'78 KZ1000 Ugly Duckling

Hi Wookie,

I've drilled a little hole in the wheel and epoxied the magnet in there:

 

To every question there is an answer, that'll work 

Did that require rebalancing the wheel?  I would think so...

It's an itty bitty magnet and, based on what I've read, has a mass very similar to the aluminum it's replacing. If rebalancing is called for, of course, I'll do that. We'll see...

I haven't tried to sew anything since I took a required semester of home ec in 7th grade (some 38 years ago, right when the US education system decided it might be a good idea to teach boys how to feed themselves and teach girls which end of a hammer to grab), so I've been a little reluctant to try upholstery. However, I got a killer deal on a big leather hide, and I've got this beauty languishing at the shop:

 

So I figured it was time. I found this video invaluable:



I raided my kitchen and used parchment paper to make patterns that I stuck to the back of the leather with 3M spray adhesive:



 

And I used the same adhesive to stick 1/2" fabric backed foam to the back of the seat top sections, then sewed pleats across them:

 

Then it was just a lot of sewing. It was what I've heard called "type two fun," the kind of fun that's more or less indistinguishable from suffering. Here's where I'm at so far:

 

I tried stapling it onto the seat pan—no go. I made the pan from fiberglass and epoxy, and the staples wrinkled up without penetrating at all. I think I'll stick it on with 2-part epoxy and a few tiny self-tapping screws.

The seam at the top of the bump stop wound up off centered. I tried to make up for that by piling up a bunch of top stitching, but that just made it look stupider. It occurred to me my neice does computer aided embroidery for a living, so I think I might get a custom Kawasaki patch to stitch on there.

I''ve got a bunch of leather left over and I'm feeling relatively confident, so maybe I'll make my wife a skirt that matches the seat and see if I can talk her into a cheesecake photo session once the machine is finished.

Nothing cooler than something you made yourself. Looks very comfy. 

Nice work Buzz

Give credit where it is due...nice job.  Making a seat cover is something I would never venture in to.  I know my limitations and sewing is definitely one of them.  It may not be perfect, but you made it with your own hands!  

Rick H.

Thanks for your kind words. It is definitely imperfect enough that I'll be making a new one at some point, but good enough that I will be making it armed with what I learned from this one, Rather than having somebody who knows what they're doing make it.



 

You might be able to steam some of those wrinkles out.

I kept thinking about everything I didn't like about the seat I made (henceforth "the prototype") and realized that all its issues stemmed from me making simple stuff complicated. Stuff I did wrong:

-Made a full pocket for the bump stop. This meant I couldn't pull the material taut.
-Made it out of waaay more pieces than necessary, which meant I had to figure out lots of seams, plus multiplied my chances of screwing up. On the new version, I only used 4 pieces of leather.
-Glued patterns to the backs of all the pieces. This meant I had all that paper to deal with, and also the glue made everything want to wrinkle and pleat. On the new one, the only glue I used (3M 77 spray) was to stick the foam on the back of the seat top.
-Figured out a stitch length that looked cool for the pleats and then stuck with that. This resulted in pretty weak seams. On the new one, I lowered the stitch length after I did the pleats, plus I did double hems.
-Went to lots of trouble to measure out 1/2" hem margins on everything. This time around, I just drew the seat top and bump stop on the foam with Sharpie and cut it out 1/2" outside of that. Somehow it didn't occur to me yesterday that A: the hem margins don't have to be super exact, and B: I know damn well what a half inch looks like. Once I had done that, it was just a matter of sewing a 3" wide strip of leather onto the seat top and another onto the bump stop, leaving 3" X 3" tails on all 4 ends. Sew the resulting 2 pieces together, and Bob's your uncle.

It still ain't perfect, but I won't be embarassed to put this on my bike:


 

Nice. That was really quick turn around.