Comfort seat

[Norton]

I've just recovered my seat and added a Royal Gel pad under the cover (Bike seat gel cover from Halfords at £12) during the process. Superb modification for little money. 280mile round trip at the weekend and still walking

[icenian]

I've just recovered my seat and added a Royal Gel pad under the cover (Bike seat gel cover from Halfords at £12) during the process. Superb modification for little money. 280mile round trip at the weekend and still walking

Sounds interesting.

Can you give us some more detail? Like how you removed the seat cover, and how you refastened it; did you have to cut out any of the foam?

Also - what bike?

[Norton]

The bike is a NX650 Dominator '99 model.
Seat cover is stapled on so easy to remove with a little care. Worked out where my butt sits on the seat and drew an outline of the gel pad on the foam in the correct position. Carefully cut out the foam to the correct depth using an electric carving knife, soldering iron is good way of doing the edges, don't breathe the smoke! (neat cut,and quite easy) used a little impact adhesive on the pad and foam, left for 5 mins and pressed the pad in. Did a couple of dry runs to make sure I'd got the depth and shape of the recess correct before glue.
Replaced the cover stretching carefully and tacking in place with a couple of staples down each side to start with, once happy stapled all round stretching as I went using 6 mm staples.
Staple gun was bought from Woolworths for £6.99, gel pad £12 and a couple of hours enjoyable messing. Seat looks good, the vague outline of the pad is visible but the comfort improvement is really good.
If your seat cover is ripped then this would be a good excuse to recover and fit the pad. Seat covers are £25 or there abouts from the usual suppliers. I used my old one as a template and bought a metre of vinyl from my local furniture recovering place for £7.00, cut out carefully so the cost to me was £26.00
Take time and you can have a recovered gel seat for under £45 even if you buy a pre cut cover.

Try the Gel pad on its own before you remove the cover, just tape it on for a day out and see the difference.

[piguglyshandydrinker]

Hmmm, interesting, is the gel pad for motorbikes or from the cycle dept of Halfords?

It's good to find a product that will do the job, without being shafted for 'motorcycle' prices!

Those electric staple/nail guns from Woolies are fab

Phil

[Norton]

From the cycle department, they have a tie surround which easily snips off. Pad is bike seat shaped but flat and big enougth to sit under the derriere nicely.

[teriyakimonkey]

Seat covers are £25 or there abouts from the usual suppliers.

What are these usual suppliers that you speak of? I'm in the market for a seat cover (on a budget) and have found one for £22.50 at patternparts.net-but they have no pictures.

Need good suppliers for all service parts too.

[Norton]

David Silver are always worth a call for just about anything for Hondas, call them if the item you want is not on their site. Wemoto also has a range of service items, wemoto.com and follow links for your model.

[FatFergie]

You'll get a short length of vinyl for a couple of euros, all you need then is a staple gun.

[Norton]

Returned yesterday from France, 940 miles two days one overnight stop in St Quentin. Seat is a gem! 524 miles first day on RN's no derriere problems. Best £26 I've spent on a bike.