Honda Blocking Saisei from stocking seats /covers

[AshimotoK0]

To most people your seat and mine would be spot on OK but to the more discerning among us the cover/profile isn't quite right. I suspect your cover is the same as mine from Moretti in Newent 'BobTheSeat on eBay. It's also the same cover that DSS sells. I asked and paid Bob to put more padding in the quilting in mine to try to better replicate the original but it's still not right. Not blaming Bob though, he did his best but I  suspect Yamiya have access to the original patterns/materials. The 'crinkles' look OK to me Bitsa. KP told me he has seen a Yamiya wrinkle K0 repro  tank and the wrinkles are almost perfect copy of the original so I suspect, once again, they have access to the original tooling for this too and also the double-cut fender.

Cheers ... Ash

[Spitfire]

Here's photo of my first CB750, the seat is quite wrinkly and the bike did not have many miles on it.

[JamesH]

Here's photo of my first CB750, the seat is quite wrinkly and the bike did not have many miles on it.

Wow bet you wish you'd kept hold of that spitfire...

[Trigger]

Love it. CLASSIC at its best

[UK Pete]

Have you ever tried tracing the bike to where it is den
pete

[K2-K6]

Ash and Pete, both your seats look like they need a harder more structured top layer of foam to get the shape of those originals, which appear almost flat with almost no deformation of the foam by pulling the cover down tight to fix it to the base. The original seems to have quite a small radius in the foam where the seat turns from vertical face to the flat seat area.
I was in a foam shop years ago and they used a band saw with the blade having the teeth ground off it to make a knife edge which sliced and shaped foam so easily, also they used electric carving knives to do freehand shaping.
If I was going to have a go at producing that original shape I'd use something like a 50mm high density foam as the top layer on top of a softer base to give the "squash" needed to make it something like any good to use.
Ash, the extra foam you had sewn into the cover seems to be compressed from beneath which you maybe wouldn't get with a higher density top layer and could help preserve that quilted look that I think is quite prominent on the originals.

[AshimotoK0]

K2-K6 thanks for the advice.. spot on info .. I am not so sure Bob-the-seat actually padded the quiting  out any more than he normally does, but he did agree too and I was charged extra for it. Resigned myself that some things you can never get perfect and still hoping to get a Yamiya seat by some devious method. It's my little treat to myself Shame really as I have a lot tied into that seat, what with having to buy a complete new genuine Honda  K1 seat in order to make it up  .

Cheers ... Ash

[UK Pete]

To most people your seat and mine would be spot on OK but to the more discerning among us the cover/profile isn't quite right. I suspect your cover is the same as mine from Moretti in Newent 'BobTheSeat on eBay. It's also the same cover that DSS sells. I asked and paid Bob to put more padding in the quilting in mine to try to better replicate the original but it's still not right. Not blaming Bob though, he did his best but I  suspect Yamiya have access to the original patterns/materials. The 'crinkles' look OK to me Bitsa. KP told me he has seen a Yamiya wrinkle K0 repro  tank and the wrinkles are almost perfect copy of the original so I suspect, once again, they have access to the original tooling for this too and also the double-cut fender.

Cheers ... Ash

Ash, my cover is the very expensive yamiya one the picyures dont really show the cover in its true light, i will take an electric knife and flatten off the to layer and see how it turns out, i will post up on my progress, this is the k0 seat , like yourself i will somehow get a decent yamiya red foam seat for the sandcast , there is no way i am paying 800 + pounds for one though ,
Nigel as usual your observations and advise are spot on
pete

[AshimotoK0]

Kettle 738 has the full Yamiya red foam seat, will ask him to post a pic on here. Sorry for mistaking your cover Pete  , the secret may be in the Yamiya foam. I know that Moretti's foam is nothing like the original in shape (which is what I used ).
Asked ChrisR about the Yamiya seat and he  says he has not seen the non-red foam one in the flesh but understands that they have the same cover, which is mentioned on Yamiya's site too. Evidently the metal pan profile that Yamiya produce it a copy of the pan from the first 400 sandcasts not K0 and my K1 pan is closer to the original. I have heard of people using a non-red foam  and putting a thin layer of red 'Dunopillo' rubber foam between the pan and the foam to give the apperance of a red foam seat, when viewed from the bottom.. Cheating I know 

Cheers ... AshD

[Spitfire]

Have you ever tried tracing the bike to where it is den
pete

Hi guys, and yes I wish that I still had that one,. I was seduced by the slim side panels, chrome headlamp brackets and flashy dash of the CB750K2 and traded it away, the K2 was probably my worst idea it was dull compared to the old bike. It was replaced by a K1 which I converted to 900cc. And no I have never tried to trace the bike, it was pretty distinctive with it's Irish registration, a friend of mine bought it from Bill Smith motors and I used to see it regularly until a few years later.


Cheers

Den

[AshimotoK0]

Love that B&W photo Den and by the looks of the back tyre it was the original so not many miles.
Interesting story of the K0 compared to the K2 from someone who had one 'back in the day'.

Cheers... AshD

[JamesH]

Managed to dig out my Jan '70 K0 at lunchtime to take some photos of the seat.

Beware the bike hasn't been detailed yet - in fact I don't believe its been cleaned at all in the past 10 years and is as it arrived with me. Cleaning / detailing / re-comissioning it is going to be a winter treat for me. Have resisted the temptation to start whilst I finish off a couple of other projects. 

Anyway, as far as I'm aware the bike has never been restored and it shows - here are some shots of the seat from various angles.

I'll start a new thread at some point when I start the recommissioning process.

Hope this helps the k0 restoration squad - at some point I'll do a proper photo shoot with the bike with my DSLR and stick the photos on a share for reference.

Cheers,  James

[AshimotoK0]

Looks really nice and unmolested James, what's the mileage & VIN ?

Looks like yellow foam seat or maybe just faded red. Wonder when they changed to yellow?

Cheers .. AshD

[JamesH]

Hi Ash.

It's VIN cb750-1025059 and engine cb750e-1025338.

Haven't inspected the color of the foam in detail - pretty sure it's red in a couple of places but certainly not all-over.

Has a single cut front fender, recessed ignition, non wrinkle tank and interestingly no-number exhausts?? I was expecting HM300 stampings...

Will try and get some more photos up on a separate thread a bit later.

[K2-K6]

Looks really good james, nice to get something that is essentially untouched with all those original detail parts intact.

Doing a bit of research on the seats and found these two pictures of original bike in 1969 with basically unused (or appears that way) seat that shows original profile. [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

These are in a Mick Woollett book covering a range of Hondas.

The seat profile seems to have no step at all before it gets used and a bit baggy, also the nose seems to rise quite a bit up the back of the tank.