Customize Your Touring Seat

Customize Your Touring Seat (pg. 1 of 7)
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My rear end deserves some love and so does yours! I’ve had my share of hard as a board seats! No fidgeting around all day for me! I’ve made an investment in a touring seat made by Mustang Seats and absolutely love it. However, I really want to make a couple of changes that will make it just perfect. Customizing your seat is something that you can do yourself. Motocross, Touring, Crotch Rocket Sports bikes to Enduro bikes, they all can benefit from customizing it to suit your need. Those other bike types require less shaping than a plush touring seat, but follow these steps for the ultimate customization for your bike.

We used the Mustang Touring Seat for our 17-day ride in June. Just off the shelf, it was like heaven.

Check out my long-term review of the Mustang Regal Touring Seat. It got 5 trophies! It’s amazing on my Harley Road King and is the most comfortable long distance touring seat that I’ve ever used. However, Mustang designs the seat to fit the average person and the typically built bike. I’m 5′ 8″, 170 lbs. 29″ inseam, love interstate as well as spirited mountain roads and ride mostly solo but also do two-up regularly. I like to feel stable around corners, comfortable on the highway for long distances. The Regal is extremely comfortable. But aside from comfort, there are a couple of areas that could be better.

The Mustang seat is 1″ higher than my stock seat, and about ½ inch farther forward. I like the forward seating, but the higher perch feels less performance oriented. Handling is a little bit sluggish feeling. I can’t blame Mustang for this because my Harley is a custom CVO model, and comes delivered with a 1″ lower than stock seat. At 29″, my inseam is on the shorter side. But, I love the Mustang Touring seat so much that I decided to take the time to customize it for my fit.

My personal likes: I like the feeling of sitting ‘in’ the bike rather than ‘on top’ of the bike. I also need a little better reach to the ground while stopped. So here’s my plan. I’ll lower the rider portion of the seat by 5/8″ and narrow the front edges where my legs drop down while straddling the bike. To do this, I’ll lower the rider seat pan where I typically sit and shape the sides where my legs drop while stopped. This will retain the rear seat edge that my lower back loves as well as the bucket platform that is so supple and provides an excellent weight cradle for distributed pressure support. The following 7 steps show how I customized my seat for that perfect fit. I strongly recommend doing this, but only if you feel comfortable… pun intended.

Ride Review:
250 miles test ride. My test ride went through interstate, coastal curvy roads and mountain passes. Absolutely perfect! I now comfortably touch the ground with legs comfortably at the sides of the bike, long distance riding is just as comfortable the original Mustang seat, and handling on corners is greatly improved and even much better than the stock seat. I whole-heartedly recommend customized seats and this is a way to do it with a little time and a few hand tools.

Step by Step to customize your motorcycle seat
I’ve modified my Moto seats in the past. It’s not that difficult to do but requires some patience, a few power tools and a good day set aside for the job. Once you do this, you’ll agree that the benefits are well worth the effort. The folks at Mustang Seats were very helpful and the service tech sent a kit with replacement buttons and rivets so my assembly will be professional. After the parts arrive in the mail, I dig in, literally and shape and lower my seat for touring bliss.

Tools that you’ll need:

Scissors
Sharp single edge blade
12 inch small gauge wire (for button installation)
Electric grinder with beveled edge (face mask, eye protection)
Rivet gun
Hand drill with small bit (9/64 inch holes for 1/8 inch rivets)
Measuring tape

7 Steps:

Plan your customization
Gather tools and order parts
Seat removal and disassembly
Foam shaping
Fitting
Assemble seat buttons, foam and cover
Install seat and ride

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Step 1 – Plan your customization

This is the most important step. Decide the changes that you wish to make. Remember, this is a permanent change so make sure that you are making changes that you are going to like for the long run. Be careful if there are thin areas of foam that cannot be lowered very much or thin areas near the edges. You’ll want to make sure to leave enough padding where needed and that your seat cover will mold smoothly after altered. For this customization, I am not going to change or alter the cover.

I try to retain as much of the original shaping as possible. There is a reason why Mustang Seats are one of the best. Try to keep as much of their expertise in the seat as you can. With my seat, for example, I kept the top cradle shape, retained the side edge supports, and the general platform contours.

I plan to make two major changes.

Lower the seat height 5/8″ for rider by removing from the bottom of the foam, not the top
Narrow the middle to front sides for easier standing reach.

If I am careful, I’ll have a more comfortable experience while straddling the bike while retaining the legendary seat comfort and lower back support.

Step 2 – Gather tools and order parts

Does the seat cover have buttons, use rivets to secure to the seat pan, what size are they? Will I need new buttons, thread or other replacement parts? A quick call to the manufacturer can be very helpful. The folks at Mustang Seats are top notch. I was connected to the tech that actually builds and customizes their seats. He answered all my questions and added some helpful advice. He also sent a bag with the necessary rivets and pre-threaded buttons that I am going to need for professional reassembly. First of all, I don’t work for Mustang Seats, but I give kudos to them for the amount of care and service they provided me! What a top-notch company and just another reason to choose Mustang Seats! Take the seat off the bike and take a good look to determine if you’ll need any special tools for disassembly and reassembly. You can customize any seat that you have, simply follow the steps.

Air Rivet Gun, Rivets, Buttons, Grinder, Face Mask

Rivets and Buttons courtesy of Mustang Seats.