TOPIC:

What seat are you using ?   There's no way I'd be bending the rails to fit the seat....
Is it an R1 seat ?  

You are making great progress. It is pretty exciting when it starts to look like a motorcycle again. 

I am sure your doctor has told you this, but do be careful with that injury. It is easy to get overly enthusiastic and send your recovery a giant leap backwards.

wrote:

What seat are you using ?   There's no way I'd be bending the rails to fit the seat....
Is it an R1 seat ?  

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Yes, that's the original seat. I'm not trying to make it fit. Well, in a way.  I can't remember why but my seat rail is bent just enough so that the hooks to keep the seat won't engage. I need to lower it a bit, like 1/2 inch or so. I also can't fit the grab rail because of it. Exact measurement will be taken soon.

Wish me luck.
 

wrote:

You are making great progress. It is pretty exciting when it starts to look like a motorcycle again. 

I am sure your doctor has told you this, but do be careful with that injury. It is easy to get overly enthusiastic and send your recovery a giant leap backwards.

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Yeah, went back to work because doctor felt I'm fit enough, but as each day goes by, getting worse little by little. But hey, that doesn't surprise me. It's the same doctor who misdiagnose me in the first place. I have a hairline fracture when they did a MRI scan after 2 1/2month later from my initial injury. So anybody can imagine after 2 1/2 month I had a hairline fracture, move back that same amount and I'm sure it wasn't a hairline fracture back then! And same doctor that wanted me to start my PT after 2 days of my injury. Same doctor that put me through 60 minute PT for 2 1/2 month while I had this fracture. It's the same doctor...................Well, you got the idea.

BTW, shocks look great on these motorcycle. Once again, Thanks!!
 

wrote:

wrote:

What seat are you using ?   There's no way I'd be bending the rails to fit the seat....
Is it an R1 seat ?  

---

Yes, that's the original seat. I'm not trying to make it fit. Well, in a way.  I can't remember why but my seat rail is bent just enough so that the hooks to keep the seat won't engage. I need to lower it a bit, like 1/2 inch or so. I also can't fit the grab rail because of it. Exact measurement will be taken soon.

Wish me luck.




 

Twice today I've made replies that simply didn't show up ?    

Is your frame accident damaged ?  
I wouldn't be heating and bending the frame at all and i've got access to a frame jig and laser tools to check frame dimensions, and I know how to measure everything.   If your frame is accident damaged then take it to a proper frame straightener.  I still can't work out why you'd attempt to do this. I've heavily modified my R1 750 and my seat wouldn't reach the locking mechanism so all i'm doing is putting spacers under the to catches on either side of the seat base to extend them down far enough to reach the latch. Make the seat fit, don't make the frame fit the seat.... Remember , you want the latch to fit tight.   
Are the seat rubbers sitting on the frame ?   I'm asking all these questions because I've just gone through the exact same thing, self inflicted though...

Oh, and get a new doctor, the guy sounds incompetent ....    


 

wrote:

wrote:

You are making great progress. It is pretty exciting when it starts to look like a motorcycle again. 

I am sure your doctor has told you this, but do be careful with that injury. It is easy to get overly enthusiastic and send your recovery a giant leap backwards.

---

Yeah, went back to work because doctor felt I'm fit enough, but as each day goes by, getting worse little by little. But hey, that doesn't surprise me. It's the same doctor who misdiagnose me in the first place. I have a hairline fracture when they did a MRI scan after 2 1/2month later from my initial injury. So anybody can imagine after 2 1/2 month I had a hairline fracture, move back that same amount and I'm sure it wasn't a hairline fracture back then! And same doctor that wanted me to start my PT after 2 days of my injury. Same doctor that put me through 60 minute PT for 2 1/2 month while I had this fracture. It's the same doctor...................Well, you got the idea.

BTW, shocks look great on these motorcycle. Once again, Thanks!!

 

Sometimes it becomes painfully clear why we call it practicing medicine. I hope the rest of your recovery is swift and uneventful. I am glad you like the shocks. They do look good on the bike.

R1, to tell you the truth, I don't know and can't remember why it's bent. I don't remember getting into accident. Even a slightest tap from the rear, I would remember if that's the case. But as I mentioned, it is like 1/2 inch or so at most. And living in paradise ( I don't think it's paradise BTW, but that's what everybody tells me), you need to understand that I need to cope with can't get this, can't ship that, I have to sell my Kidney to have them ship that and whole bunch more. We also don't have good machine or motorcycle shop. Or any shop for that matter. We used to, but not any more. Kinda like auto body shop. We used to have lots of places where they can weld fenders and such, but not any more. All plug and play type of repair.

And yes, I tried to change doctor but because I'm going through insurance company, not a whole lotta place want to do business with work related injuries.

wrote:

R1, to tell you the truth, I don't know and can't remember why it's bent. I don't remember getting into accident. Even a slightest tap from the rear, I would remember if that's the case. But as I mentioned, it is like 1/2 inch or so at most. And living in paradise ( I don't think it's paradise BTW, but that's what everybody tells me), you need to understand that I need to cope with can't get this, can't ship that, I have to sell my Kidney to have them ship that and whole bunch more. We also don't have good machine or motorcycle shop. Or any shop for that matter. We used to, but not any more. Kinda like auto body shop. We used to have lots of places where they can weld fenders and such, but not any more. All plug and play type of repair.

And yes, I tried to change doctor but because I'm going through insurance company, not a whole lotta place want to do business with work related injuries.

I wish I was there to help you out mate, I really doubt your frame is bent, especially where you think it is, it would take a pretty hard hit to bend it in front of the shocks , and it would be obvious to the naked eye. Go over everything you've done, remove your inner guards so you can see from the inside if the seat rubbers are sitting on the frame rails. one rubber sits on the cross member where the seat latch resides and one sits on the cross tube on the frame closer to the front of the seat, as well as one either side of the front of the seat latch. My seat latch was very hard to move which i thought a bit strange , I swapped the two brackets that hold the bar down and it worked perfectly, even though both pieces look identical, they worked better only one way. So I'm hoping its something silly rather than you bending the frame, it just makes no sense to go to that extreme, it could adversely effect handling. There are a number of ways to check frame straightness before taking drastic measures..  I'm really surprised that with a forum full of "experts" that no one else has bothered to say what I'm saying....   Take your time and check everything out thoroughly....  Ask lots of questions if you're not sure...

I have a major health issue and because of it ,I see doctors , specialists and surgeons regularly, my doctors are brilliant, I only ever had one bad one , he wasn't one I usually see, and he was useless, I told him he was lucky, if he'd treated my son with the same way he treated me { I was in hospital with a broken elbow for over 12 hours without pain meds, if you've ever broken your elbow you'll understand},  i would have  thrown him out the hospital window, I never did see him again. Bad doctors are dangerous....

Thanks for all the input and info R1 (Boy! You're killing me with all that reading!). But it looks like it's bent right after the shock mount, for lack of better word. I did mock up the seat without all that bodywork and it seems to be bent right after the reinforcement on both side.

I had this bike all apart since late 80's/ early 90's, so anything could've happened. Since then, I moved like five or six times, some with mover and some just the friends. I don't remember putting anything heavy but I could have. I don't remember putting the frame upside down, but just as same, just don't remember.

Anyway, I don't plan to do anything wild with the frame. Just heat it enough to bent it back. As before, 1/2 inch at most (about 1 cm). That should give me enough to hook the seat.

If you like, I'll take some pics of that section of the frame on my bike, I have modified the very rear of my frame to take a different tail light but the section you are concerned about is all as it should be. Won't be able to do it till Friday {Aus time} , Thursday for you...

sorry for the delay, I only get to my bike a couple of times a week and I forgot my camera...   

 

Aloha guys. Today was supposed to rain because of the tropical storm near by, but it didn't happened. But because of the forecast, couldn't and didn't do anything major. Instead, did some small stuff, like this fuel tap. The tap was already blasted using 120 grit Alum. Oxide, but the cover plate did developed light surface rust and didn't like the dull look, so decided to polish it using regular metal polish. I wish I could polish it a little more to get the shine, but the sanding did some damage as wording started to disappeared. So stopped there and called it a day. Nothing much to see, but figure I'll post some pictures so whoever want to tackle this, you can use this as reference.

Should've took some picture before the blasting. But this one was done just to remove the surface rust it developed. After this, sanding using wet paper 180,then 240 and finished with 320. would've like to go to either 380 or 400, but the wording started to disappeared.

After polishing. I'm pretty sure you can use any metal polish. I used the one that came in the tube.

This is what it look like on the tap. I'm still debating what should I do with rest of the tap. Leave it as is or paint it silver.

I'm hoping to work on the chassis soon, or at least put the engine back in the frame soon. We'll see. I need good weather.