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[Lord-Toady]

Hi I fitted the Chief Seat to my 1993 Bullet 500 this afternoon. I had to drill two horizontal holes in the top bracket up near the tank as it only had a hole in the top and then bolted the springs to the bottom of the seat and then to the frame using the original bolts and bolt holes that go through the tool boxes. The seat was a bit cheaper as it was meant to have some leather defects but was fine. Just a bit out of shape which I sorted out.

I am a bit of a chubbs and if I sit back on it the seat bottoms out on the rear mud guard. I want to sit reasonably far back as have long legs. Any ideas on how to sort this maybe spacers to raise the springs from the frame or heavier duty bigger springs? I don't think I got the full kit you normally get as it was on special.

[Lord-Toady]

Looking at it I think spacers under the seat would be the way to go, I have a metal cover that came with the bike and is meant to go under there to cover the gap in the frame where the distributer sits. The metal cover can't fit because the bottom of the spring is too wide. If I had some washer type spacers maybe 20mm high and longer bolts ot match it would raise the springs up and allow the cover to fit. I am not sure what you normally get in the kit for the seat but there are two aluminium things in the picture that look like they might be spacers.

[papasmurf]

Our hosts sell a wide range of stainless steel spacers. Scroll down this page:-

http://www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/pa ... geref=9297

[Lord-Toady]

Thanks a couple of those 8mm ID 1 inch spacers should do the trick and give me a bit more seat height and spring travel before bottoming out as well as allowing the metal cover to fit. I think the one I have been given with the bike is a cheapo one as the hitchcocks plastic one is a slightly different shape to allow the width of the springs. Fitting the bolts was a struggle as they need to be fitted inside the spring but I think next time I will put the bolts in upside down from the bottom up and have the nuts inside the spring as that might be easier.

[Tim NZ]

They all do that, Sir.

[binary]

Hi Lord-Toady. How did you go with the leaking primary cover, did you find out why it was leaking. About seat springs and what can be done if you scroll down through the list of forum headings on the 3rd page you will come to a heading "C5 Classic Chrome Seat Springs", there is a lot of helpful information about fitting seats to Bullets under this heading. You need much stronger springs that those that you have before the seat will stop bottoming out on your mud guard. You may have to go for solid struts. If the seat gets too high on the motorcycle it will begin to look a bit odd. Any way look up the forum heading on page 3 and a lot of what you want to know will be there.

[Lord-Toady]

Hi Binary I have looked at that post where someone uses solid struts but I don't really like the look of that I like the springs. I am going to try the spacers as they should raise it a bit hopefully without it looking funny. Otherwise I will just live with how it is as its not too bad. I have not sorted the primary chain case yet as that will be a bit of a messy job I may just try some RTV as suggested for the time being.

[Alan R]

Hi LT....I fitted a large, single seat to a previous 500 Bullet and found that I had to wind the rear shocks up to maximum to get rid of a Double soft spring effect which gave the feeling of riding on a trampoline !!!.........most odd...

[binary]

When I bought my 1964 RE Bullet it had an English Lycett single seat and the springs were very hard indeed. They still give some ease to the posterior shall we say but the seat was square to the frame and did not touch the back mudguard. They were not bouncy as some of the modern seats are. When you corner on a bouncy seat your weight tends to swing a bit from left to right which is a bit of a surprise. The Lycett seat with its tighter springs did not do this so the original English makers of RE motorcycle had made this discovery and corrected it.

[Lord-Toady]

Hi I fitted some spacers under the seat and they allowed me to fit the metal under seat cover as well. It raises the seat up an inch and no longer bottoms out on the rear mudguard unless I really try. I used yellow zinc plated 8.9 grade bolts for the seat but may get some 10mm shorter stainless ones as they stick up a bit high. I was thinking of using the bullet bolts hitchcocks on top of the bolts but dont think I will be able to get them inside the spring easily.