1974 kz400 seat/tire conundrum

I am currently finishing up a kz400 cafe project and have come to the sad realization that the little Chinese cafe seat I got may not work. The PO had hacked the rear frame, making this a cafe, not a resto, project. The original seat pan bottom molding had a curvature that allowed for the up and down movement of the rear wheel. This new cafe seat is flat, so I now lose about 3" of needed space.

I've poured through the DTT archives for possible solution but without much success.

The only obvious options appear to be to raise the seat 3" or more but that would leave a pretty non-elegant gap between seat and frame rail or weld a rear hoop and try and find a longer seat that could be in some way manipulated in the middle...

Longer shocks might gain me some needed MMs but not enough to fix the problem.

I know this is a common issue on cafe builds.

The first pic is the seat/tire at rest
The 2nd is 3" compressed w/out seat and the the 3rd is 3" compressed w/ seat.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

its gonna rub.. ???

...that's the rub

I realized I posted this to the wrong forum...I moved it to "suspension"

show us more than just the top of the tire and the seat.....back up a bit and give us a full view

Will do. I've got the KZ over at my pardners shop. I'll breeze over later and take some more pics.

make a space for the tire to tuck in to in the seat

I had the same issue. I cut a hole in the seat pan and am hiding the bubble under seat foam. That was my quick solution. But I only needed an extra inch and a half. I was advised not to mess with the suspension unless I wanted an inferior finished product. There are a lot of smart guys on here when it comes to builds. They all said don't mess with the shocks. I'd heed that advice.

Check out my build. "Ke100 resto with mods" I'm half way finished with fixing my clearance issue.

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Yep. Either cut a notch in the seat for more clearance and have it recovered or find a new seat

Thanks for the responses. Think we got the issue sussed. While not the most elegant solution, we were able to gain the needed inches without viagra. The gap between frame rail and tire exists but isn't a deal breaker.

...Actually the seat sits about an inch lower than these pics show...

http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=61973.90

this is my solution to the issue

Great thread. I have an SR250 waiting in the wings. That glass pan is a good option but I would need a hoop. I'll let the new owner make the final tail end decisions. Until then, this will have to do.

Actually, the seat will be about 2" lower then in the previous pics

that things nice why not finish the tail/seat and charge more? if you are selling it...