Thinner seat ?

Has anyone modified their stock seat pan on their KZ1000 to help with feet placement ?

On my 77' KZ1000A it's still a little struggle to touch the ground well when sitting on the bike. With my height of 5' 4" my rear shocks are 12" in length ( eye to eye ) and the fork tubes have been raised an inch in the triple mounts. The seat that's on the bike has was re-upholstered and is rounded on the sides but I still only touch with the balls of my boots when straddling the bike.

I have a spare seat pan that I mounted the other night and kind of thought if the pan was narrower and not as wide in the seating area, your legs wouldn't be as spread out and therefore enable you reaching the ground a little better. The left side of the pan could be modified ( narrowed ) but the right side couldn't due to the hinge mounts on the frame and pan. So maybe this would not be a good idea as would pose a problem in upholstering it ?

So to my original Subject question, anyone use a thinner seat or have something in mind that would work ?

Perhaps of interest with regard to further lowering the bike ---

Click here > www.kzrider.com/forum/5-chassis/606427-l...ing-front-end#765999

Good Fortune!

You could try cutting down the seat foam, think Eddie Lawson style. looks cool and is a period modification too.

Reshape foam with bread knife and grinder with coarse sanding disc then recover with vinyl , stretch it tight when it has been heated and glue the scooped bit for a skin tight look. Do it yourself, any pro trimmer will screw it up guaranteed.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationAlready made:

That's the kind I bought in 13. Hard as a rock.
Steve

Tyrell Corp wrote: You could try cutting down the seat foam, think Eddie Lawson style. looks cool and is a period modification too.

Reshape foam with bread knife and grinder with coarse sanding disc then recover with vinyl , stretch it tight when it has been heated and glue the scooped bit for a skin tight look.

Mr. Corp's thoughts are in line with my own, but I wanted to add a few things.

The bread knife will work. An electric carving knife will work too, but may remove material more quickly than you would like. If this is your first one you should stick to a manual knife - just be sure it is serrated. A traditional smooth-edged knife will not work nearly as well; you need the saw-like edge to cut the foam effectively.

The width of the pan is likely not the problem: it's the width of the foam. If the foam at the front of the saddle is too wide and/or too square it will prevent you from putting your legs straight down (or as straight as they will get while on the bike), causing issues when stopped. I have seen people carve the front of the foam into a rounded inverted V shape (or a parabola): this allows your legs to be almost perpendicular with the ground when stopped. Think of how a bicycle seat is shaped: very narrow front and a larger backside area.

This presupposes you can slide to the front of the saddle when you stop and that you normally sit back a little bit when riding. There is no point in carving your normal seating area into an inverted V as that will introduce other comfort issues. :S