[dpapavas]

Hi all,

I've been riding an NC29 for a bit more than a year now and although it's a cool piece of machinery, it tends to sit a bit low. I on ther other hand am rather tall (about 6'5"). It's not that I have any serious problems like pain in the back or legs, in fact I consider the bike rather comfortable (contrary to popular opinion about sports bikes). I just had the chance to ride a couple of newer bikes recently (a ZX-10 and a GSXR-750 of the 2006-2007 era) and I must admit that I feel that the ride height of these suits me better. I can't bring myself to selling the little bugger though. I've grown attached to it and it suits me just fine in every respect.

So does anyone have any ideas on how I could jack up the saddle on this bike? The ideal target would be as much as 4-5cm I think but even less than that might be worth the try.

Fiddling with the rear spring preload is not an option really as it's not what it's for really and will make the rear suspension useless besides raising ride height. Fiddling with the shock linkage or dogbone will raise it without messing with the spring itself but I think that this will mess with suspension geometry nevertheless (making the bike "turn-happy") and I like the suspension the way it is.

I considered modifying the subframe and saddle somehow to make the saddle sit higher. This would work without any sideffects to handling but it would leave a gap between the fairing and saddle and expose the battery to rain water. Last thing I thought of is taking the saddle itself apart and stuffing it with some more or less incompressible material to make it a few cm higher. Does anyone know if this is possible? It's not easy to remove the leather, on mine at least, as it is attached to the plastic base by means of some metal thingies which you seem to have to cut in order to remove them. Other than than I'm not sure if the saddle itself is stuffable really.

Any suggestions?

 

[LoopyLee]

Personnally I'd buy a 2nd hand seat off ebay and do the following..

Buy a meter of black vinyl fabric from a good fabric store, Sideshow Bob used it to recover one of his seats after I bought it for him, it costs about £7 - £8 a meter.. Rip the 2nd hand seat apart, add new foam making it as high as you want and then recover it with the vinyl stuff.. I had a staple gun (available from stationers) which SSB used to reattach the covering to the underside of the seat..

Sorted :thumb:

 

[dpapavas]

Hi Loopy, I've considered this too, either doing it myself or have a professional do it. Problem is I'm not sure it's doable. Have you ever taken one of these seats apart? It looks to me like there's not really any foam inside or not much at least just a rubber shell bolted on top a plastic base. I mean I might have to make a new seat from scratch. Although that wouldn't be such a bad project come to think of it.

 

[garyboy_palaboy]

.


how about replacing the rear shocks????



.

 

[dpapavas]

Replacing the rear shocks will change the suspension geometry. I'm not particularly knowledgeable in motorcycle dynamics but I think it will quicken the steering. I must look into that stuff one of these days.

 

[Surffrog]

Personnally I'd buy a 2nd hand seat off ebay and do the following..

Buy a meter of black vinyl fabric from a good fabric store, Sideshow Bob used it to recover one of his seats after I bought it for him, it costs about £7 - £8 a meter.. Rip the 2nd hand seat apart, add new foam making it as high as you want and then recover it with the vinyl stuff.. I had a staple gun (available from stationers) which SSB used to reattach the covering to the underside of the seat..

Sorted :thumb:

lus1:

Hi Loopy, I've considered this too, either doing it myself or have a professional do it. Problem is I'm not sure it's doable. Have you ever taken one of these seats apart? It looks to me like there's not really any foam inside or not much at least just a rubber shell bolted on top a plastic base. I mean I might have to make a new seat from scratch. Although that wouldn't be such a bad project come to think of it.

Loopy's right on this one. If you are not prepared to use different links and longer front shocks then padding the seat is the only way. Also, I note from your comments that your seat doesn't appear to have any foam in it. That's the problem in and of itself. These bikes are getting old now and the foam tends to breakdown into a dust after a number of years.

Nevertheless, there's no reason you can't staple new foam and vinyl to the plastic base, as I've seen it done here in Thailand. Personally I would do exactly as Loopy suggested. It isn't going to cost you much and if it doesn't work as an option for you, at least you've not messed around with anything that will stop you using the bike.