Seat Pad

Similar to the ordeal I went through with the 600RR’s front brakes, figuring out the foam seat was a major pain. You’d think something as simple as a piece of foam would be easy.

Since my bike has a Superbike style tail, you can’t use the stock seats. Instead you use a closed-cell foam pad (preferably) and stick it on. For my first attempt, I went with the conventional method and bought a square piece of foam with a sticky-back, and tried cutting it myself. That went all wrong, so I ditched it and bought another pad, this time from the makers of my track fairings. The second pad had much better and denser foam, but after spending hours cutting it and rounding all the edges with a dremel, it still looked janky in my opinion.

I’m convinced that cutting a piece of foam by yourself will never look good, and/or requires far too much work. Luckily I found a few nice, pre-cut foam pads from Woodcraft. Since their foam pads are made specifically for Woodcraft’s line of track bodywork (Armour Bodies), and I had SharkSkinz, the 600RR pad would’ve looked weird. Their ZX6R seat, however, was closer in shape for my application, so I went with that.

Woodcraft’s foam is particularly dense and thick, and it doesn’t bend easy. After I drilled 2 holes for the tail’s mounting bolts and stuck the pad on, a margin on the left and right sides wouldn’t stick because the bodywork was too curved there. I tried to fix this by applying cement glue myself in those areas, and promptly shat my pants when it leaked everywhere.

Fortunately, I was able to salvage the situation by ripping off the seat, and then used a combination of wetsanding, applying rubbing compound, and clay barring to remove the glue. It sucked, but I was close ruining the paintwork.

SO, I bought the same pad again from Woodcraft, and installed it a second time. I’m not going to worry about the lifting on the edges, it’s not too noticeable. I’m just hoping the lifting won’t cause the rest of the seat pad to peel off in the future.

It’s been a lot of trial and error, but worth it to be able to run a superbike tail. Far better feel than a stock bike’s seat setup. You get the feeling of really sitting “on top” of a bike, and it makes transitioning easier in my opinion.