DIY Custom seat single seat base.

[Ade52]

Hi just thought I would share this as nobody else has done this or if they have they have not shared it. I refuse to pay the excess price for a custom seat and like many have reported here find the TTSE seat set up cramped and on a long journey find myself sitting on part of the pillion seat. One of the restrictions for a seat specialist to do a corbin style seat is the fact that the base has separate seat bases. Yes there a couple of companies try to achieve a comfortable
set up like RDL, but Corbin and Sargent use the space better with a single base. When I had a ST1100 I had no bother getting a good comfortable seat made at a reasonable price because it was single base.
So here we have it a secure neat joint at little cost to join the seats. 1 roof restraint strap 1m long x 30mm wide x 4mm thick (approx £5). Remove cover and foam. cut strap as required, bend as required. some small plastic cuts to be made in seat bases but minor and fillets in the plastic are replaced with steel strap to a greater strength. 12 SS 6mm nuts and bolts. When finished a single seat is less faff to fit. When you sit on half the pillion seat it feel more secure because it is joined. The rubber cushions of the seat still fall on there correct frame position. I also have 2 Chinese seat heaters to be installed.

I am off to seat specialists now to complete the job. I will let you know of the outcome. I will have to slum it on my leather heated reupholstered single seats in the meantime. I recovered and heated these myself with leather covers from a well known auction site and would advise they are a good fit and value for money and the seat heaters are really warm.

[Yaga1973]

Cool project and I'm interested to see how it turns out!

[Ade52]

I will have the answer within next 14 days at most. I took seat to a well known seat specialist in the north east England Tony Archer. He agreed seat was joined solid and accurate looked at an image of a seat, I took off the web, of a well known USA seat and said he often does a look alike of these, before I opened the box of heating elements he said I know what them are, he also agreed they were quality units. We agreed height at front of seat to stay the same (2 feet on ground). Then to elongate the rider proportion of seat and maybe slightly raise this area of the seat and have a somewhat small pillion area. I very rarely take a pillion and I still have my other 2 seats. He asked why I travelled some 60 mile to use him, when there are others closer. I told him because he has done this since 1970's and his repetition proceeds him. He said I'm under pressure already, agreed in black leather, a price and a collection date. A very nice dealer that knows his onions and he has 2 vintage Triumphs and a modern Triumph steed.   

[Yaga1973]

That's fantastic and it really sounds like he knows what he's doing.

[Ade52]

Well I've been to SCS for my couch today. Well no not quite, but I have been for a 200 mile round trip to pick up my custom seat via Tony Archer. I can tell you the journey there was very cramped and sitting back on pillion hump to ease hip pain. The journey back was much better I had much more room and could slide forward to touch floor with feet at junctions. Why don't Triumph offer this on a touring bike like the TTSE. Then again if they did you would need a mortgage to pay for it. I won't say how much this was (because every custom seat is personal) but as above I joined the seats with some heavy duty roofing strip and the rubbers were still in place on the frame. I supplied the heating elements via china £20ish. Tony rejigged the foam to give me a flat seating area and void at the front for stopping , with no consideration for a pillion in fact he could not fit the heater), but that's what I requested.

I have to say he got it just right for me and at a cost of peanuts compared to the top makes on the market.   

[sin_tiger]

That looks like a really nicely finished job, if it works for you that's the main thing 

If it's not a rude question, how much did the shaping / recover cost you?

[Novocastrian]

Personally, I find the standard Trophy seat to be fine.  The reason Triumph don't offer the seat you suggest is obviously because the Trophy hasn't been made for four years, but notwithstanding that, the Trophy only had a short life anyway. If Tony Archer is Saddlecraft in South Shields (I'm on the other side of the Tyne), he put gel inserts into my heated seat at Xmas.  Great job.

Given the huge variation in rider shapes and weights, it makes sense that there won't be a one-size-fits-all seat solution, but I do think the standard seat does well.  I tried the Low Rider seat and didn't like it.  The comfort seat doesn't have gel in it, so Saddlecraft did mine for me.

Well have to have a northern meet one day.  There's a few of us around here.

[Ade52]

Yes I would like a northern meet that would be fine and was going to suggest this one weekend soon, but since I got the bike I have had a couple of health issues and after that, covid stopped all sensible life. My health is better and I bought the seat to improve my hip pain which just on the return journey from Halifax could feel the much improved leg angle.
No I did not use Saddle Craft in South Shields and I am sure they did a perfect job for you and would have for me. However, I saw the add for Tony Archer just before lock down in March 19 and after an email contact got a very favourable price if I did the joint, then got some cheap seats off flea bay to experiment the joint but was unable to continue until now for various reasons. Tony Archer seats has been doing seats since 1970. I still feel when the bike first came out the seat design is a flaw and very cramped and a feeling of stuck in a vee. Triumph could have had single seat with more room, I have also dropped the pegs and suspension and I feel more confident on the bike with each improvement and I am now happy with overall comfort.