seat gap

[kcearl]

my oe seat and my corbin both sat tight at the back now i can fit my fingers underneath it!! its been recovered/rebuilt and its much lighter now but i wouldn't have thought it would make that much difference. The base is the same and hasn't been cut or anything :dunno:
Any suggestions guys (didnt grem or someone have the same problem?)


:kcearl:

[yox]

i think it's the weight at the front of the seat, squashing the front down thereby lifting the back,
eat less cake, drink less beer m8.
anything else i can help with just let me know :p:

[zrxtrucker]

drink less beer m8.
anything else i can help with just let me know :p:

You could always try the :tennis: approach to drinking less beer by spilling more. :laugh:

[ZRX Gremlin]

didnt grem or someone have the same problem?I did and I seem to recall at least one other person did too.

Mine seems to be getting even looser. :eek: It's the 1100 base that I had modified.

I have a theory that the base has somehow bent/settled/distorted over a period of time. I still have my OE one which hasn't covered anywhere near the mileage of the modded one (and I have no idea of the mileage of the 1100 donor bike) and may compare them for appearence and fit to see if I can figure out where the problem lies.



Watch this space as they say.


EDIT
I do seem to recall that this seat once it had been modified became a slightly looser fit and I'm guessing that the base has somehow changed shape during the mods

[Pal]

My seat base fitted perfectly until I had it recovered at P&P, perhaps they just stretch it tighter than OE?

[ZRX Gremlin]

That's what I'd reckon on too.

I may be looking at a way of tightening it down, perhaps by making a new seat bracket.
I saw details of how to do this on the ZRXOA site a while ago and a new bracket with the locating notches nearer the seat base ought to do the trick.

[kcearl]

My seat base fitted perfectly until I had it recovered at P&P, perhaps they just stretch it tighter than OE?

that seems to makes sense.. cheers chaps :thumb:


:kcearl:

[maverick zrx]

My OE seat has lifted at the back (6300miles on the clock)...It might be its the plastic base "warping"with use..We never had this problem with the old metal bases if I recall. How about Kawasaki putting more plastic in the bases..
Recovering will tighten it up but sitting on it moves the cover pulling the back up ( screw in a weight at the back to keep it down :laugh: :laugh: )

[kcearl]

im going to have to figure out something because it looks really sh1t at the back :\


:kcearl:

[phoenix]

My original seat sat high at the back, but the recovered one is OK.

I think it looked worse 'cos the seat base is white and stuck out like a sore thumb from behind, I was going to spray the seat base black so it didn't look quite so bad.

[ZRX Gremlin]

Making a new seat bracket. (http://users.adelphia.net/~zrx11/techhtml/bracket.html) Courtesy ZRXOA.

This looks as though it could be made to be adjustable to allow you to pull the seat down as far as you need at the rear.

If you look at the seat catch mechanism itself (attached thumbnail) there is a raised lip all the way round it which serves no purpose whatsoever. Removing this with a file, angle grinder, hacksaw, axe etc will gain you roughly 4mm Not a great deal I know but in my case should be enough. Somebody on the ZRXOA removed 1/4" from the bottom of his seat latch without any reported problems. There's a couple of rivets in there which I don't know how he dealt with.

EDIT
Don't attempt to remove any more material than that raised edge down to the level of that square bit sticking out of the side in the attached pic. This part houses the cable and lever mechanism. If you weaken that and the cable falls out...............:cry:

The biggest problem with my seat is that the tongue that fits under the tank at the front of the seat seems to have bent downwards allowing the front end of the seat to wobble about. This only looks untidy when parked up and even with my minimal weight on it doesn't move when being ridden.
:hmm: Now, I either use a heatgun to soften it and bend it back up or glue some thin plastic sheet to the top of it. This should get my bum cosseter sitting pretty. :)

[kcearl]

cheers grem, i think i'll give it a go..the hacksaw makes up 33.33% of my toolkit :teeth:
(i'll post in a week when i f*ck it up)

:kcearl:

[ZRX Gremlin]

Right. That's me finished messing about. :happy:

Problem solved. :thumb:

The ZRX seat is supposed to hook under the tank with the tongue at the front and sit on the frame rails on 6 feet (highlighted in green on the image below).

My seat was never as bad as some that I've seen but appeared to be slightly bananana shaped. It was loose on the tongue at the front and at best only sat on the front 4 feet. This left me a gap big enough to get my fingers into at the rear and could possibly have allowed purchase for some scumbag to rip the seat off. The temptation would have been there anyway.

First job:
I removed that lip from the back of the seat latch mechanism as described in my previous post in this thread. This made more of a difference than I thought it might. it bought the rear of the seat down further than expected but the front was still loose.

Second job:
Out with the heatgun and bend the tongue at the front upwards.
:thumb: Getting there, almost perfect now but it's still not sittting tight on the rear pair of feet.

:hmm:

:idea:

Dare I

Oh go on then,

Third job:
Out with the heatgun again.
Applied heat to the area marked in red on the pic and then bent the rear of the seat downwards. I had to sit there for a couple of minutes holding it in place while the base cooled and hardened off again.
This wasn't as scary as it sounds. I don't think enough heat got through the base to do the foam any damage (or the gel inserts in my case) and I was careful to keep the heat away from the edge of the covering fabric.

Result?
The seat is now slightly bananana shaped in the opposite direction and takes a good firm push to get it to engage on the seat latch and middle pair of feet. The seat now sits that tightly you'd think it was bolted down and the gap at the rear is now only about 1mm. I didn't want it touching as this would either have worn the seat or the bodywork away.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/ZRXgremlin/zrxoc/seatbase2.jpg

My conclusions.
Looking at the pic of the upturned seat it's now quite easy to see where the problem lies.
(note no p*sstake intended)
Many other Rexers apply more weight to their seats than would be possible with my bony little ass. Many also don't have the advantage of a pillion holding the rear of the seat down. This allows the front of the seat base to collapse slightly and the rear to lift using the middle pair of feet as a leverage point. The seat catch was never tight enough to hold the rear end down in the first place.
After a few miles/months/years of this the seat base itself takes up the new shape, failing to spring back to its original one. It's only polythene after all and there's no real support in the middle.
In fact with those grooves moulded into it, it's almost designed to fail :dunno:

[Purge]

im going to have to figure out something because it looks really sh1t at the back

Hire Kylie in tight black leather to accompany you on all ride-outs?
Does that help?

:purge:

[zrxtrucker]

Cheers, i've got a gap at the back end of my seat, it wasnt there until I read this and looked for it, now where is that gaffa tape.