Different seat for '80 XS eleven special

[Medic4Life]

Hey there, new to the xs family. Picked up a '80 eleven special this summer and love it. Ive done some short rides and am looking forward to longer ones. Problem is my seat. Looks and feels like an old 70's seat with high back. Ive been looking for a new seat. Ive seen e-bay, and am wondering if there are other places for custom seats that y'all know about. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Ill post a pic of my baby soon. Thanks

[crazy steve]

There's pretty much nothing available anymore in the way of complete new seats, with the exception new reproduction '78-79 standard seats out of England and some hand-hammered 'custom' seats out of Vietnam. The former won't fit your Special, and the latter seem to have some fitment issues, as at least one guy bought one and couldn't get it to fit. YMMV...

So that leaves the used market. You can get new seat covers, but for seat pans/foam, you'll need to find a decent OEM seat. The only seats that fit your Special properly are the '80-81 Special seats; none of the other model seats will fit without major mods. You could try having yours re-done, as the foam can go bad with age. Good luck!

[Lonerider62]

It sounds like you don't have the stock seat. I have a stock seat and think it's a good seat. If you can, put up a picture. When I read the comments of the old road tests, generally they thought it had a decent seat. Of course, people of different builds will have totally conflicting opinions about the same seat. I'm quite small, 5'6" 155 lbs so maybe my size has a lot to do with my feeling the seat is pretty good, then again, most of my bikes have been sport bikes which tend to have torture chambers for seats.

[Danny Crawdad]

Well on the opposite side of the scale (literally), I'm 6'5" and 320lbs and the seat feels great to me. You say yours is high-backed, can you post a picture?

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Seat

You might try these guys, say temporarily out of stock on the xs1100, but you can ask for an email when back in stock

http://www.chrome-addiction.com/g-saddlemen-motorcycle-seat-kits-30949.php

Hey there, new to the xs family. Picked up a '80 eleven special this summer and love it. Ive done some short rides and am looking forward to longer ones. Problem is my seat. Looks and feels like an old 70's seat with high back. Ive been looking for a new seat. Ive seen e-bay, and am wondering if there are other places for custom seats that y'all know about. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Ill post a pic of my baby soon. Thanks

[crazy steve]

You might try these guys, say temporarily out of stock on the xs1100, but you can ask for an email when back in stock

http://www.chrome-addiction.com/g-sa...kits-30949.php

You still need a stock OEM seat pan to install that on.....

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Yes

Yes, I thought from his post that he had that, just didn't like the way it feels, sorry if I misunderstod

You still need a stock OEM seat pan to install that on.....

[cywelchjr]

You still need a stock OEM seat pan to install that on.....

Saddlemen seats IIRC has a complete set setup for the specials just not the standards. For the standards you MUST have the seat pan as they only supply the foam and cover.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Whoa!

Thanks, you saved me from the shame of trying to help a fellow XSer The seat I was talking about does require the OEM pan No pic's for him, but I thought he had one

[crazy steve]

Saddlemen seats IIRC has a complete seat setup for the specials just not the standards..

Yeah, I'd forgotten about those... but they only offer a king/queen type in a complete seat, not a OEM style...

[bikerphil]

Those 80-81 Special seats aren't that hard to find used. I've got an xtra that I modified to fit my 79, promised it to someone already though. Keep your eye on ebay and/or PM member andreashweiss, he may have some for sale.

[cywelchjr]

Yeah, I'd forgotten about those... but they only offer a king/queen type in a complete seat, not a OEM style...

He didn't ask about an OEM style, he asked about a custom, and that's just about the only custom complete seat still made. It's at least an option that he can look at and either go for or reject after looking at it. Maybe it's a style that will work for him, as it's NOT a king/queen, it's a double bucket, which if you don't have too big a butt may work well. The same seat is available as foam and cover for standards, but require a seat pan for them.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Do you

Do you, or don't you have the OEM seat on your bike If you do, the replaceing it with a different OEM seat will not make your butt any happier If you got some "strange" thing on your bike in place of the OEM seat, a pic would paint a thousands words

[crazy steve]

...as it's NOT a king/queen, it's a double bucket...

I've always seen the 'double bucket' style also referred to as a king/queen; that what Corbin called mine when I bought it way back when, and it could have been a twin to the Saddleman seat...

I'm not fond of that style, as they limit your movement on the bike. OK for touring two-up, but I didn't like it for solo riding. And yeah, your butt needs to fit the seat..

[cywelchjr]

I've always seen the 'double bucket' style also referred to as a king/queen; that what Corbin called mine when I bought it way back when, and it could have been a twin to the Saddleman seat...

I'm not fond of that style, as they limit your movement on the bike. OK for touring two-up, but I didn't like it for solo riding. And yeah, your butt needs to fit the seat..

All the king/queen seats I've seen have the rear section significantly higher than the front, with the "queen sitting a good bit higher than the "king". This doesn't appear to be the case with the saddlemen seat, as the two sections don't seem to be much different in height than the stock seat for a special at most. Obviously I can't speak definitively, but that's what I've seen so far.

That said, the PO asked for options, the saddlemen seat is an option, and he can go to their site and see what it looks like so he can make a decision. I'm figuring that the point is to give the options that the OP asked for.