How To Choose Your Cafe Racer Seat

28 Feb 2019

by W. Wollinga

Which Seats Suit Your Style?

There are a few things you should keep in mind when you are choosing your new seat. First of all, it's a good idea to know how long and wide your subframe is. This is so your seat will fit on your bike. Besides this, it is also good to know what kind of stitching you want on your seat. Two common stitching types are Tuck n' roll (top) and Diamond stitching (bottom).

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Cafe Racer Seats

This style of seat is easy to recognize by the hump on the back of the seat. These kinds of seats can be partially or completely covered by leather or other fabrics. The advantage of a partly covered seat is the possibility to spray the back in a complimenting or contrasting colour. Another advantage is that partly covered seats are easier to mount on your bike. You can easily take the upholstery off and mount the polyester to the frame. After that, you can mount upholstery upon the polyester.

The reason you would choose a completely covered seat is not to overshadow the rest of the motorcycle. Or simply because you like the look of it.

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor cafe racer bike seats C.Racer Cafe Racer Seat Chocolat Diamond Stitch Bruin Type 40

Tracker Seats

This type of seat looks a lot like cafe racer seats. This style originates from racing around an off-road oval track. You can recognise tracker seats by a slightly lower hump. Because these two styles look a lot alike, it's possible to mount a cafe racer-style seat on a tracker.

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Brat Seats

You can recognise this type of seat by its flat nature. The big benefit of this is the possibility to ride with two people on the motorcycle. The drawback from that is the fact that you could miss the support in your lower back that cafe racer seats usually offer. However, this is solvable with a buddy cover that can be put over the back of your brat seat to make it into a temporary cafe racer seat when you ride solo.

With some of the Brat seats, it's also possible to slide the front of the seat under the tank of your bike. This can create a unique look.

Bobber / Custom Seats

This type of seat is popular with American bikes. The seat is often mounted at the same height or a bit higher than the rear wheel. A deeper cavity in the seat is often experienced as more comfortable, but it could very well be that a flatter seat fits the style of your motorcycle better.

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If you couldn't find a seat of your liking, you could build one yourself. You could, for example, get a polyester seat and build from there by adding foamed PVC sheets. It is a lot more time-consuming than buying a seat, but you will gain a unique seat exactly to your liking.

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor diy cafe racer seat