Making a nice looking comfortable seat

Hey guys, I made a seat for my bike last summer when I started cutting it up. I made a plywood pan then put on 4 layers of carpet padding and covered it with vinyl. Needless to say after about a half hour of riding its like I'm sitting directly on the wood lol.

Is there a decently priced material out there that I can use to make a comfortable seat that isn't 6 inches thick? After all I really like the way it looks now and don't really want to change it.

 

Cheapest thing to do is probably get a seat with a crappy cover (I got one off e-bay that came with the same seatpan as my bike... no plywood... for 25 bucks) and tear out the foam.
Just cut it down to fit... Gotta be more comfortable than carpet matte, lol.

 

Go to an upholstery shop, and buy a block of foam.
I like the memory foam.
Trim it to shape and size with a electric kitchen knife.

Use your old seat pan, cut down to the length you like
or
Make a new on from 3/16" aluminum sheet.

 

I used a piece of aluminum to make my seat pan out of. I used an old stop sign (hey, it was laying at work for 5 years, so I guess nobody was planning on using it anyway)
It's easy to work with and bends to any shape with little effort, but holds it's shape well.
I used foam out of an old bike seat I had on the shelf. I used an large bread knife to cut it to shape and then used a 4" grinder to shape it smooth. After covering it with plastic (for eliminate moisture from soaking intothe foam incase I get caught in the rain) and covered it with apolstry leather and used rivets to adhere it to the pan.
I cut down stock seats in the past to make them more comfortable and with a little experimenting, it's fairly easy to end up with exceptable results if you take your time.

 

I've built a seatpan out of fiberglass.

 

I built my seat pan out of fiberglass and got lucky in that I buddied up to my son's occupational therapist (he's handicapped) and got the foam scraps from her . They use that high density foam to make all their special equipment like the wheelchair seats , tumble forms etc... made for people to be seated on for hours , so it's nice and comfy .
Check with your local special equipment maker and see if they'll let you "dumpster dive" for their scraps . Free is always a great price

 

I made one out of lard and chicken wire.

 

lol, thanks guys. I need to start looking for some foam before I break something ; )

 

Hmm. I thought that would make a suet bird feeder. Silly me. :wink:
Funny.

Z

 

I might have an old seat I can part with.. pan is in great shape but the cover is ratty. I'm sure I can do better than the $60 + shipping I've seen on ebay.

 

Thx for the offer, but I'm really not looking to spend much if any money on the seat right now because of all the other stuff it needs that I don't have money for. So far I have less than $200 in the whole bike : )

Just out of curiosity what kind of seat is it?

 

Stock seat from a 1982 XJ650J. I'll try to get some pics since I'll probably throw it onto ebay.
I hear ya on the cash.. kinda fun to see how much bike you can end up with using elbow grease instead of cash!

 

Here's a $20 seat... foam should be allright to cut down.
e-Bay Seat

 

I don't know if you guys know or not but there is a link in my signature with the information on stuff I've already done to my bike. I still have the stock seat. The foam was so broken down that it was probably more uncomfortable than the one I have on it now. I'm probably gonna end up just getting some seat grade foam and remaking what I already have.