How to fit the seat of a Production Racer

Originally, Norton advised in the fitting instructions for the Commando Production Racer to use a Dzus bracket and plunger.
Not the best solution I'm afraid. Unless you don't care the seat looks like this after a while :






The previous owner of my Prody told me in the old days they used to ride the bike without any fixation at all, and so I tried this myself. The roads must have been much better "in the old days" as I felt the seat jumping up under me from time to time. What's more, when parking my bike somewhere out of sight, I always wondered if the seat would have been disappeared ... So I wanted to fix it, but not as on the photo above.

The seat of my Buell S1 Lightning gave me an idea :



Erik Buell copied Norton's Isolastic suspension for his bikes, so why not copying the S1 seat fixation for the Norton ?

I even used a part of the plastic obsolete S1 rear fender (broken by the vibrations after only a few Km when new). The most difficult part was how to define the position of all matching holes ...




Screw through the fender:








... and the seat is fixed now invisibly from the top :

I think these break because there's not enough give. There should be a rubber washer on that fastener at the very least.



Here's what I was thinking (especially since I don't have a S1 fender laying around) if you let the bracket flex it should still locate the back of the seat, use the existing holes in the fender it might work.

A rubber mount would certainly be an improvement but I prefer to avoid making holes in polyester parts - whenever possible.
I indeed recycled a part of my old Buell fender but any other construction will do the job as well. Lining up everything is
the only PITA as it is hard to measure when the seat is in place. (but this shouldn't be a problem for you Dave :wink: )

Paul said:

A rubber mount would certainly be an improvement but I prefer to avoid making holes in polyester parts - whenever possible.
I indeed recycled a part of my old Buell fender but any other construction will do the job as well. Lining up everything is
the only PITA as it is hard to measure when the seat is in place. (but this shouldn't be a problem for you Dave :wink: )

Click to expand...

I'm not saying you didn't have a brilliant solution. The other idea I had was to make a bracket that afflicted approximately where you put yours and then go down to the upper shock mounts (only to the inside). Not sure if they will give me the angles I need.

In the meantime I posted a wanted ad in the local Craigslist for the Buell parts, maybe I'll luck out.

No luck finding Buell parts. So it was off to Metal Supermarket for some .090 aluminum sheet.


Cardboard Mockup


I had an extra side cover Dzus. I got the spring from a local vintage aircraft place.


From below.


All finished.

Thanks Paul for the brilliant solution!

You're welcome and I like that Dzus fastener. Best of both worlds: a combination of the Buell and the Norton solution ...

Gentlemen,

I am not quite sure I understand what you've done. You have completely removed the Deuz flastener and bracket, installed a 90 degree bend bracket to the "back"-rest of the seat then drilled another hole in the fender in order to run a longer fastener in order to secure to bracket? If so how do you secure the fastener to the seat in order to maintain the quick disconnect the Deuz offers?

CDubb said:

Gentlemen,

I am not quite sure I understand what you've done. You have completely removed the Deuz flastener and bracket, installed a 90 degree bend bracket to the "back"-rest of the seat then drilled another hole in the fender in order to run a longer fastener in order to secure to bracket? If so how do you secure the fastener to the seat in order to maintain the quick disconnect the Deuz offers?

Click to expand...

I know it doesn't make sense but all I can say is look at my pictures some more. What you can't see in the picture is the Dzus spring on the other side of the bracket. When you get closer to mounting your seat let me know and I'll take some more pictures.

I'm wondering, with this modification/improvement, if I need the rear bracket (063942) which comes with Dzus and Spring. As place an order with it as well as some of the spacers (063539).

CDubb said:

I'm wondering, with this modification/improvement, if I need the rear bracket (063942) which comes with Dzus and Spring. As place an order with it as well as some of the spacers (063539).

Click to expand...

As you can see in the one picture using the "stock" configuration usually cracks the seat.

Do you have a source for the Dzus spring? I got one from a vintage aircraft place that's not too far away. Of course they are available online. But also from Norton: 13-061676

I used an extra side cover Dzus I had 13-061676 and a bunch of tank rubber mounts 060648. Plus some fender washers to space it just so.

I am not sure if that answers my question. I placed an oder for the parts mentioned in my previous post. If I don't need them then I would like to call Norvil and cancel them before he sends them out. That will save me return shipping fees and what ever else I get shafted on.

I do realize that the paint will crack with time which is why I am interested in this modification. Things are not all that clear to me yet, as you said.. I'll see it when I start to install the seat.

If you make a similar bracket as descibed above, you don't need those parts CDubb.

The stock mount could work. Just figure out how to get some rubber in there to dampen the vibrations.