The dilemma with the seats is that I did not want traditional motorcycle seats. As a disabled rider with neck problems I needed something that would support my upper body more than just a seat pan or a motorcycle seat with four inch back support. When checking around at custom seats it would have easily cost at least $2000 each for seats that would fit my need. That was no money in the budget for that. Instead I spent some time researching Do-It-Yourself motorcycle seats. In particular
DIYMotorcycleSeat.com had much of the useful information that I needed.
We started with an 11 gauge piece of sheet metal. C used a tool called a
Metal Nibbler to cut out the metal into the pattern of a seat pan. For those of you who are wondering how we made the template to trace onto the sheet metal I literally sat on a piece of cardboard and traced my butt.
When it was cut out and edges smoothed we had the base of the seat.
The next step was to heat the metal and bend the pan for what would become the rear of the seat. Of course, after we padded it I'm not sure how necessary this step was but this is how you make a traditional motorcycle seat so for our first attempt this is what we did.
Now we had the basis for a traditional motorcycle seat pan and needed to address the backrest. This time I leaned up against a piece of dry wall and marked the height I wanted the backrest. The goal was for the backrest to be similar in shape to a
traditional U-shaped sissy bar only we were going to cover it with padding. We decided it should be 9 inches wide at the bottom and 4 inches wide at the top. I marked and cut out the dry wall to build a template.
From the template C was able to take some 5/8 inch thick steel rod, heat it with the blow torch, and bend it into the shape we needed.
Once he had it the shape and size of the template he welded it to the underside of the seat pan and then bent it to the angle we wanted for the seats.
Now that we had the basic shape of the seat structure we needed to put hardware on it so the seat could be mounted to the frame. Here's a picture of me using the drill press to put holes in 1 inch rod.
Of course, after spending a huge chunk of time getting the 1 inch rod cut to size, drilled, and then cut at a 45 degree angle we decided not to use it, but that is all part of the fun of building something without instructions.
Instead we used some 3/8" rod for the mounting screws and got traditional motorcycle seat brackets for the front.
Here is a picture of the basic structure.
Next C welded on little metal tabs to the back piece so we could mount a wood support for the middle.
The final structure with wood is ready to be upholstered.
Since I did my research I knew that most people who are building their own motorcycle seat will by some foam and vinyl then glue it to the seat. However, these seats were going to have full back rests we needed a something more breathable than vinyl. I decided leather was going to have to be the material used. I consulted my leather-smith artist
Severn Lang about leather types and quality in addition to doing research myself. Despite having access to the vast material resources of the
fashion district in Los Angeles I ended up finding a better deal online. I did not want typical black seats. This trike is going to be different. I am going with a grey/silver and blue color scheme. Finding grey or silver leather is trickier. However, through the magic of the world wide web I found
Wholesale Upholstery and got what I needed for 1/3 the price that I would have locally.
For the foam I got two types. There is a firmer layer of foam that is designed to take the impact which is similar to what they use in gym mats. I bought a partial sheet of this kind of foam with 1 inch thickness. On top of that I got a high quality luxury foam to make the cushion soft but still maintain its loft. I began my search from reviews of other bloggers and ended up getting my foam from
Foam Factory However, I did not take a picture of it because I left it in the box to take to the upholsterer.
On the DIY website it talks about just buying specialized glue that will hold leather or vinyl to the metal seat pan. However, I knew with the back piece this build was going to be different. I talked with people who do upholstery as a hobby and looked at online referrals. I decided to go with
Batz Auto Upholstery to do the work for me. I took in the two metal frames with wood back support, the box of two types of foam, and the leather pelt. After one week and a great deal on price I got the finished product back.
The seats are beautiful and comfortable. The downside is once we added the three inches of foam to the seat pan and only one inch to the top of the seat back now the backrest does not go up as high as I would like. However, they are supportive and Severn says we can make an extra cushion for my neck. More on that when we get it.
Now with the seats ready we can move forward on the rest of the project. It was only once we had the seats that we would be able to position the handlebars and the foot pedals.
Here is a picture of the trike with a mock up of where the first seat will go.
Here's me posing in front of my project.
And of course what the frame looks like with the mock up for both seats.
The metal bar behind the second seat is not mounted yet but that is one of the next steps. C is going to weld metal tabs to the bent bar so we can mount the structure that will support the seats onto existing parts of the frame. This way it can be removed and changed without becoming a permanent part of the frame structure. However, that is another blog for another day.
