Seat question

My 74 Roadster has been a cafe racer for decades and I've just returned it to almost stock, including the seat. The seat I used did not come with the bike when new - I received it in a trade when I first bought the bike in the late '70s. The seat, however, when fully engaged on the shock mounts, rocks forward and back so that there is almost an inch of space between the rear seat buffers and the rear fender when the seat is pushed down in front.


Everything else being stock on the bike, with no mods to frame, fenders, etc., all I can assume is that either I'm completely missing something really obvious or I have the wrong seat. Is the interstate seat significantly different from the roadster seat? Also, I'm assuming that a grab rail attachment does not affect the seat height in any way (I never had one)? I find no part numbers on the bottom of the pan but hope the description of the problem and the photos will be enough for someone to verify my suspicions about an interstate seat.





Anybody who knows if a difference in seats is the problem, I'd sure appreciate knowing.
Thanks,

You are missing a couple seat buffers, but it should not rock an inch back and forth. The base could be bent, but you should be able to tell if the edge of the pan is broken or badly bent. You definitely have a Roadster seat and not an Interstate seat. The Interstate tank is longer and the seat ears are porportionately more forward on the pan than the Roadster.

Your seat does look to me to have more of a curve to it than my roadster seat.
Really a possibility it is bent right behind the brackets.
Any chance you can find someone else with a roadster seat to compare with.
If bent may be possible to bend it back down, carefully.

The seat pan rubber bottons can be got from OldBritts.

Good oppertunity to remove 7 treat the cover with armourall or something similar ,check & rustproof edges of seat pan,
and coustom fettle the fit low and close , to the extent of the retainer bolt slot position. Seat cover clips are std. pommy auto issue, & were 10 for a penny , once . pre 70 cars . The Humber Agent ! :lol: Er , Auto Trade Supplies . 8)

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate the input. At least I can be sure it's the correct seat for the roadster. I do have new buffers for it, just didn't put them on yet before the fit problem is sorted out. I wondered about the pan being bent but, honestly, don't see any evidence that would be typical of that. It isn't as though it's had a hard life - there's only just over 8K on the clock and the seat spent most of that time in my attic. However, if it's the correct seat and it doesn't fit, being bent may be the answer. I've not found anyone local with a stocker so far to compare it - trying to do it from photos online is difficult.

Your seat is distinctly bent up just behind the centre seat mount.
A stock 850 seat is decidely flat compared to that.

Some of the 750 seats were that banana shape, could it be one of those ?
Not knowing 750 seats at all...

Hopethishelps.

Possibly Tarzan grabbed the back of it , and heaved upward .Can require finess to fit / remove .

when I bought my new roadster seat from RK Leighton for my 1970 Roadster it came with the opposite problem - not enough curve in it. I managed to cure it with a mallet - maybe that will work for you too? Just a gentle touch...

Thanks Rohan, that's the second reply saying that the seat definitely looks bent.

I don't know if this seat came from a 750 or 850 since it was a trade and I don't remember what it was from, nor if some 750s had one with its shape?

Thanks for the mallet idea - I can use the one I keep handy to keep Tarzan at bay. Actually, the "Tarzan" idea has me thinking. My natural inclination was to assume the seat would most likely be caused to bend during normal use but I never thought of it being bent by using it as a lifting lever. Could be. As someone pointed out, the seat needs refurbishing anyway.

Thanks all,