New pillion seat and a thumbs-up for local upholstery shops

[Jafran]

I occasionally take my wife and daughters out for an evening or weekend ride on my FZ8 (not all at once), and I wanted a passenger seat that doesn’t put them at an uncomfortable tilt forward. I considered buying the Corbin unit, but wasn’t sure about comfort. So instead I looked up a local upholstery shop on the web and took my seat in for modification. The upholsterer did exactly what I asked, and even let me test it on the bike before he stapled the new cover on it. (I wanted a very firm triangular wedge inserted underneath the existing seat foam to take the slope out of the seat without raising it too much or changing the upper shape too much.) It turned out great. It took about a week, the quality makes the stock rider seat look a little cheap by comparison, and it cost $35 less than the Corbin passenger seat.

This is the second time I’ve used a local upholsterer for a motorcycle seat alteration, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m sure that Corbin, Top Sellerie, etc. make a great product. This is another alternative. The guy I used advertised himself as an Auto and Marine Upholstery shop.

 

[waypoint]

nice! and it looks great too.

 

[9 Lives]

What kind of luggage rack is that and where did you get it?

 

[grant696]

Looks like a nice clean fit! I love how you had to say "not all at once" lol. Somewhere, someone, would have been confused by that.

 

[b8ppj]

Nice job

 

[Jafran]

What kind of luggage rack is that and where did you get it?

I ordered the combination rear rack and passenger grab handle unit from Canada ... yamahagenuineparts.com ... Yamaha accessories ... Top Case Mount part number 39PF48D00000. It requires some cutting of the rear cowl (which I can provide more info about if you're interested). Attached on top of it is a Givi "universal" adapter for Monokey cases. I don't remember where I got that, but it's not hard to find on the web. It bolted to the rack fairly easily, and securely.

The side case rack is the Givi TE366 for the TPH10 soft cases, ordered from SportTour.com. That was a real pain to make fit with the Top Case Mount. They are not really compatible. Some metal grinding and drilling were necessary to make them work together. In hindsight, I would probably not do that combination again due to the hassle.

Just let me know if you'd like more info.

 

[9 Lives]

Awesome, thanks for the info. I am surprised you ordered it from Canada. I too will have a pillion (my wife) every once in a while and need to upgrade the rear seat and would also like to have some sort of back rest. I really don't need the case but will probably buy one unless I can come up with some other backrest. I have the Fazer but I don't think there would be a difference in the installation.

Edit; after looking at the website it says all I have to do is remove the existing grab bars.

 

[Jafran]

Awesome, thanks for the info. I am surprised you ordered it from Canada. I too will have a pillion (my wife) every once in a while and need to upgrade the rear seat and would also like to have some sort of back rest. I really don't need the case but will probably buy one unless I can come up with some other backrest. I have the Fazer but I don't think there would be a difference in the installation.

Edit; after looking at the website it says all I have to do is remove the existing grab bars.

Sorry, I missed the fact that you have the Fazer. The rear rack and grab handle combo would probably replace your grab handles with no cutting of the rear cowl, or just a very little bit. I used a Dremel on the cowl, which worked well.

The combo piece is not an accessory of the U.S. Yamaha dealers, and thus the order from Canada. It would keep a passenger from sliding off backward, but doesn't provide any lower back support. I use my top case for that, although like you I've wondered if there is some other backrest-only unit that would work. Somebody should make a folding backrest-only that snaps into the Givi rack (or other top case racks).

 

[mrpeabody37]

Hi Jafran, you bike looks exactly like mine. Great write up on the seat upgrade. I plan on also ordering the top case mount from Yamaha Canada, but ambivalent about side cases due to traffic in the bay area and how it could limit me splitting lanes. A couple of questions if you have time - 1.) How difficult was it to mount the side cases - what did you specifically have to grind with the top mount case already in place?, and 2.) How wide is the bike with the soft cases installed, and does it feel uncomfortable splitting lanes?

Thanks! Bill

 

[npeifer2308]

I was actually looking into getting my seat done by a local shop but wasn't sure if it was gonna be the right way to go. Now after reading about your positive experience I may have to at least follow up on the idea and look into it. Thanks for the post!

 

[Fazer 8]

Sorry, I missed the fact that you have the Fazer. The rear rack and grab handle combo would probably replace your grab handles with no cutting of the rear cowl, or just a very little bit. I used a Dremel on the cowl, which worked well.

Yes, you still need to remove a little material from the cowl on a Fazer 8 to install the rear rack. Yamaha helpfully molded in lines, showing where the material needs to be removed, on the underside of the cowling, corresponding with the areas indicated in the instructions. You can safely cut right up to the lines, and maybe even 1 mm past, which is what I think the cryptic "1 mm crearance" (sic) notation in the instructions means. It seemed like I needed to remove a little material past the lines to get a clean fit.

What's too bad is that with a little more thought on the design of either the rack or the original grab bars, it would be a straight bolt-on, not requiring you to remove the rear cowl or to cut it in order to fit the rack.

The new passenger seat looks good. It's really ridiculous the seats we have to put up with for the sake of styling. Seats should not slope forward so much.

 

[Jafran]

Bill,

Sorry for my slow reply. I don't think my automatic e-mail messages are enabled any longer. If you are still interested:

1) To understand what had to be modified to make both the top rack and side racks work together, see the "Close-up" photo. It shows one side. The matte gray piece to the right is the top of the bracket for the side rack. It normally curves over the top of the frame and uses the threaded hole for support. The curved portion has been cut off, and the two new bolts installed into the SIDE of the frame instead, along with the thin spacer. So I had to drill two new holes per side through the side rack brackets and into the side of the rear frame. It was also tricky getting the nuts INSIDE the box-section frame.

2) I have never done any lane-splitting, but I suspect that these Givi semi-hard side cases would make me nervous if I ever tried. I measure them to be 38.5" wide total at their widest point. I like side racks. But I would probably try to find a system that allowed narrower side cases if i had to do it all over again.

Hope it helps.