Seat attachment

[MisterCinders]

Looking at aftermarket seat pans. What are the bottoms like on these?
They never appear in the pics.

Trying to figure out how to deal with attaching them to the frame? Install hinges? Bolt to frame?

[DanTheMan]

Which ones are you talking about? Saddlemen has seat pans (fibreglass) upholstered to fit most models. Otherwise, I'm in the dark as to the aftermarket seatpans.

[Truth]

Which ones are you talking about? Saddlemen has seat pans (fibreglass) upholstered to fit most models. Otherwise, I'm in the dark as to the aftermarket seatpans.

Me too! I'd like to see some. I still need one for 650.

[ChicagoBob]

You can use the original hinges, if they allow the pan to fit. My replacement seat was too narrow, so I ended up cutting the stock seat hinges and latch off the frame and attaching the new seat with a tang under the tank and a thumb bolt through the rear fender (from the bottom and into a clip nut attached to a hole in the seat pan). I also cut off the helmet lock, but my aftermarking exhaust prevented me from hanging a helmet there, anyhow.

The seat is still easily removable, but it would be difficult for a thief to figure out how to remove it, or to find the thumb bolt under the rear fender.

[MisterCinders]

I have been looking at some of the cafe conversion seats from various sources. Some are fiberglass, some are ABS. Nobody seems to make GS specific seats, but there are "universal" seats that are billed to work with various UJM bikes.

They look pretty slick. I presume that they are blank, flat, etc. on the bottom, but I cannot determine how folks set up the connections between the seat pan and frame.

Some of the threads here show clever uses of treated plywood underneath, but those guys seem to be crafting their own seats as well. Basically, what's it take to connect the aftermarket seat pan to the frame?

Leaving aside the details of particular manufacturers, do these seats have material that you can thread into or drill out for a nut/bolt assembly? Has anyone attached hinges to use with the existing seat hinges on the GS frame?

Just trying to educate myself before pestering manufacturers directly.

TIA