Tim.
Member
Hi everybody-
I recent bought a 69 350 for my wife (who is not a large person) and she's finding the seat to be a bit wide/tall for her. I bought an aftermarket seat from 4into1 (https://4into1.com/the-mantis-brat-seat-black/) and have made some modifications to it but I'm at the point where I doubt it will fit nicely unless I modify the frame, which I won't do. There are two issues that I see:
(1) the original seat has long side skirts that reach down below the frame -- I've yet to see any aftermarket seat that's as "deep" as the original. The one I bought would leave a substantial gap between the seat and frame.
(2) the rear hinge bolts/rear hinge mounting bar are really high up, again fitting the depth of the original seat. This causes the rear of the aftermarket seat to sit much higher than the front.
So I'm wondering if anyone has successfully modified an aftermarket seat to fit a bike with one of these rear-hinged seats. I feel like I've done about all I can with the seat that I have bought, including cutting out the rear portion to fit over the rear fender, drilling holes for the hinge bolts to insert into the seat and allow it to sit flush with the hinge bar, heating and bending so the front sits flush with the back of the tank.
I've searched exhaustively for images and posts fitting new seats to these bikes but I mostly see people removing the read fender and modifying the frame with that hoop at the back for the seat to rest on, something like this albeit a bit less extreme: https://www.bikebound.com/2019/03/18/honda-cl350-brat-scrambler/
Has anyone found a seat that can be fit to these bikes without frame modification? Pictures welcome for inspiration.
I recent bought a 69 350 for my wife (who is not a large person) and she's finding the seat to be a bit wide/tall for her. I bought an aftermarket seat from 4into1 (https://4into1.com/the-mantis-brat-seat-black/) and have made some modifications to it but I'm at the point where I doubt it will fit nicely unless I modify the frame, which I won't do. There are two issues that I see:
(1) the original seat has long side skirts that reach down below the frame -- I've yet to see any aftermarket seat that's as "deep" as the original. The one I bought would leave a substantial gap between the seat and frame.
(2) the rear hinge bolts/rear hinge mounting bar are really high up, again fitting the depth of the original seat. This causes the rear of the aftermarket seat to sit much higher than the front.
So I'm wondering if anyone has successfully modified an aftermarket seat to fit a bike with one of these rear-hinged seats. I feel like I've done about all I can with the seat that I have bought, including cutting out the rear portion to fit over the rear fender, drilling holes for the hinge bolts to insert into the seat and allow it to sit flush with the hinge bar, heating and bending so the front sits flush with the back of the tank.
I've searched exhaustively for images and posts fitting new seats to these bikes but I mostly see people removing the read fender and modifying the frame with that hoop at the back for the seat to rest on, something like this albeit a bit less extreme: https://www.bikebound.com/2019/03/18/honda-cl350-brat-scrambler/
Has anyone found a seat that can be fit to these bikes without frame modification? Pictures welcome for inspiration.