What did you do to your Yamaha FZ-07 today?

[Beemer]

Wow, that's some wild sh*t there! (African design on left side of tank???) I can identify with the ptsd, I have it as well but yours sounds more severe. Sorry about that but being a bit of an artist myself I can say as far as the artwork goes it seems you've chosen a somewhat 'loose' style that a little hand shake wouldn't affect much. Good job, brother! Even if someone doesn't like the art itself you have to respect the person for having the patience for doing all that. Thanks for the pics, stay frosty! 🏍️

[tag]

PTSD and tremors... Your body is the conduit for the art, so, you can let it all hang out and it can just make it all richer, even if folks don't fully "get it."

I love folks saying "I wish I could paint like you" and I'm like "No, you don't, you really don't..." Hahaha!

[phanomenal07]

Finally got my ecu back after installing the Yoshi exhaust. Went for a little ride and am now cleaning my chain 😁

 

dont know if I’m imagining things but the Yoshi exhaust seems to be a tiny bit quiter after the flash tune

Edited January 22, 2018 by phanomenal07
Additional info

[shinyribs]

Fitted some eBay crashbars, compliments of Taiwan. Fit like a dream and holds the bike up nicely.

[faffi]

Looks like it's on its side, mate, not upright 😜

[Beemer]

7 hours ago, shinyribs said:

Fitted some eBay crashbars, compliments of Taiwan. Fit like a dream and holds the bike up nicely.

Who need stands for winter when you have those?! Besides, bikes sleep better laying down. (she looks so peaceful) 😄

Looks like a good deal to me!

[robbo10]

Trouble is, like all youngsters you can't get them up in the morning.

[Beemer]

I surprised my bike today with the order of a TST Integrated tail light. If I'm not happy with the turn signal part of it for any reason I can always leave it on and use conventional mounted turn signals.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XTH44FM/ref=twister_B06XTYCB24?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

[shinyribs]

Went to the skate shop and overpaid for some cheap skateboard wheels ( $25), then slid by the hardware store and picked a piece of aluminum round stock ( $6). Some cutting drilling and tapping later and had me some axle sliders.

 

 

 

 

Turned up a few aluminum buttons to center the wheels on the rods, but a heavy washer would work just as well. 

 

 

 

 

If I hadn't been impatient I could have ordered some cheap skate wheels off ebay for ~$12. Oh,well. Still way cheaper than the ready-made ones!

Edited January 28, 2018 by shinyribs

[shinyribs]

Last weekend I tried my hand at reshaping my seat. I was comfy on the stocker, but wanted to gain some height. 

 

Bought a salvage seat off ebay for $20 to my door. Went to the local upholstery shop and picked up a massive sheet of 1/2" foam. $20 worth of foam will do about 12 seats lol. 

 

Glued on a couple layers and did some rough shaping. Seat V 2.0:

 

 

 

 

 

Laid a piece of batting over to help smooth things over before laying the cover back on. 

 

 

The result was 1" increased seat height overall. Stock on the left, V. 2.0 on the right:

 

Looks kinda rubbish, but worth a test ride. Quite surprised the original seat cover was able to stretch back over an extra inch of foam. 

 

 

Hmm..looks a bit over-inflated and found myself sliding in to the tank way worse than before. Not to mention, it's damn near impossible to reinstall the seat with so much added foam at the rear. How it looked from a distance:

 

 

So, skinned the cover back off and reshaped the foam some more for Seat V.3.0. Skimmed the rear back down to stock height and left the front at +1". That leveled out the seat nicely. 

 

 

Still rough and lumpy, but good enough for another test ride. Put 120 miles on the bike today and it's much nicer with the level seat. 

 

 

Seat  V 4.0 is planned for tomorrow lol. I wanted to keep the stock angles on the side of the seat, but that was a bad idea. All that does is narrow the seating area bt the time you extend an inch higher (duh...). Gonna peel it back apart and widen the seating area and keep my fingers crossed for good results!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tavisb]

Nice. I was thinking of trying something similar, but putting the additional foam UNDER the factory foam to avoid the rough looks. Think that could work?

[Beemer]

shinyribs

 

Good to see you're giving it a go on your own. A couple questions if you don't mind. What size staples are you using and is that the same kind of foam used in the factory seat?

[shinyribs]

2 hours ago, tavisb said:

Nice. I was thinking of trying something similar, but putting the additional foam UNDER the factory foam to avoid the rough looks. Think that could work?

That was my initial plan, too. Figured that would make it easy to retain the factory shape. But the bottom edge of the foam is a very complicated shape where it settles in to the seat pan. Hard to explain. I'll get a picture of that later. 

[shinyribs]

27 minutes ago, Beemer said:

shinyribs

 

Good to see you're giving it a go on your own. A couple questions if you don't mind. What size staples are you using and is that the same kind of foam used in the factory seat?

Don't recall the staple size, but I'll have a look. The foam is different from stock. The foam I used is closed cell ( won't hold water) and is slightly stiffer than the factory stuff. I don't have any name or number for the foam, it's just what they had on hand. I used waterproof fabric glue to attach the foam layers. 

[Beemer]

Good to hear, firm foam good, too soft bad. 😉 I would think that would help with it's comfort for longer hauls. I'm sure you'll let us know once you know.

[shinyribs]

I've got about 300 miles on this foam between the two versions. The foam is fine for comfort, it's just the shape I failed on. Then again, I've ridden the stock seat for 6+ hours at a time and was perfectly comfortable, so surely apparently I'm not a good judge of comfort anyway

 

I forgot to pick up more fabric glue, my tires are damn near bald and it's raining pretty hard. Trying to decide if I want to go out today or not. My back tire started evaporating after about 3800 miles. Not sure I trust it in the rain anymore. 

[Beemer]

41 minutes ago, shinyribs said:

That was my initial plan, too. Figured that would make it easy to retain the factory shape. But the bottom edge of the foam is a very complicated shape where it settles in to the seat pan. Hard to explain. I'll get a picture of that later. 

Not only that, you will defeat your purpose because the factory foam is too soft. Putting it on top is only going to make the seat uncomfortable again because it won't support well, you will just sink into it too much like before. Here's an idea you may want to consider. First, take off the whole top layer. Second, cut out the factory foam where you butt makes the most contact while riding. Third, fill in that cut out area with the new foam and button it up. That way you will get the benefit of the new foam without making the seat look too think and wonky. It should come out looking like the original but more comfy. GL, whatever you do. ✌️

Edit: just read your reply above, I had no idea you were actually comfortable with the original seat. Hey, if you're bored I have a new tail light you can install and a few valves to adjust. 😏

[shinyribs]

This may sound cheesey, but I'm wondering if different year model bikes don't have different... viscosities(?)...of seat foam? I've always struggled with factory seat foams being too soft, like you say, but the FZ feels perfect to me. And I'm 240lbs geared up. I read about guys on here complaining about overly soft foam at 160lbs. I just can't imagine they're sitting on the same foam as me. Strange. 

[Beemer]

8 minutes ago, shinyribs said:

This may sound cheesey, but I'm wondering if different year model bikes don't have different... viscosities(?)...of seat foam? I've always struggled with factory seat foams being too soft, like you say, but the FZ feels perfect to me. And I'm 240lbs geared up. I read about guys on here complaining about overly soft foam at 160lbs. I just can't imagine they're sitting on the same foam as me. Strange. 

Nah, not cheesy at all and you might be right about that. Maybe the thickness and strength of a butt has something to do with butt comfort as well. Maybe you have one of those rare, million dollar butts.

Cherish dat butt, treat it well while the rest of us suffer. 😉

[Beemer]

My TST tail light arrived in my mail box yesterday evening. It looks nice but it doesn't exactly feel real heavy duty. Maybe it doesn't have to be where it's sitting??? When I get it installed and working >right< I'll put a short video up. I will include in my video what the blinkers look like out on the street and in bright sun light at realistic distances that will show what a driver actually sees when he/she is behind you. This should be interesting. 😉

[DewMan]

1 hour ago, Beemer said:

My TST tail light arrived in my mail box yesterday evening. It looks nice but it doesn't exactly feel real heavy duty. Maybe it doesn't have to be where it's sitting??? When I get it installed and working >right< I'll put a short video up. I will include in my video what the blinkers look like out on the street and in bright sun light at realistic distances that will show what a driver actually sees when he/she is behind you. This should be interesting.

Please take some video of it in full sun from a distance. Or I can get some footage on our next ride. I've been thinking of getting one also but to use in parallel with the LED powered pumpkins. Holler if I can be of any assistance installing it. I've already taken mine apart that far before. 👍

[rick]

I've had seat covers off and on so many times, the plastic pan is running out of space w/o a staple hole. 

 

Been my experience that sharp edges under the backs of my legs just result in pain right where those edges meet meat - so to speak. 

[robbo10]

I made a seat pad to add more thickness. That was all I thought was wrong with it. I also aimed to give extra support to the 'sit bones' hence the figure of 8 shape (which is the bottom layer). The photo shows three different-shaped layers of 10mm neoprene foam. The middle layer has a central cut-out to help relieve my 'undercarriage'. It is not as long as the original seat and I was after a 1930/40s saddle shape. The 8 shape was later modified to match the middle layer because I was toppling off it. I covered it all with a sheet of 1mm neoprene which gives useful surface tension for firmness. The only fixing is that the cover has tabs in the shape for velcroing under the seat but those should really be stapled. When I take it off to do that I shall try velcro to replace those wretched seat bolts. Elegant it is not, but it works well (except the cover is slippery!).

[rick]

I liked most of the Seat Concepts seat except for the deep dish pizza thing in the middle. So i filled it with self-leveling urethane rubber. Took 1.5 tubes of the stuff. it's kinda hard so added another layer of foam over top. it's much better, but still pales in comparison to the barcolounger on my Aprilia. 

 

[Beemer]

7 hours ago, rick said:

I've had seat covers off and on so many times, the plastic pan is running out of space w/o a staple hole. 

 

Been my experience that sharp edges under the backs of my legs just result in pain right where those edges meet meat - so to speak. 

I'm the same with my legs. When I first got this bike I used to come to stops and put both legs down. With my somewhat short inseam that put a lot of pressure on the inside of my legs and I hated the seat for that, it wasn't soft nor tapered on the sides so all I could do was start stopping with just one foot down and problem solved. Never really had that problem with other bikes seats but I haven't had many bikes.