Help/Second opinion ID'ing 650 seat pan

Hey All,

I am starting down the road of building up a new 'custom-stock' seat pan for my 650. In the interests of keeping at least one to ride on if I am not finished with the new one, or not happy with it, I picked up a spare seat a couple of years back, and have finally started tearing it apart, and making a flat seat from the pan. (the one I got had a sort of dual seat set up.)

Now, I am not entirely sure of the actual origin of the pan, but I was told it was off a like year/model. Ie, a '78 650 C2. To be fair it fits into the mounting pins correctly, and the seat lock drop in neat as you please as well. There are however, some fitment issues which make me wonder whether or not this is in fact the correct pan for my bike. I will let some photos make the opening arguments. To be fair, it looks almost right, and may in fact be...

Seems a little tall at the back, and the rear rubber bumper doesn't make contact with the fender support on the back. (should it?)

Alignment is not quite right:

All in all tho, the fit isn't terrible.

I figure the alignment could be dealt with easily enough by adjusting the brackets with the hinge pins bolt to, or grinding slots into them to provide some lateral movement and going from there. Presumably the locking hoop would need the same treatment, so get the whole enchilada centred over the ducktail properly. Would this be a common fitment issue on these bikes? I notice that when buying an OEM pan, it doesn't come with any hardware to mount, so presumably proper alignment was an end user problem.

It is going to be a bit of an investment in time to do the custom foam work, strip/paint the pan and either make a cover myself from leather, or have one made, and I kind of want to make sure I am on the right path from the start. I've had a look on Ebay etc.... and pans listed for the models which are all supposed to use the same pan (KZ650 B1/2/2A/C1/2/3/F1) all look pretty similar.

Just hoping someone else might be able to confirm/deny that this is not a CSR seat pan or something of the like, which isn't appropriate for my frame. I would like to be able to use my current seat pan as a frame of reference, but the PO decided to do his own customization, which involved beating the bejeezus out of it to flatten out the tail end with (I think!) the intention of getting more foam onto the seat or somesuch. I do know he had it made into a double seat to go riding two up.

Anyway, I will take more pics or measurements if that will be of any help. Thanks in advance.

I looked at a stock seat and it looks as though the shape of yours is correct, but the rear of the pan should be barely above the tail section. It looks like yours is too high in the rear vs the tail for some reason.

Yup. That is precisely what got me curious. That is a the stock ducktail, and it is mounted, tho very loosely, into it's brackets on the rear of the frame. I find it incredicly hard to believe that anything in the back end is that far out of true, or bent. Especially as the shocks/grab bars/ fender line up precisely where they should.

I also think it's funny. that the rubber bumper at the back of the seat pan (bottom) doesn't contact anything... I would normally rest on the wide flat bracket the joins the two rear frame members, but actually falls a little short. Say 1/2" or so. I can easily build that up with a rubber block to make it support the seat, but I 'd rather find out if something greater is amiss. I don't have any fabrication/welding skills, so cutting the pan, and adjusting it down that tiny amount is a little out of the question.

One thing that I wonder tho.... Is the bracket between the read frame members, (the wide flat one, which supports the rearmost seat bumper) intended to be concave? I assumed so, since the plastic inner fender is curved like that to accept it, and the curvature is pretty much too perfect to indicate it had been bent in over time (which would also probably show in incorrect frame geometry.) I may have answered my own question there, but ya never know.

Again, maybe someone who is more familiar with the CSR or later model seat pans could chime in on this one, but I am a little stumped, to be honest. Still happy to take more photos of anything which will help clarify.

Cheers!

Well, for starters, the CSR didn't come with a tail. The seat actually fit more like the D1/D2 (78-79') and went all the way to the fender... again, no tail to get in the way.

CSR...


D2...


B2, with tail...

Thanks Seymour,

Looks like a CSR seat might be a little bit long on a 'standard' 650. At the same time, it looks like there is a bunch more clearance between the rear time, and the fender on the CSR, which even without a tailpiece in between could account for the difference in height between the the two. Might be that I was sold the wrong thing, and this seat pan is for another model after all. In any case, for the moment, I will carry on, and see if I can't make something that looks nicer than what I have mounted on there right now. If nothing else it will be a practice run until I can get to the bottom of this story, and maybe find a pan that is a more perfect fit.

I will just consider it a trial run in building a better/more supportive seat. I have also been donated a pair of old (real) leather pants by a friend, so I may have a go at making my own seat cover as well. It will have to have more seams that I was hoping for, but it would at least be a completely scratch built seat. I will take a pile of photos as I go and maybe start a string on the reshaping/refoaming mini project if anyone is interested.

Cheers!
Jon