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Showing results for tags 'Seats'.
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There are several common ways to lower your bike, from cheap to expensive. All have their advantages and issues. The best overall results usually come from combining a couple of these methods. Warning: When you lower the bike, your frame and foot pegs go down. Do only as much as you have to, you will bash your skid plate and kick bad stuff that others will clear. First, cut your seat. You can easily do this yourself, it's much easier than you think, costs you nothing but some new staples. Take out 1" to 1 1/2" and you'll really feel the difference, in height 👍 and comfort 👎 Use an electric carving knife, you’ll get a much better finished product. ( If you don’t have one, they’re only $15 ) Use a foam sanding block to get a smooth finished edge. Staple your original cover back on and you’re done. One problem is that when sitting you've just raised your bars, and tightened up your knee bend. Some people don't like that, some feel better sitting lower into the bike. Next is a lowering link. I've used a Kouba Link on a couple of my bikes, there are several other manufacturers of lowering links out there. They are very easy to install and usually don’t cost too much. For my DR-Z they’re $80, for my Honda CRF they’re $140. They are available in different lengths, but the more you drop the seat the more it affects your suspension travel. Here’s a quote from the Kouba site FAQ’s: “They put more leverage on the rear spring and make the rear more compliant on the small stuff but may require a heavier rear spring to help prevent bottoming if a rider is very aggressive.” I think the model that drops your seat about 1" is the best, much more than that and the suspension tuning and steering problems can start to arise. If you’re not a real aggressive rider, lowering links are great. You can take your suspension to a specialist shop and they will put spacers inside the forks and shock. These will restrict the overall length of your shocks, lowering your whole bike by reducing the amount of travel you have available. This service will require new fork springs, and can include custom tuning the suspension for how you ride. Cost runs from $400 to $800, and you lose some travel. But if you’re a trail rider with a harsh MX suspension, now's the time to take care of both issues. A different rear tire can lower your seat. The popular Dunlop D756 110/100x18 is a relatively tall tire. A Michelin AC10 110/100x18 has a 3/4” smaller diameter, that’s a 3/8” lower seat height. A Dunlop D739 100/100x18 is 1” smaller, giving a 1/2” lowering. Yes, that D739 is a little narrower, but it’s really quick turning in tight stuff. Some riders choose to cut their sub-frame. You cut out a small (+/-1/4”) piece of the diagonal strut of the sub-frame and weld it back together. Be Careful, too much and you will bottom your tire into your fender before you use full travel. To me, the bike then feels like a chopper. If you decide to go with a lowering link or shortened suspension, and you go 1 1/4” or more, your kick stand will be a little too long. Not unusable, but enough that your bike might tip over if you aren’t real careful. Try to resist the temptation to lower the bike until you get both feet flat on the ground. You’ll have lost some important ground clearance and ride quality. If you can get your toes to touch on both sides, you’re doing better than Ricky Carmichael. And how often can any of us say that?
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Here's what you need. 1. Small flat blade screwdriver 2. Needle nose pliers 3. Staple gun and staples 1/4 or 3/8 will work **Buy or rent an electric stapler** 3. Hair dryer **Not required but it helps** Clean you seat, just don't get it too wet (foam will swell) Check fit to make sure you have the right cover before taking off the old one! Remove staples Check your foam for damage, repair with contact cement Start with the top (tank) area of seat, put in a couple of staples [ Work your way down the sides pulling tight and stapling, if you have a few wrinkles, remove the staples in that area and smooth out. This is where a hair dry comes in handy. Warm up the seat cover, stretch it into place, and staple it. As it cools, the material will shrink making for a nice tight fit. ***be careful not to heat it up so much you melt the plastic*** When you get most of the way done put the seat on the bike and check fit, the tank may pull or push the seat and cause a wrinkle Hear again, remove a few staples and stretch and re-staple When you done you should not be able to pinch up the cover Install seat, it should look smooth and tight Now go Ride !
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How to shave and step a seat: step by step pics...
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I love my DRZ!! -
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Love it so far. -
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Definitely a change from the SV650S that I was accustomed to riding for many years. The stock DRZ400S is not nearly as commuter friendly as I had hoped (Balto-D.C. Metro area). Not quite as highway capable either. It does have it's strong points though. It's torquey and accelerates quickly for having such a small engine, and seems to like being thrown through back roads. Already started modifying the ergonomics and road going abilities of the bike with only 800 miles. Will probably turn it into an ongoing project to see what it will take to make it a streetfighter in dual sport clothing... Thus far (after owning the bike for 4 months) it's had Pro Taper KX High bars installed, a 3.9 gallon Clarke MFG tank with Tusk gas cap, Moose Adventure seat, Acerbis front fender, and a DG O-Series slip-on exhaust added to it. More changes in the future... -
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Overall great bike, wish it had a little more snap in the bottom end but other than that lots of power. -
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Just like everyone else. good, reliable and fun to ride. Lots of aftermarket goodies and way to easy to spend way too much money on.<br /><br />Huge knowledge base on this bike makes it easier to save a few buck on most upgrades. -
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pro's: Easy to get comfortable with, great powerband, it's fast, good handling, fits tall riders well cons: bolts around plastics have a tendency to loosen up so tighten regularly, keep an eye out on the radiator fluid, stock seat too soft even for novice/intermediate riders like myself, stock clutch component allright but not great -
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The best bike for all types of riding. -
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Really fun cross country/single track bike -
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Awesome bike. Spent wayyyy too much on it... titanium fasteners are expensive! -
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I love the DRZ, it does everything I want a bike to do. Some of my other mods that aren't detailed below are the Vibranator vibration canceling bar inserts, flush mount rear turn signals, ProMoto billet rack, and a tool box from a Yamaha XT225. -
finally got around to ordering a new seat, now that seat concepts offers a complete seat, thought I would share my initial impressions here. I called and spoke to the owner who informed me that they just are now making complete seats. I immediatly ordered one and he told me it would ship out the following week from CA which would put it at my door just a couple days before the Hancock NY dual sport (200 miles). 5 days later I get a email notification that it shipped, great....will be in time for my dual sport! Then 2 days later I checked the tracking and it was returned to seat concepts instead of making it's way to me. I emailed the owner and he explained that his guy send it out regular ground and he was concerned that I would not have the seat in time for my ride, so he called it back and sent another seat out via 2 day air! now, the seat would have gotten here in time for my ride anyway, but the fact that he went through all of that trouble to make sure I had the seat for my ride is some of the best customer service I have ever experienced! I'll be in Hancock arrowing the course today and will report back on the seat tonight, but I really like the looks and feel of it so far. I would explain it as: the mullet of seats...business in the front and party in back!
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Hey trieng to decide between the new XL model and the standard version for the DRZ400S , some reviews list the standard as 9" wide and seat concepts lists the standard as 7-1/4 which is identical to factory..to narrow not sure what the true measure is. Seems I have conflicting info.! Im concerned the xl would make it tough to dab a foot down while off roading.. at 10-1/2" wide. Im a seasoned rider 5-10" dont want to compromise on low seat need full foam for max backside padding... Has any one tried the new XL. Commuter is to wide for serious off roading @ 14"w...need some advice! Thanks!
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I just bought a drz and need a lower seat. It came with a gorgeous black and white seat concepts saddle that looks great on the black bike. Instead of shelling out for a new Seat Concepts low version and losing my two tone cover ( I understand the shape is different now) I'm thinking about just shaving the foam (since it's the better SC foam). My biggest concern is how it will look and of course, how it will feel. I weigh 120 lbs so I don't need much padding. Anyone have success with the electric carving knife method?
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I got my Fisher seat today. Woo-Hoo! I had it shipped to my work address, so I don't have photos of it mounted yet. But here it is. I went with the soft foam, and 11" seat width based on Nate Fisher's advice/preference. He's the exact same height and weight as me, so his opinion carried extra significance. I was going to re-use my existing seat cover, but they actually had a factory blue cover there that a previous customer opted to not use (decided to black-out his bike after he sent the seat in to Fisher) so they gave me this cover at no additional cost, which was very cool. It's got the "carbon fiber" vinyl sides as well. I'm looking forward to it....probably won't get a real test for several weeks....I think it's about 8 degrees outside here in Chicago today, with the streets loaded with salt residue.
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great bike! -
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I'm 61 years old had a bike since I was 14, sold my 2 old xs1100 yammies 2 years ago. I just love this bIke light handles and you can maintain it yourself DR650 wonderfull bike for Australia -
How I did my step seat. I started with 6 layers of 1/4” closed cell foam glued together to make a block to fit my seat. The size is up to you. This is the second time I’ve done this so I knew where I wanted to make my step at from riding with on that was to far back. I think that the best way to find out where you need it is to get in an attack position on your bike and have some one mark it to where you butt is at. Make sure that you position is good and you elbows are up and head up over the bars / tank. 1st I removed the seat cover and marked the original seat foam on where I wanted to start my step seat. From here I glued my block of foam to the seat with Elmer’s spray glue. This step includes the knife that I used to get the basic shape of the step. I’ve found that a very harp bread knife works well. I have also heard of using an electric fillet knife as well. I forgot to take the picture before I started shaping the seat but you can see how I started. From here I just worked my way to close to the shape that I wanted to get. I took off very small amounts of foam at a time because it’s really hard to get it back on there if you take too much off. After I had the shape that I wanted I smoothed out the ridges that were created from the knife with some 80 grit sand paper. I would guess that 100 would work better because the 80 kind of tore it more than sanded it. When I was happy with the finish, pretty smooth not perfect but the seat cover will cover up most flaws. This part really makes a mess. If you can do it outside so that it’s easy to sweep up. [ At that point you are done with the step seat and now you need to put the seat cover on. I have a few wrinkles in the seat cover but it’s brand new and I’m going to try to stretch it again after I put a few rides on it and it softens up. Here is a shot of my 1st step seat that I did just to show the difference. I'm also going to submit this article in the technical section as well. Do you guys see anything that I messed up or that I'm not clear on? Here is a link for a place that you can buy closed cell foam. I've never used them but this is what you are looking for. http://www.foamorder.com/closedcell.html
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Bullet proof, stable, inexpensive and fun. I'd give it 5 stars if it was 40lbs lighter and had 15 more hp from the factory. COME ON SUZUKI, UPDATE THIS THING PLEEEEEEASE!!!!
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