Revisiting the Seat of Doom Project on a LIKE200i

[Stig / Major Tom]

Purchased new in the spring of 2013, I found my 2012 LIKE200iLX to be a great scooter - with one painful issue which actually began to limit my saddle time to @20mins.

Lovely stock seat on the LX (must be Australian model....?)



The stock seat was a kilter to my tail-bone area every time I rode. The under-foam seat pan had a ridge in the middle. No problem for Asian sized riders sitting on the front half of the seat. Not working for my 6'3" frame.





Some LIKE owners sent out their seat to shops to have this dealt with. And a few came back with some really handsome seats! Some said they just sat on the rear of the seat....and leaned.

I found a LIKE 50cc seat on eBay (@$35?) and set upon it with pliers & a screwdriver. If this doesn't work - I still have my nice stock seat, unmolested.

I then shopped for:
 proper 'seating foams' - rather than waste my time with other foams which are not actually made to be sat upon. I found I needed a firm foam, "rebond", for the front and rear and a softer foam in the middle)
 "Sailrite 4-Way Stretch Vinyl"
A staple gun & stainless steel staples
 correct spray glue
a sharp bread knife
electric sander


.........keeping small animals and children away for 2 full days - I finished. Along the way I covered the foam with plastic and test-rode the scooter many times to see if my pad was thick enough to hide the seat-pan ridge - and to check comfort when braking, rolling rump side-to-side, etc., etc.

When the seat felt good, thick, wide, long enough - I covered it. Here a shop could have done a much better job. Any street in Taiwan could have done a beautiful job! But I'm in Hooterville, Ohio.

It ain't pretty - but I haven't thought about that horrible plastic ridge in years.



The pretty, stock, seat is safely stored in a bag indoors.....along with the blue top-case

Stig
 

[Iahawk]

wow, that's impressive work on that seat to make it fit you more comfortably. Looking at your 'after' pic and then the 'before' pic I can see how much higher you have made the seat!

As someone who is sized the same as the Kymco home market audience, cough, cough, I do sit on the front half of the seat. It looks like Kymco used a similar seat on many of their models (Like, People and even the B&W I just looked up).

So it now looks you pilot your scoot from the passenger seat? And about 4 inches higher?

I wonder what your seat height is? Similar to a big, full sized ADV motorcycle? 

It's good that you kept the original seat so it can be made OEM in about 5 minutes.  I don't recall you making any adjustments to the seat on your Lilberty?

[Stig / Major Tom]

wow, that's impressive work on that seat to make it fit you more comfortably. Looking at your 'after' pic and then the 'before' pic I can see how much higher you have made the seat!

As someone who is sized the same as the Kymco home market audience, cough, cough, I do sit on the front half of the seat. It looks like Kymco used a similar seat on many of their models (Like, People and even the B&W I just looked up).

So it now looks you pilot your scoot from the passenger seat? And about 4 inches higher?

I wonder what your seat height is? Similar to a big, full sized ADV motorcycle? 

It's good that you kept the original seat so it can be made OEM in about 5 minutes.  I don't recall you making any adjustments to the seat on your Lilberty?

Yeah - decided if I'm going to do this - I'm not stopping until that ridge disappears under there - no matter how high I have to go.

Actually, I sit dead over that nasty ridge in the middle of the seat pan. Can't feel it in the slightest.
When compressed by a handsome rider my seat is very comfy - made it wider, too. At 6'3"+ I can flat-foot both feets (one each) at a stop Nice and level - not tilted like so many. No, it's not as tall as an adventure bike like my son's CB500X.

The stiffer foam on the front knob keeps me in place on hard braking, another bit of stiff foam at the rear feels like a comfy butt stop if I scoot back. No room for a passenger larger than a fat squirrel.

I sat the seat on the Liberty while it was still strapped to the Vietnamese shipping skid (made from US Army bunker flooring/ammo crates?) Seat is long and smoother. I can sit wherever I like. Just one more thing i love about the scooter. A shame so many scooters come with massive lumps in the middle. The old flat motorcycle seats were the best! (wife and I could snuggle just fine to stay warm on N. England mornings)

Stig