Cafe Seat Replacement w/o welding

Cafe & Bobber Seat Replacement; The Easy Way

Many of us enjoy restoring/rebuilding old bikes. Anyone who's done this knows how quickly parts and fabrication services add up. One of the most common and most vehicle altering modification you can make to a cafe build is replacing the seat and SeatPan. Because not everyone has the equipment, experience and know-how to do welding and metal fabrication themselves, a lot of us have to pay a few hundred dollars for the traditional tail-chop/seat hoop job that a new seat/SeatPan necessitates. Here is a simple way to replace your boring stock seat and give your bike that "cafe" look that seems to be popular with the kids these days, without any welding or fab work.

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Modifying the existing seat.
Many bikes from the 1960's and 70's have really big and thick seats. In addition to that, I've seen very few original stock seats in which the leather doesn't appear old, dehydrated and cracked. So the first step is taking a blade and removing the existing seat cover, exposing the foam and padding underneath. You will be using the existing stock SeatPan so the seat will always 100% fit and mount to your bike perfectly. Seats can be cut shorter so long as the mounting points still exist on the SeatPan. (At least a few).

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If you're content with the shape of the seat and state of the foam, you can simply rewrap your seat with a new piece of leather. All you need is an industrial stapler and many fabric stores carry leather rolls sold by the foot, typically in an array of colors. Reshaping or replacing the foam allows you to shave down the tall stock seat, taking advantage of its thickness, you can basically make whatever shape or style of seat you want. For my recent build I made the seat shorter in the front 2/3's, and left a little hump on the back for a passenger as well as the look of it in the rear 1/3.

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While stapling is sufficient, reupholstering will always look much cleaner and more professional. A simple stitched pattern goes a long way. I went with horizontal lines that run parallel to each other up the seat, and two lines on the hump in back. Once the seat is reshaped and covered, simply reinstall the bottom to the existing stock attachments and you're done. I brought my seat to a professional upholsterer and paid 100$ to have it wrapped but you can do it yourself to save money if you want.

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Just to be clear, the bike is 90% done but needs paint and a fender chop. Also the seat is just sitting on the bike in the photos, not mounted. I'll post photos when complete

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Next time I'll explain how to make a single passenger seat with a hard cafe race hump at the back of the seat, all from the existing stock SeatPan and it looks just as professional as the seat from today's article.