standard seat on a special bike

[Visegrippe]

well, i got the seat affixed to the bike, it's an unknown-year standard seat, side hinge.
it's probably not very difficult, but i remember some one asking about fitment.

the widths are different and the hinge locations aren't the same, the seat lock won't work either.

anyways, i cut the tabs off, pinned them into the hinges, marked the location and welded them in place, they need to be vertical rather than horizontal.

to latch i used a Z bent strip of steel, drilled it to fit the bolt that holds the strap, and it lines up with one of the mounting holes for the lock mechanism, i held it in place with a 6mm bolt.

not the most elegant, but it's definitely not a bolt-on swap, and there must be a difference in frame widths between the standards and specials, as the standard's seat mountings are much narrower than the specials'.

it works, but due to the narrow seat it will only raise about 75 degrees.

hope the info is useful to someone.

 

[cooltouch]

I'm pretty sure there's no difference in frame width between the standards and Specials. I have both, and could measure them if you want, but I've never noticed much difference in their seat widths. The lift-off seats on my '80 and '81 Specials sorta go over the frame, rather than sit above it. Sounds like you're describing a '78 or '79 Special with their hinged seats. I'm not familiar with them, so I don't want to speculate.