Thinking solo seat

I've been thinking about putting a solo seat on my '82 naked as well as cleaning up the back end to a cleaner simpler look. I would like to get rid of the OEM tail light turn signal and replace with something way smaller and using LED bulbs for bright lights. Getting rid of the chrome grab rail, air lines (and then put air valves on each shock). Put on a smaller, shorter fender.
As for solo seats; I happen to have a new seat pad left over from my Royal Enfield restoration that I think looks pretty cool and was pretty comfortable on the old RE although I never went on any long rides with that bike.
Or could mod the OEM seat by cutting the back off and getting it recovered. I was thinking it might look better if the OEM seat was cut down to match the lines of the faux tank (see white line)

Thoughts, comments
Brian

Stock seat cut and tucked...use the stock seat cover. Lots of lighting options. Emgo brake, emgo turnsignal mount, bikemaster turns.

When I look at it with the RE seat I'm thinking of more of a classic bike look rather than a custom or bobber look. Could add those rubber knee things on the side of the faux tank. Flat paint is getting shiny from my knees anyways.

Brian

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=127299#p127299:3ccvvrto said:

Wildwing » Fri Aug 01, 2014 7:24 am[/url]":3ccvvrto]
Stock seat cut and tucked...use the stock seat cover. Lots of lighting options. Emgo brake, emgo turnsignal mount, bikemaster turns.

Click to expand...

Thanks Wildwing,

Did you reinforce the fender somehow or is it solid enough with the smaller lights?

That seat looks very good...did you do that seat yourself or did a shop mod it?

Brian

The seat was done by a local guy. I have no confidence in my sewing abilities. The rear fender has no reinforcement, other than the small fender rail??? Aftermarket lighting will be much lighter than the clunky stock set up. So I dont think you will need to do any reinforcement.

Looks really nice Wildwing :good: ( even if you didn't sew it yourself) and great replacement lights etc.. :yes:

There would certainly be many advantages with modding the OEM seat; should be cheaper, could keep the same riding position (which I like), could do much of the work myself.

I am thinking that, rather than cutting the seat off just behind the backrest hump it could be sloped back to the rear mount location. That way the mounting would be the same as now and that cross-over frame thing would be covered. So I took a pic of the bike and used Paint to show what I am talking about. Please take a look and comment.

Thanks
Brian
Stock
Modded seat and shorter fender

Or maybe have the slope of the seat match up with the rear fender.

I like that look a lot. Looks more sporty. Solo seat is more cruiser.

It sort of reminds me off a BSA seat from the 60s.

That's much like a cafe style seat. Some very much like it on ebay most of the time.

Probably is but ebay implies exchange of money. I have very little money so will have to be DIY. Besides, this way, I know exactly how it will feel when I'm done.

Brian

Oh. You might want to look at the "gunfighter" seats. They too are much like you envision and may help you in your design.

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=127485#p127485:2wnrqo24 said:

slabghost » Sun Aug 03, 2014 2:03 pm[/url]":2wnrqo24]
Oh. You might want to look at the "gunfighter" seats. They too are much like you envision and may help you in your design.

Click to expand...

Thanks Slabghost. That is the look all right. That back part looks like some hard plastic rather than upholstery. Might be able to make something out of fibreglass. Would be easier than trying to rework old cover and still have it look presentable.

Brian

Still looking and thinking what I want to do with this seat. Today I took pics of the back of the bike as I took stuff off just to see how the look changes.

Bike with everything on
without hard case hardware
without grab rails
without rear fender

To my eye it looks way shorter and sportier with no rear fender. But the seat would have to slope down at the back like I was thinking. Maybe just have a tail light at back of fender. Would have to replace front fender with CB900 C or no fender at all.

BTW, I really like the August bike of the month over on the NGW site. That is my vision for my bike.

Brian

Here is with no fender and back of seat sloped.

Or if I made hard cowl for the back of the seat and painted it to match rest of bike

That slope looks cool, kinda like a cross between stock and that Corbin type Legendzzz had on his cafe. Why not just get a traditional solo saddle type seat, cost?

~O~

Yes, cost. But I'm also thinking that cowl might be big enough for some storage.

Brian

looks great to me