[TomP]

Here we go - another project and more $$$

So, I have been thinking about this issue as well. I used to be 5'9.5". But now, after two major low back surgeries and cervical problems as well, I'm now probably something like 5'8"-5'8.5". Luckily, my inseams stayed the same at 30".

I don't have a real problem. If I'm forward on the seat my heels are just a hair off the ground. The only time this becomes an issue is when I get a little to far off vertical when I'm in the garage or parking or something like that. It would be nice to have a little more leverage in those circumstances.

I started thinking about options mainly because my wife has been complaining that her butt bones get sore after only 40 miles or so. I also want to get one of the Utopia driver backrests and I want to make sure I've analyzed the whole setup properly and that I get it right the first time.

I've taken a look at the Saddleman gel pads online and I actually saw one in person at my dealer yesterday. Those gel pads are only about an inch thick. They are expensive and I wouldn't want add-on pads anyway., but the gel idea is interesting. I think having a professional cut, replace, or reshape the foam is the way to go.

I'm wondering whether you get more comfort bang for the buck out of gel material thickness than you do out of whatever type of foam is used in the stock seat. The stock seat feels something like memory foam to me. So, it would make sense to replace the foam if you can lower the seat height by an inch and keep the same level of comfort. At the same time, more padding could be added for the passenger.

As Kook mentions, narrowing the seat by removing foam at the sides would basically make your legs longer. I thought of this too, but I'm wondering if it would be easier to burn your legs on the exhaust that way.

 

[TomP]

Mean City Cycles

Guys - I've been corresponding back and forth with Allen at Mean City Cycles. He has never done a CTX1300 seat so, without a seat in hand, he has no idea how he can improve upon the stock seat.

Interestingly, he installs the Utopia backrest and he recommends it as the best on the market. He only charges $25 to install it over the $225 price to purchase the backrest. This has me thinking that I don't mind being the ginea pig on the seat mods since I want the Utopia anyway. My main extra cost will be shipping.

If I send him my seat for the Utopia install, he can then determine what other mods can be done. I would just get it ready and send it today, but if you've read my post in the "jerky throttle" thread, you'll know my dealer will be installing new throttle cables for me since I screwed them up. I'm not sure about all the timing of these two jobs. Obviously, I need my seat to drive to the dealer for the throttle cable job. I'll keep you all posted.

 

[TomP]

OK - to avoid confusion please note that I am copying and pasting this post in both the "inseam challenged" thread and also the "jerky throttle" thread. First to Bob - pics are an excellent idea to send to Allen. I'll do one of how I ride and one of how I move forward when I'm stopped; also one from behind. Here goes the update for both threads:

I have an update about my cable replacement. The dealer that gave me the $78 labor estimate is in Homosassa (Love Motorsports). They are my closest dealer.

I knew that $78 couldn't be correct so I decided to call the Champion Honda dealer in Orlando just to see what they said. They told me 4 hours @ $98 per plus about $60 for the cables.

I've been studying my service manual and I think I could probably do it myself but I don't need that stress and I also don't know how to terminate the cables if they come longer than necessary (i.e. adding ferrules or crimping cables, etc.) - safety first = peace of mind.

After that I decided to call the dealer in Homosassa to tell them I thought they were making a mistake. They appreciated my honesty and, in the end, they gave me a FIRM quote of $276 including parts and labor. I think this is very fair and hopefully I'll have a throttle I can trust - safety first.

So, the cables will be here in another day or two and they promised to fit me in pronto. After that is done, I'm going to send my seat up to Allen at Mean City Cycles (see the "inseam challenged" thread). He'll install the Utopia backrest for me for $25 and when he has my seat in hand, he'll also be able to determine what other mods are possible for us inseam challenged riders.

 

[TomP]

Seat update: My seat is sheduled for surgery on My 20th at Mean City Cycles. It will be interesting to see what they can and cannot do. Also, the idea of lowering the bike has come across my radar a few times recently. Juan posted earlier here that he has successfully lowered his bike by about .75". I was at my local dealer yesterday and I was telling a salesman that I was having the seat modified to get my feet more on the ground. He said "why don't you just lower it?". I told him there is less clearance under the rear fender sides than appears at first glance. He took a close look at the one they have it stock and he thinks an inch could easily be had by using shorter shocks and the front fork would be no problem to lower. What do you guys think about the idea of lowering the bike (ignoring the warranty issue)?

And, here is a cheap helper. I found some insoles on ebay for my shoes that provide about a .5" lift - quite helpful and comfortable.

 

[TomP]

Tom,

You can easily lower the front end about 3/4" by loosening the clamp bolts on the triple trees and letting the shocks stick up 3/4" more than they do stock. That will help you a little until you can get shorter rear shocks, if that is what you would like to do. I have a set of Stock VTX shocks that you can chop up if you want to try that. People used to chop the spring on them all the time. You can go to the VTXCafe.com and search for shortening shocks or something like that and you will probably find a dozen people telling you how to do it with pics and vids, no less. Let me know if you want my shocks. They are in great shape. If you find you like the shorter shocks you can get some new ones from Progressive that are much better shocks and you can get whatever length you want. An inch shorter shocks will make you almost an inch closer to the ground since you sit promaril over the rear shocks. If you lower the front end also, you will get a full inch or more. Of course, if you are an aggressive rider, you will be scraping the footpegs all the time. Progressive makes shocks in 1/2" increments, so think hard about the stopped ride height advantage vs. the rideability with the lowered suspension. For sure, wait until you get your new seat before you try any of this.

Hey Kook - thank you for the very generous offer re the VTX shocks. I'll do some research to see if I'm up to the task and let you know. I've never replaced shocks on anything myself. If you read my post on my centerstand installation you'll see that I don't get along well with heavy springs under tension. Question - does the center stand support the frame and swingarm enough or is some sort of hoist required to change out the rear shocks? Of course, I'll wait for the seat to see how that goes.

I guess I am not an aggressive driver because I've never scraped with this bike although there have been many times that I was surprised that I didn't. An eon ago, however, I owned a big Harley that scraped frequently. I can say definitively that this is not a feature I find desirable in a bike. I'm well beyond the stage where I need to brag about scraping around every turn. It looks to me, however, like I'd be ok with the ctx lowered an inch. I'll have to really think about the trade-off. Oops, gotta go; my wife is waiting for me impatiently.

Later

 

[TomP]

That is exactly how I pictured doing it! I have not yet done my research on the vtx café, but I did suffer sticker shock when browsing shock prices. This along with Juan's success makes me think I'll take you up on your offer and cut down the vtx shocks. I can drive or ride up to get them or meet you somewhere or I can send you the shipping cost. Just PM me with your preference.


I would certainly not install them until I can give everybody a full report on the results of the seat mods at Mean City Cycles. My seat shipped out today. I'm trying to be optimistic about the seat mod, but we'll see how that goes.

 

[TomP]

We could both ride towards some middle point. I can do it any day you like.

Sounds great - of course I am seatless for a while. I'll keep you posted.

 

[TomP]

Hey guys - I got my seat back from Allen at Mean City Cycles. He is very professional and honest. He replaced the driver's seat foam with memory foam but he was only able to get me a 1/2 inch lower by cutting down the actual sitting area. There just wasn't a lot to work with. However, he was able to shave foam off the sides of the seat that keeps your legs apart unnecessarily. This part of the project gets the feet closer to the ground too. So, bottom line is that I installed the seat late yesterday and my feet are fully on the ground when I wear the shoes with the 1/2" lift. They are on the fully on the ground but not firmly as I have to stretch a bit to do it.

I also need to get a 100 miles or so on the bike to get the memory foam broken in. This should get me lower a little closer to the ground too and provide the final overall result of seat mod. I'll post this result and pics as soon as I can. My sense at thiis point is that yes, the seat mod helps, but we need will a multi-pronged approach to get it right, including the right shoes and maybe shorter schocks as well.

I should also note that Allen cut small channels in the rear of both the driver and the passenger seat to relieve pressure on our tail bones.

I'll post again in a couple days when I get the foam broken in.

 

[TomP]

Hey guys - sorry I didn't post sooner. I got my seat back from Mean City Cycles last Wednesday. I was waiting to post until I could get some pics, but I'll just give you the results in text and add pics later.


The first thing is to say that Allen and the other people at Mean City are the best. They are highly professional and they do what they say they are going to do.


I posted last week that Allen told me he could shave only 1/2" off the top of the seat, but that he could also reshape the sides of the seat which would, effectively, accomplish the same goal. Whatever he did, it turned out much better than I was expecting. I took measurements of how far my heels were off the ground both before and after the seat mod. My practice has been to ride the bike with my butt fully back against the built-in backrest and then slide forward when stopped to get my feet more planted on the ground. I took measurements for both positions.


I was able to take a 95 mile ride on Friday to get the memory foam broken in before I took the "after" measurements. Before the seat mod, my heels were 3" off the ground in the riding position and 1.5" off the ground in the forward position. Now, after the mod, my heels are 1" off the ground in the riding position and my feet are fully on the ground in the forward position. So, the net effect of the seat mod was 2" of lowering. HUGE IMPROVEMENT!


However, I am never satisfied with anything, so I am still considering both lowering the front and possibly changing the rear shocks. I'm wondering whether the bike would feel out of level if I just lowered the front by about .75" and what effect this would have on the seat height. Anybody done this?? If Kook is reading this, I'm still considering the shock offer. I'll ride it this way for a week and then get back to you.

 

[TomP]

Finally got around to posting a couple pictures. The first is the factory seat and the second is the seat after completion of the seat mod. These pics can be found in the Gallery under my name TomP.

 

[TomP]

I want to tell you that the vtx shocks don't hold the CTX weight,they becomes a junk in less than 1000 miles and also can touch the saddlebag bracket bolt with the rear brake caliper if you have a passenger.I think a better option is to send the stocks shocks to a qualified tech to cut them.

Thanks for the info Juan. My current plan is to stick with the stock shocks. Since my back surgery in late Feb, I have been riding more and more aggressively and I now find that I am scraping pegs at angles that I don't think are all that severe. I never thought I would scrape with this bike, but oh well...


I have been speaking with Mr Kookopelli via PM regarding the vtx shocks he was going to give me. By the time I decided to try cutting down the vtx shocks, he had already decided to have his vtx shocks cut professionally and try them. He found a guy in Milton, FL that would do the pair for $85. If he likes the length of the modified vtx shocks, he plans to buy new shocks ordered to length. I'll PM him a copy of your post to make sure he sees it.


Tom

 

[TomP]

Thanks for the info Juan. My current plan is to stick with the stock shocks. Since my back surgery in late Feb, I have been riding more and more aggressively and I now find that I am scraping pegs at angles that I don't think are all that severe. I never thought I would scrape with this bike, but oh well...


I have been speaking with Mr Kookopelli via PM regarding the vtx shocks he was going to give me. By the time I decided to try cutting down the vtx shocks, he had already decided to have his vtx shocks cut professionally and try them. He found a guy in Milton, FL that would do the pair for $85. If he likes the length of the modified vtx shocks, he plans to buy new shocks ordered to length. I'll PM him a copy of your post to make sure he sees it.


Tom

Hey guys - it's been a while but I've changed out my rear shocks and I thought I'd post an update. I've been PM'ing back and forth with Kookopelli about the rear shocks. He's been running the 11" VTX shocks with good results, but I'll let him give you that info. I think he's going to go to Progressives and I didn't want to spend that much so he referred me to MB Shocks (shortshocks.com). A great guy named Mike (who I highly recommend) runs the place and I turned out to be his CTX1300 guinea pig.

I have about 400 miles on the 11" MB shocks and I'm very happy. The shocks are 5-position adjustable gas shocks and I've been riding at the softest setting with no problems and with my feet pretty firmly on the ground. The softest setting on these shocks feels about the same to me as the second setting on the stock shocks.

My preset on the MB's at the low setting is 180 lbs and would be about 210 lbs at the second setting. I weigh in at 210 lbs. I scrape just a tad more on the same turns that I did before - no big deal. And, consider that I was riding the stock shocks at the second softest setting. Mike can set the shocks up any way you like.

I am right now agonizing over whether I should go ahead and change these out for 10.5" shocks. I think I could actually get away with this in terms of my own riding style (very subjective decision). Unfortunately, I did not make a careful measurement as to how much the change from 12" to 11" shocks lowered the bike.

The shocks can be had in chrome and black or plain black. I choose the chrome and black because they are so close to the mufflers. Here's a pic: