Do any of you guys ride for any amount of time with a stock seat and clubmans? I'm wondering about the comfort for 300ish mile rides. Eventually I want to redo my seat but would like to put it off till next summer so I can get as much riding in this summer as possible. As far as comfort goes would it be better to just put a fiberglass bump stop right on the frame or keep the stock seat pan and do an all upholsterd Giuliari style seat.
Clubmans and a stock seat
- Thread starter souperman
- Start date
What kind of bike are we talking? I had the stock seat and clubmans on my 77 kz650 and it was murder after about 30 minutes. The pressure it put on my wrists because of the angles was horrible!!! With the much lower seat height now it's good, I've pulled 200+ miles rides and been mostly comfortable throughout.
boomshakalaka
Over 1,000 Posts
this is a great questions. I might be running this setup for a while due to a lack of funds. It will be temp though and Ill only be riding for a half hour at most at a time.
Not sure what bike you're riding and how the seat is put together, but if you can pull the cover off, slice out some of the foam, and then recover the seat using the stock cover you'll have a lot better riding position in most cases. I did that for a short term fix on my kz before I started the cafe build. I trimmed the stock seat foam in about half and then restretched the cover, looked basically the same but was a lot better geometry on my wrist!!
Same bike (75 500T), same situation. I currently have clubmans and the stock seat. Yes, it is a bit uncomfortable on longish rides. I am going to use the original pan and shave down the padding and see where that gets me, as I actually prefer that look to a cafe-style seat (at least for this build). Oh yeah, I am 6'1.
Swagger
Putting boot to ass since 1967!
I ran clubman bars and stock seat on my 500T for about a year and really it was pretty good. Mine had almost no drop though so the position was really pretty nice. I'm 6'1" and 220lbs, pretty big for a bike this size. Also worthy of mention, I kinda came up on sport bikes and track bikes. I got my first road race rig when I was 11, Dad whipped up a 73 MX360 into a mean vintage style trackday toy. I wish we kept pictures of that and my old Rickman Montessa 250. :-[ I miss both of those bikes......
But I digress.....
Look around some of the vintage suppliers and you can find no drop/low drop clubman bars, they are the shite. You get hte looks and *most* of the position. Plus if built right, those bars and the stock seat, get rid of everything non-essential and you end up with a bike that's reminiscent of an old Itallian single race bike. Lots of those were sold for the street with full seats and passenger pegs.
But I digress.....
Look around some of the vintage suppliers and you can find no drop/low drop clubman bars, they are the shite. You get hte looks and *most* of the position. Plus if built right, those bars and the stock seat, get rid of everything non-essential and you end up with a bike that's reminiscent of an old Itallian single race bike. Lots of those were sold for the street with full seats and passenger pegs.
I had flat bars on my honda 750. At 80mph the wind blast was such that you really had to hang on and it was tiring. I swapped them for drop bars which lowered my hands about 4". It made all the difference in the world! I could ride for hours at 90mph without being tuckered by the wind.
I talked to a guy that rode an old Norton from Oregon to California a few times with a similar riding position. He said the wind does kinda support your chest at decent highway speeds so there isn't too much weight on your wrists.
The bars I have show a .8" drop and 6" of pullback which doesn't seem too bad. Do most of you mount bars with the U-shape pointed down quite a bit?
The bars I have show a .8" drop and 6" of pullback which doesn't seem too bad. Do most of you mount bars with the U-shape pointed down quite a bit?
