Custom seat foams for vintage bikes?

starchild
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starchild
Do any of you guys know of anyone or any company making custom seat foams for vintage bikes? I searched google and came up empty. Just a few companies... Ceet, technosel etc. making standard replacement foams. If you know of anyone, Preferably in the USA. I am wanting to do a taller seat for my 87 CR 125 sort of like Johnny O's and Baileys works style seats. Like these.....



Any help or info would be great. Thanks
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newmann
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newmann 11/19/2016 6:21pm
11/19/2016 6:21pm
Without a custom aluminum tank and seat pan, I doubt you would be able to pull off a seat such as that. Best bet is to order up a couple sheets of high density foam from an upholstery shop and layer them together with contact cement until you get the approximate shape. Use an air powered grinder with 3 inch coarse discs to carve out the underside to fit your seat pan and then shape the outside to the profile you want. Do you have a good automotive upholstery shop locally?
MaxPower
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MaxPower 11/19/2016 6:30pm
11/19/2016 6:30pm
Id be interested to find someone that could make a new seat foam myself
The seat on my 83 Kx is super soft and way heavier than a seat should be
MaxPower
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MaxPower 11/19/2016 6:39pm
11/19/2016 6:39pm
newmann wrote:
Without a custom aluminum tank and seat pan, I doubt you would be able to pull off a seat such as that. Best bet is to...
Without a custom aluminum tank and seat pan, I doubt you would be able to pull off a seat such as that. Best bet is to order up a couple sheets of high density foam from an upholstery shop and layer them together with contact cement until you get the approximate shape. Use an air powered grinder with 3 inch coarse discs to carve out the underside to fit your seat pan and then shape the outside to the profile you want. Do you have a good automotive upholstery shop locally?
Joe, are there different hardnesses of this high density foam? Like a older Ktm seat foam is much harder than a Honda foam. I wouldnt mind doing a project like that, I just want a good result.
newmann
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newmann 11/19/2016 6:41pm
11/19/2016 6:41pm Edited Date/Time 11/19/2016 6:41pm
MaxPower wrote:
Id be interested to find someone that could make a new seat foam myself The seat on my 83 Kx is super soft and way heavier...
Id be interested to find someone that could make a new seat foam myself
The seat on my 83 Kx is super soft and way heavier than a seat should be
Again, do you have a good upholstery shop close by? Have them cut a 2 or 3 inch section out of the middle of your foam and sandwich in a layer of high density foam as a replacement. There is some really lightweight closed cell foam out there. Cutting out the middle makes it easy to retain the original shape as you reuse the top and bottom of the foam.

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newmann
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newmann 11/19/2016 6:45pm
11/19/2016 6:45pm
newmann wrote:
Without a custom aluminum tank and seat pan, I doubt you would be able to pull off a seat such as that. Best bet is to...
Without a custom aluminum tank and seat pan, I doubt you would be able to pull off a seat such as that. Best bet is to order up a couple sheets of high density foam from an upholstery shop and layer them together with contact cement until you get the approximate shape. Use an air powered grinder with 3 inch coarse discs to carve out the underside to fit your seat pan and then shape the outside to the profile you want. Do you have a good automotive upholstery shop locally?
MaxPower wrote:
Joe, are there different hardnesses of this high density foam? Like a older Ktm seat foam is much harder than a Honda foam. I wouldnt mind...
Joe, are there different hardnesses of this high density foam? Like a older Ktm seat foam is much harder than a Honda foam. I wouldnt mind doing a project like that, I just want a good result.
Lots of choices. I bought a sheet and glued several layers together to make a full foam for my lightweight CR125 project. Still need to devote a day to carve it out.
starchild
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starchild 11/19/2016 6:58pm
11/19/2016 6:58pm Edited Date/Time 11/20/2016 5:14am
All i really want is a taller seat, which in turn might make it look more like the works bike seats. I figured I could buy some foam sheets and try it myself but I'd rather have someone who knows what they're doing do it. I'll just F it up myself. I like my seats to be perfect and that I can't do. I've got a great upholstery guy who just did the cover on my 87 and it Came out great.

But Even he was saying the cover itself was a bitch to get on because of the big dip from the nose of the saddle to the top. So if I can get a taller seat height it would help me out comfort wise and get the cover to fit even better.
fookyoo
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fookyoo 11/20/2016 6:03am
11/20/2016 6:03am
guts racing
they have tall seat foams/kits
or they could do it for you
starchild
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starchild 11/20/2016 7:01am
11/20/2016 7:01am
fookyoo wrote:
guts racing
they have tall seat foams/kits
or they could do it for you
Thanks man, I saw them on motosport and bto but didn't know they did custom or vintage foams. I'll give them a try.
fookyoo
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fookyoo 11/21/2016 9:53am
11/21/2016 9:53am
Could they help?
you can buy the correct type of foam on ebay under bulk motorcycle seat foam
about $100
The trick after you cut your own, I have
had to is cover it with spray contact
glue- then install batting fabric
OldPro277
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OldPro277 11/21/2016 10:51am
11/21/2016 10:51am
FWIW- I tried to get Guts to do my 1980 YZ250G seat foam in their lightweight foam in my quest to trim as much weight as i could off that bike. Their reply to me was that they dont have the capability to do a one-off seat,particularly a vintage one that they have no template for. I had offered to send them a new stock foam to replicate ,but they told me it would take a 6 piece minimum order and run about a $1,000 to do it. In other words,I took it to mean " get outta here kid,you're botherin me". But if they changed their tune in the last 6 mos, Id like to know too......
starchild
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starchild 11/21/2016 7:05pm
11/21/2016 7:05pm
fookyoo wrote:
Could they help? you can buy the correct type of foam on ebay under bulk motorcycle seat foam about $100 The trick after you cut your...
Could they help?
you can buy the correct type of foam on ebay under bulk motorcycle seat foam
about $100
The trick after you cut your own, I have
had to is cover it with spray contact
glue- then install batting fabric
They said they couldn't do vintage stuff and I understand their viewpoint. I'm going to take my extra seat to my upholstery guy and see if he can build up the height and do a custom cover for it ( just blue like the stock one, just specific to fit the taller seat ) He does lots of crazy high end Harley show bikes in all different cover materials and I've seen lots of his work and it's top notch. And he's a super cool guy and gets jobs done promptly too. Anyway if he has the proper seat foam I'll give it a try and post pics when it's done. If I need to get the foam I'll get it on eBay like you said, I already found it too. Thanks for the info and I'll update when I finally get the seat done.
smx94
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smx94 11/22/2016 6:38am
11/22/2016 6:38am
Evo mx in the uk have high vintage seat foams.see there website.
Phantom347 11/22/2016 6:58am
11/22/2016 6:58am
CEET or Hi-Flite used to make a Safety Seat with the padding going all the way up to the gas cap. The kit included the seat foam and cover, so you used the stock seat base.

A friend had one on his ’87 KX 125, so I’m pretty sure they made one for the ’87 CR 125. In other words, I don’t know how many years they offered this model, but 1987 was one of them.

CEET and Hi-Flite are now the same company. I have talked to CEET in the past and was told if they ever made seat foam for a particular bike, they still had the mold and could make another.

The phone number I have is (760) 599-0115.
Kidkawie
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Kidkawie 11/22/2016 10:40am
11/22/2016 10:40am
Use a serrated bread knife to rough out the shape then smooth it out with a 80 grit 3M disc. I lowered a few MX seats and made some boat seats from scratch.
Phantom347 11/22/2016 11:25am
11/22/2016 11:25am
I called CEET / Hi-Flite and talked to Roy.

Hi-Flite still makes Safety Seats. You can even choose soft, medium or hard foam density.

http://hi-flite-usa.com/shop/mx-seat-foam-seat-cover-combos/honda-mx-se…

It is listed for '87 CR 250 & 500.

I was on Kawasaki back then, so I believe the '87 CR 125 used the same seat but am not absolutely certain.

The pictured cover is black, but Roy says you can get it in blue.
starchild
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starchild 11/22/2016 2:18pm
11/22/2016 2:18pm
Phantom347 wrote:
I called CEET / Hi-Flite and talked to Roy. Hi-Flite still makes Safety Seats. You can even choose soft, medium or hard foam density. http://hi-flite-usa.com/shop/mx-seat-foam-seat-cover-combos/honda-mx-seat-foam-seat-cover-combos/cr500/honda-cr250-87-cr500-87-88-safety-nose-foam-and-cover-kit-h215k/ It...
I called CEET / Hi-Flite and talked to Roy.

Hi-Flite still makes Safety Seats. You can even choose soft, medium or hard foam density.

http://hi-flite-usa.com/shop/mx-seat-foam-seat-cover-combos/honda-mx-se…

It is listed for '87 CR 250 & 500.

I was on Kawasaki back then, so I believe the '87 CR 125 used the same seat but am not absolutely certain.

The pictured cover is black, but Roy says you can get it in blue.
Awesome! Thanks for the info phantom.
I'm going to go by my upholster guy tomorrow. If he can't do what I need I will absolutely call hi flite. Thank you
starchild
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starchild 11/23/2016 9:38am
11/23/2016 9:38am
I dropped off my extra 87 seat at my upholstery guy today. He's going to shape a custom seat foam for me like an 80's style works Honda seat and make a custom blue cover for it too. Can't wait to see how it turns out. Thanks for the help guys, I'll update once I get it back in a couple weeks.
MaxPower
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MaxPower 11/24/2016 1:44pm
11/24/2016 1:44pm
You should have him send a pic of the rough cut before he surprises you with a finished product that you arent happy with
starchild
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starchild 11/24/2016 7:02pm
11/24/2016 7:02pm
I'll see it in person before it's completed. I also gave him several photos for reference of seats from factory hrc bikes as to what I'm looking for my seat to look like. should be pretty cool!

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