I noticed something worth a look at on my 3c seat. The front mount slot on one side of my seat was bent back and opened up, it's the thin bit on the outer edge and it was folded completely down. It bent back very easily, too easily actually. These slots on the seat base appear to be mitred and bent into a box shape. If it brakes through and falls off it weakens this a hell of a lot, so mine is getting a few tack welds to reinforce these folds. Hopefully, it doesn't catch fire. So have a look at yours and check it's not broken out or cracked and weakened at the folds.
3c seat issue
- Thread starter Vince
- Start date
martymoose
Hero member
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
I'm confused Vince, front mount is 2 slots that go on the tangs on the frame. Maybe a photo?
Dellortoman
Hero member
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia
My brother could give you some tips on 3C seat upholstery if that's of any help.
Mine has a flattened horizontal box with open ends that the flat tang passes through. This hollow box appears to be made by 7/8 cutting the mitre and folding the steel. On my seat, these mitres have cracked right through and on one side folded away from where it should be removing most of this hollow box's support. It still held ok but wouldn't last long with some tack welds. Call me clairvoyant but I can see this coming a mile away, bet my left ball this mount on my seat is not typical of 3cs. Buggar me I am getting good at this picture thing.
An improvement on Tim's seat would be a couple of hundred 30mm Gyprock screws pointing up, wouldn't surprise me if our local Iron Bum member trains with that type of seat to toughen up. BTW that seat in the Pic was done by that John Morehouse bloke Urgo Seats in Queensland with a fair bit wider and thicker high-quality foam and I always use an Air Hawk as well and it's now reasonably ok on a 600k plus day, by that I mean I am a bit less crippled than usual after a big day on the bike.
motoddrob
Hero member
- Location
- S/W Australia
Doesn't look original to me
lavgert
Hero member
- Location
- Vienna, Austria
... it could be an modified SF seat. But then the 3C frame must also be modified. Vince, more pix please!
Ciao, Gert
Ciao, Gert
It's definitely a 3c seat. I have owned this bike for more than 30 years and I vaguely have a memory of maybe adding that extra mount to get more connection when I also made my SFC replica seat for this bike. Buggar me I am getting too old to remember stuff from back then, How I actually did that after the seat was renovated and powder coated is a mystery, the seat was pretty rusty so it was repaired and powder-coated well before I made the other seat so adding that extra mount after it was powder coated as its a bit hard to weld over powder coating.
Today I made preparations to give that seat base a coat of paint to tidy it up, have a look at the pic back in the thread, it's pretty horrible. I found a can of Galmet etch primer and a can of Galmet gloss black but first, it needed a cleaning. I masked the vinyl over flap and went at it with carby clean. 5 minutes later the carby clean had removed that horrible green and yellow contact glue overspray from glueing the seat cover on from 10 years ago and shined up the original powder coating really well, so well it didn't need painting anymore.