Thanks Bob! Yeah, my butt is a little tender right now but not from Lucille's new seat.
Actually, the top surface of the original 1976 XS650C seat and all of the foam were re-used from the original seat so it feels that same and is actually, quite comfortable. You know, those classic, 1960s-70s British and Japanese long, wide, and not too thick "banana" seats were very practical and comfortable IMO. The best one of that day was generally agree by all the bike magazines to be the Suzuki GS850G seat (the standard model, not their "L" model which was equivalent to the Yamaha "Specials").
One mag - I think it was Cycle World - put a photo of the GS850G seat in a centrefold with the caption: "The best seat ever put on a motorcycle". Suzuki had tried really hard with the 850 seat to pay attention to ergonomics (apparently, they hired a genuine "assologist" from Toyota to design it). It actually had two different densities of foam - which was quite an innovation 38 years ago). I had a 1979 GS850 - and can confirm that the seat truly was a wonder. No Honda Gold Wing, Kawasaki Z1 or Harley seat of the day could come remotely close in comfort. I never tried an XS750, 850 or 1100 - but apparently, the Suzuki was better than them too.
Anyhow, it isn't an XS650 story, but 30 minutes ago, I got off the road from a long ride on the big Honda ST1300 today - a total of about 700 km (around 420 miles) between 6:45 AM and just now. The bike ran superb - which is good, because I did a major repair this past March. A friend and I replaced the hydraulic clutch slave cylinder which is actually a very simple task except that the darned thing is buried way up inside the innards of the bike, on the backside of the engine immediately in front of the rear wheel/swing arm assembly. Access is very tight and you have to finagle three aluminium crush washers into place on the hydraulic fitting - well, it isn't fun....but it worked.
It is kind of cool to have two such different bikes - the XS650 is light and nimble, a little bit loud (but oooohhh what a beautiful sound....), she is cranky to start, she vibrates and is VERY simple to work on, plus, she isn't really all that powerful. The ST1300, on the other hand, is smooth as a baby's bottom and dead-nuts reliable, but she is big, heavy, very complicated and has power like you couldn't imagine. Basically, she has a high performance liquid cooled, 1.3 litre DOHC 16 valve EFI V4 car engine in a vehicle that weighs 1/3 of what a car weighs, plus it has ABS, linked fore & aft brakes and a wind screen that is powered to move up and down via a switch on the LH handlebar. Once she's moving, she feels very light, but if you screw up a parking lot manoeuvre and she decides that she wants to lie down and have a snooze...well, you're going down. Fortunately, these ST bikes are amazingly reliable (200,000 miles or 300,000 km is not at all uncommon) and boy can they chew up the miles on a freeway!
Anyhow - tomorrow, it's back to Lucille's beautification program, I think.
Pete
Actually, the top surface of the original 1976 XS650C seat and all of the foam were re-used from the original seat so it feels that same and is actually, quite comfortable. You know, those classic, 1960s-70s British and Japanese long, wide, and not too thick "banana" seats were very practical and comfortable IMO. The best one of that day was generally agree by all the bike magazines to be the Suzuki GS850G seat (the standard model, not their "L" model which was equivalent to the Yamaha "Specials").
One mag - I think it was Cycle World - put a photo of the GS850G seat in a centrefold with the caption: "The best seat ever put on a motorcycle". Suzuki had tried really hard with the 850 seat to pay attention to ergonomics (apparently, they hired a genuine "assologist" from Toyota to design it). It actually had two different densities of foam - which was quite an innovation 38 years ago). I had a 1979 GS850 - and can confirm that the seat truly was a wonder. No Honda Gold Wing, Kawasaki Z1 or Harley seat of the day could come remotely close in comfort. I never tried an XS750, 850 or 1100 - but apparently, the Suzuki was better than them too.
Anyhow, it isn't an XS650 story, but 30 minutes ago, I got off the road from a long ride on the big Honda ST1300 today - a total of about 700 km (around 420 miles) between 6:45 AM and just now. The bike ran superb - which is good, because I did a major repair this past March. A friend and I replaced the hydraulic clutch slave cylinder which is actually a very simple task except that the darned thing is buried way up inside the innards of the bike, on the backside of the engine immediately in front of the rear wheel/swing arm assembly. Access is very tight and you have to finagle three aluminium crush washers into place on the hydraulic fitting - well, it isn't fun....but it worked.
It is kind of cool to have two such different bikes - the XS650 is light and nimble, a little bit loud (but oooohhh what a beautiful sound....), she is cranky to start, she vibrates and is VERY simple to work on, plus, she isn't really all that powerful. The ST1300, on the other hand, is smooth as a baby's bottom and dead-nuts reliable, but she is big, heavy, very complicated and has power like you couldn't imagine. Basically, she has a high performance liquid cooled, 1.3 litre DOHC 16 valve EFI V4 car engine in a vehicle that weighs 1/3 of what a car weighs, plus it has ABS, linked fore & aft brakes and a wind screen that is powered to move up and down via a switch on the LH handlebar. Once she's moving, she feels very light, but if you screw up a parking lot manoeuvre and she decides that she wants to lie down and have a snooze...well, you're going down. Fortunately, these ST bikes are amazingly reliable (200,000 miles or 300,000 km is not at all uncommon) and boy can they chew up the miles on a freeway!
Anyhow - tomorrow, it's back to Lucille's beautification program, I think.
Pete
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