseam lengths. If so, then it was a horrible compromise, pleasing almost no one.

Would be much better to market the bike like BMW, etc, with a standard and lower seat option, but maybe that's $$$?
 
Ramseysteve said:
Came out pretty good! Got rid of the forward slope, widened and lowered the back half (ie the bit we actually sit on), and recovered it with that graphite looking vinyl. Jack (the upholster, and a big biker himself) offered to recover the pillion seat to match and to add the fancy seam, which matches between the two seats. Hard to see in the photo, but the side panels below the graphite looking vinyl are a contrasting plain vinyl. Looks very sharp.

Bottom line is it looks much better, feels much better, and gave me at least an inch more ground reach, which I needed - All for $150.

View attachment 3839
Click to expand...

What a coincidence to see this thread. I just got back from the dealer (actually dealers) and one of them suggested that instead of lowering the bike maybe
i should have some foam cut out of the seat. Seems that there is a local upholsterer they deal with who is also a biker and located just down the street from the shop. The dealer and I did a test today with wood boards on the floor and I need about 1 1/2 " of lowering for me to be able to stand with the bike upright. (far from flat footed). Obviously I have to risk buying the bike first in order to do this so your experience makes me feel more comfortable that it will work. If it doesn't I guess I can still lower the bike but not as much as I thought originally.

Do you think that 1 1/2" of padding can be removed from that seat and still still have it be functional? I printed this thread to show that upholsterer.
 
Taking 1.5 inches out of seat foam

pahondafan said:
What a coincidence to see this thread. I just got back from the dealer (actually dealers) and one of them suggested that instead of lowering the bike maybe
i should have some foam cut out of the seat. Seems that there is a local upholsterer they deal with who is also a biker and located just down the street from the shop. The dealer and I did a test today with wood boards on the floor and I need about 1 1/2 " of lowering for me to be able to stand with the bike upright. (far from flat footed). Obviously I have to risk buying the bike first in order to do this so your experience makes me feel more comfortable that it will work. If it doesn't I guess I can still lower the bike but not as much as I thought originally.

Do you think that 1 1/2" of padding can be removed from that seat and still still have it be functional? I printed this thread to show that upholsterer.
Click to expand...
I do not believe there is that much foam depth anywhere in the stock seat?
But I could be wrong?
 
pahondafan said:
What a coincidence to see this thread. I just got back from the dealer (actually dealers) and one of them suggested that instead of lowering the bike maybe
i should have some foam cut out of the seat. Seems that there is a local upholsterer they deal with who is also a biker and located just down the street from the shop. The dealer and I did a test today with wood boards on the floor and I need about 1 1/2 " of lowering for me to be able to stand with the bike upright. (far from flat footed). Obviously I have to risk buying the bike first in order to do this so your experience makes me feel more comfortable that it will work. If it doesn't I guess I can still lower the bike but not as much as I thought originally.

Do you think that 1 1/2" of padding can be removed from that seat and still still have it be functional? I printed this thread to show that upholsterer.
Click to expand...

You might as well rip out all of the foam and just sit on the seat pan.......come to think about it, that might not be a bad idea.
mike
 
My upholsterer Jack was surprised at how deep the foam was towards the rear of the seat. I was prepared to go to a firmer foam if thats what it took to go down an inch or so at the rear without bottoming out, but it actually wasn't necessary.

My primary motivation of going to him was to increase comfort. I'd already lowered the bike an inch with an adjustable Soupy's link, but when we met up I did say that assuming we could address the comfort/slope stuff, then gaining more ground reach would also be nice. I'd actually assumed that if we lowered but widened the rear section that the ground reach would be largely unchanged, ie widening it would counteract lowering it. But.. Jack said that he could rework the front half of the seat subtly and that would help with ground reach in addition to reworking the rear section.

By lowering, widening and flattening the rear section the seat no longer throws my, err, 'boys' into the tank under braking, and the flat and level seat is much more comfortable to ride, and gave me around 1/2" - 1" lower ground reach. With a 29" inseam I don't flatfoot on both sides but I'm not tip-toeing anymore, and if I slide a smidge to one side of the seat I can flat foot comfortably on one side. It has made a big difference, especially on loose or oily surfaces.

Going down 1 1/2" on the seat may be do-able, but it may not be the best approach. The other changes it brings are a reduced seat to footpeg distance, and effectively slightly higher handlebars. With my short legs I'm happy having the pegs a little closer, and I loosened the handlebar clamp and rotated the bars a little back towards me, bringing my riding position a little more upright - no need for risers. There are footpeg kits that can adjust the footpeg placement, FYI. Overall though I think that to go down 1 1/2" or 2" doing a lowering link and reworking the seat is a better approach.

Incidentally, if I'd been happy to stick with the OEM vinyl seat cover then to rework the main seat foam and re- assemble would have been a $50 job.
 
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