Just got my fiberglass cafe seat

[Korr]

Hi guys, Going to be a busy week for me and the XS

I just received my fiberglass cafe seat from airtech. I do not have any experience with fiber glass. On the sitting area of the seat there are spiderweb like lines. Are those lines going to turn into cracks some day? They are only visible if they catch the reflection of a light source like in the picture. I know for sure that i should not mount it to the metal frame without some kind've cushion. I will probably use some high density foam. Anybody have any experience with fiberglass seats able to give some info on how sturdy these things are? This is by far the biggest investment that i have made for the XS.

Any info is much appreciated guys thanks

[Korr]

Sorry having issues with photobucket and couldn't get it to upload pictures till now. Still having problems, everything is going at a crawl

[CatatonicBug]

As far as fiberglass goes, It starts as a wet (resin-covered) sheet of cloth (fiberglass). It gets laid over a mold and allowed to cure (harden). Any imperfections in the mold will show up in the surface of the final product - much like a jello mold. The lines you see are just that. No need to worry about structural integrity there. As long as this seat is thick enough and supported underneath, you should not have any problems.

As for the cushion, I'm just thinking out loud here, but maybe a piece of plywood, with dense foam on it, covered with a vinyl or leather seat-cover, stapled to the underside of the wood? You could mount the cushion to the fiberglass with T Nuts, fed in from the top of the wood. Then you can screw in from the underside of the fiberglass to tighten or remove the cushion.

[wa407mpp]

You need to reinforce the seat with a piece of plywood, it is only a shell and not intended to support any weight. The seats I used to buy, always came with a 1" closed foam pad that could be glued to the seat housing or covered and stapled or atached with snaps. On my H1 I used Velcro so It could be removed, to add two stroke oil to the oil tank without removing the seat housing.

[Silent]

I put a full Airteck race fairing kit on a Ninja a few years back. The only suggestion I can offer is to use a countersink of the propper size when drilling the holes. I found that normal drills can tear the fiberglass very easy.

[danteinien]

Any updates on this one??

That seat looks familiar.....



Mine:



I just did a light sanding job before primer, cant see any of those lines.

I used some foam padding and then made the cover and buttoned her on. Im in the process of making a new one, this one was my first try.

[fredintoon]

I just received my fiberglass cafe seat from airtech. I do not have any experience with fiber glass. On the sitting area of the seat there are spiderweb like lines. Are those lines going to turn into cracks some day? They are only visible if they catch the reflection of a light source like in the picture. I know for sure that i should not mount it to the metal frame without some kind've cushion. I will probably use some high density foam. Anybody have any experience with fiberglass seats able to give some info on how sturdy these things are? This is by far the biggest investment that i have made for the XS.
Any info is much appreciated guys thanks

Hi Korr,
those surface flaws are most likely transferred from the mould the seat was made in and WTF, they will be under the seat padding anyway.
Airtech don't seem to make an XS11-specific seat, yours is a VSL or VSM generic? If so you are on your own for mounting. Whatever subframe you come up with, bolt the seat to it with three hard rubber washers per bolt.
One atop the glass with a plain washer atop it under the bolt head, one between the glass and the subframe and the third under the subframe with a plain washer and a nylok nut to hold everything in place. Flat rubber tap washers from the hardware store are great for this.