Superbike Tail Seat Pads... how do you cut and contour them?

Let's say Woodcraft for the sake of argument.

X-Acto? Dremel wheel? Hot wire?

Seems too soft for an electric knife, but too thick to do properly with an X-Acto.

Can you use a little sanding drum on a dremel for applying a radius to the cut edges?

I can always experiment but I need to ride in a week and I don't want to mangle this one up so I thought it prudent to get some experienced advice.

What say you?

 

my seatpads are 1/2" closed cell. i cut them with a new razorblade and try to do each cut in only 1 or 2 passes. then i just sand each corner with 80grit until its smooth enough.

 

Straight Razor for cutting then sand Paper to smooth out and contour edges..... Minicelli Foam is far better than the Woodcraft Pads IMO... Lasts much longer.

 

what density is the typical seat foam?

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Is this what you use?

 

I use the HT Moto generic pads and cut to shape. They cut easier and last much longer than the woodcraft pad did for me. Super tough stuff, made for seadoos. I cut it to general shape with a razor or fine tooth saw if using the thick pads and then clean any edges by very gently touching it to my belt sander.

 

Yes it is... it’s Kayak Foam to be more specific... do a search for Minicelli Foam... many outdoor places sell it.. I get mine from Natahalla Outdoors... they sell self adhesive and non .. contact cement on both and tie downs peg to peg keep it on for life...

 

I either use an extremely heavy duty pair of scissors that I sharpen or I get a pair of vice grips, a pack of new razor blades and a blow torch to make my own hot knife. I “sand” the edges with red or grey scotch brite to smooth them out.

 

Graves seatpad on my R1. Costs a bit. But it’s grippy to my suit and I no longer slide around in the saddle.

 

Electric knife and/or hot foam knife. Then belt sander with 12o grit. I do all kinds of stuff with kayak foam, motorcycle and otherwise.

 

Interesting feedback. Here's why I asked -

I'm working out of my garage with a decent array but limited hand tools. I just bought a bike, so the situation is inherited. I wanted to save the seat pad but shape it around the fastener holes in the tail section. I assume this is done pretty regularly.

I read all this feedback I appreciate it - but I didn't have a single thing listed on hand so I tried Plan A. Here's what happened:

I had these holes I wanted unfettered access to - I have 19mm countersunk dome fastener/washer combo on the way and I have a battery that may be shitting the bed so I don't want to futz with the seat pad if I need to pop the tail off.



I started with an X-Acto to make the rough cuts. This worked relatively well. Then I started shaping and contouring with a sanding drum on the dremel. This allows radiusing in both axes while you eyeball it. It's tricky because the drum likes to catch and walk on you. Takes some time to get a feel for it.



The result isn't perfect, but I think it looks fairly close to being made that way, and most importantly it does what I wanted. I cleaned it up some more after this point. I wanted to get more topside radius because I've heard your leathers can tear these up pretty fast if the edges aren't softened.



Some Super 77 and it sticks just fine. Not flawless, but I give myself a solid B for my first attempt at this.

 

Looks good... but you might want to plug those big holes or your arse will rip em...

 

Strangely that's the way it comes.

 

An x-acto and a dremel with sanding wheel worked for you it looks like.

I ended up buying one of the square seat pads - so mine was not contoured in any way. My attempt to use a scissors absolutely failed. The scissors didn't cut through the foam in a straight line. I ended up resorting to an angle grinder with a sander attachment and mine still didn't turn out as good as yours.

 

Looks like a Rorschach test to me...

 

2 Nome's climbing on the side of a Giant Centipede..

 

LOL. Fair.

I might look back and wonder why I bothered... but hey, I tried something and it didn't turn out to be complete shite.

 

Angry clown smoking a joint

 

I’m surprised no one suggested this - I saw this thread with lots of replies days ago and figured it would be one of the first things said.

Believe it or not after you get a general shape with scissors or a razor some 200-400 grit sandpaper by hand works wonders to put a rounded/final edge to the seat foam. Depending on the foam finer sandpaper will give you more control and when you’re done it will look like it came that way.

I picked this up from a friend I race with whose fiancé is way into arts and crafts. It was technically her idea (I think).


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