Starting to cafe on the cheap

[jdigga]

Thought I'd post up some pics of my bike so far. Up until recently I've been focusing my efforts on maintenance for proper running and whatnot. At this point the bike is running pretty well so it was time for some cosmetics.

Here's just after I got the bike last fall:

Here it is as of this evening:

Aside from the fender delete, there are new turn signals, new headlight ears, 4-1 exhaust, a ghetto-rigged taillight, an even-worsely ghetto-rigged license plate holder (have to figure out how to light it yet), and I lowered the front by 1/2". I'll see tomorrow how I like the handling; it's easy to put back to normal anyway.

That seat really has to go, but I think that'll wait until the winter. I'm thinking of just reshaping the foam and figuring out a new cover. Not sure what else I want to do; right now I'm just having fun riding it.

 

[CanadaDan]

Lookin' Good!

 

[locOleoN]

definately starting to come together!!...
Why not use that stock seat to make a cafe seat?

 

[Kuyarico]

looking good. Let's work on a seat for that badboy!

 

[Tim]

Lots of info on making your own seat in the Seats & Tanks section.

 

[jdigga]

The existing seat foam could potential yield this shape but I'm not sure it looks right. Too long? Needs a higher hump maybe? What do you guys think?

(Sorry for the rough outline; Photoshop is hard with a roller mouse )

 

[Kuyarico]

Hmm, I like lower humps. it just looks a bit long to me.

 

[jdigga]

I think if I were to make the hump a little higher and more forward, the proportions would look a bit better, such as this:

 

[Kuyarico]

Ah, I see. It does look better. Kinda like a Giuliari.

 

[valvesprung]

I like ;D

 

[locOleoN]

why did you remove the Turn-outs???...
I love my bikes L O U D

 

[jdigga]

I like the sound of a 4-1 better, and also the look seems cleaner to me--not as much stuff hanging off the bottom. If I take the baffle out it's really damn loud.

 

[Tim]

This is what I did with a stock 550F seat.

http://dotheton.com/index.php?topic=11.0

 

[jdigga]

What did you use to secure the cover to the underside of the seat pan?

 

[locOleoN]

What did you use to secure the cover to the underside of the seat pan?

Just use velcro.
sew velcro to the leather and just use the self-adhesive stuff in the underpan.