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Silly question time - anyone got a guide on making a "universal trials seat"?


turbofurball
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To save me reinventing the wheel, has anyone seen a guide on making your own universal trials seat? (like the Apico ones)

If not I'll knock something together, but I can envisage lots of trial and error (pun intended), I've seen a couple of local riders who made their own but of course I haven't had a chance to engage them in conversation 😕

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There are threads across various forums. You’ll be recommended to just buy the Buttrest one for £50-odd.

 

The alternative is using a pit bike seat. Someone actually made a ‘mushroom’ mount to lock it in place. Can’t find that link.

 

You cut all the plastic tabs from the seat, then somehow attach it. I sewed up some loops and side release clips, then melted holes to avoid fraying the webbing when screwing to the plastic.

10mm foam stuck to avoid scratching the bike and to reduce the risk of slipping about.

Haven’t tried it on the road yet, but felt secure enough.

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I haven’t had a chance to use it, but going back and lashing down tight, I didn’t like the risk of the screws coming out. It didn’t feel lashed down as tight as I’d want even for a quick couple miles.

 

Instead, I have now removed some of the staples and run the webbing on the inside, between the plastic and the seat foam.

 

This way it is a single continuous piece of webbing and the force is distributed across the width of the plastic seat pan.
 

Immediately that I tightened the webbing, the seat pan formed better to the bike. I would recommend you do this rather than waste time trying to screw it on to the underside.

 

Next steps are probably covering the underside’s added foam with a thin sheet of rubberised material, stapled to the seat pan. That would tidy up the appearance and hold everything firmly.

 

 

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To ride comfortably sitting I like the seat to be the same height as the gas cap. This one that I made is easily removeable after I'm done trail riding and the mounting bracket always stays on. I've since added a knob screw to mount the front down and the back is held by the hook and velcro. I cut the seat from firm foam and coated with Herculiner. 

 

sherco seat 1.jpg

sherco seat 2.jpg

sherco seat 3.jpg

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Hmm, all food for thought ... I think I´ll nab a bit of spare foam from work and try different shapes stuck on with gaffer tape.  At the moment I'm doing ok with just sitting down in the V, so any increase in altitude would be a help, lol

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/10/2021 at 2:20 AM, turbofurball said:

Hmm, all food for thought ... I think I´ll nab a bit of spare foam from work and try different shapes stuck on with gaffer tape.  At the moment I'm doing ok with just sitting down in the V, so any increase in altitude would be a help, lol

Pretty late to the party, but I made a pit bike based seat which works very well and was quick and simple.

Cut off the lumpy bits underneath, cover the bike with a rubbish bag, sit the seat on top then squirt spray expanding foam in the gap.

Once the foam hardens (it takes a while with a big bulk of foam), peel off the plastic, cut and sand foam shape and job's done. I just used a 3mm bungy over the top to hold it in place - because it fits the bike so snugly it doesn't really move. I did end up gluing a bit of non-slip silicone to the bottom for extra grip.

Quick, simple, cheap and worked well.

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Well, I haven't got any further with this so no worries on lateness ;)  That sounds like a smart solution to make it more "factory" ... we're out of fire season now so having a perch has been back on my mind this weekend after a couple of longer rides

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