An electric carving knife works quite well also for cutting seat foam, you can also reattach those big pieces with contact cement if you cut too much off, once the seat cover is on you can never tell.
Great video and nice cutting job! At 5'6", I've done my share of seat carvings. If anybody ever needs advice on cutting down seats, look for a short person on a dirt bike! Nice job with the hot knife; I use my wife's bread knife but may invest in one of those. I just did my KTM a while back. The only additional step I do is use my electric palm sander with some medium/fine grit sandpaper to round the seat edges and corners off nicely and smooth the rest of the foam out. One other piece of advice I would offer especially for those that haven't done this before is that when you look at the bottom of the seat pan, for many seats there are a lot of peaks and valleys so it's very difficult just looking from above to see how much material you can remove. So you have to be very careful 'drawing that curve out'. I generally try to leave myself at least 1" of seat foam at any point front to back (post-cut). I usually can get close to 2" reduction in seat height and that's generally my goal when I do mine. :)
What’s your reach like now? Is that all The mods you did to be able to lower it? I’m 5’6. Thinking with boots and a 2” seat carve I’ll at least be able to touch with the balls of my feet? I’m on a Ktm 250 SXF
@@RodrigoGarciactg Hi Rodrigo, the seat is the only thing I've done. I believe my 2012 KTM 300 XCW original seat height was 37". With the seat carve I did, I'm at 35" now and can easily touch with the balls of my feet. You can also take some preload out of the rear shock and get a little extra depending on what type of riding you are doing. I have mine set a little on the soft side as I don't do jumps, etc. and I'm only 150 pounds so that combined with the seat adjustment gave me a good 2 inches.
I did the same thing to my wife's CR230F for her. It's really thin. The problem that she has is the seat being too wide for her thighs. It seems to "push" her legs out, which makes her legs shorter. I took a drywall rasp and rounded the edges a bit, and that helped a little. I also put a Soupy's lowering link on it. And adjusted the spring dampener (preload) for her. She doesn't jump or anything, so she doesn't even miss the extra travel. I think all in all I dropped her bike 3.5 inches for her. Addition... I just remembered that I loosened the fork clamps and slid the tubes up a little, after dropping the rear shock sag.
Alexis also noticed that too but when she had her riding pants on it didn't bother her. We will plan on lowering her bike when we get back home! Thanks for sharing and watching! 🤜🏻
@@AdventureDaily loving your new bikes 👍🏻 I'm so happy to see it when couples ride together. I taught my wife how to ride on a CRF50. Then moved her up to a CRF100. Then a CRF150. Now she's riding the lowered CR230F. I let her loose on my XTRAINER 300. Probably won't be too long before she wants one LOL. They make a factory lowered one. So.... yeah.... hahaha. Keep up the good work. Ride on. Stay safe ✌️🤛
I used one of those cheese grater things for woodwork to shave down the seat on my xr650, took off 2 inches and very nicely shaped can hardly tell after the new red moose racing seat cover. Was kind of hard to fit that I ended up using spray Gorilla contact cement all over it and carefully stretching it on. Looks good, some little wrinkles but can hardly tell.
Oh this video brings me back to the day where you and I cut the drz seat and added some nice cushion. We were very professional. If anybody wants to check it out just search his channel for drz400 seat mod. 🤣🤣
My grandfather was an upholsterer, and as a kid I spent my summers making decent money pulling staples and tacks.. They make tools for such a task, and no you probably wont save any money buying the tools just for one seat, however you could rip all those staples out, even the ones behind that ridge rather quickly... He paid me 1 dollar more and hour than min wage back than... I was the only kid at 8 years old I knew making 5 bucks an hour on the weekend and summers... That money was well spent on BMX bikes and parts.... Love the channel, love the tech tips, and God damn Lex is mighty fine..... I mean... God damn bro, well done... You really ought to break out into the four wheeler tips and tricks too when you get back home.. I subbed to this channel back when you were doing your rancher/Rubi shit, be nice to see some more of that as well....
Sorry for the double post here, just watching the whole thing, I will say came out pretty good, but next time, find center first, of both the fabric, and seat, mark that on the foam, and cover.. Do both the north south east and west if you will of the seat.. North and south being long, east west short.. Start with center east west, pull tight staple both sides, than work your way north south evenly, keeping the north and south sides lined up centered.. Work you way south and north evenly pulling tight, that will stop any bunching or wrinkles.. Like I said In the first post, I grew up stapling fabric to shit, boats, RVS, couches, cars, you name it... The Idea is you want to stretch the fabric evenly on both planes from the centers out, not work your way to one side to the other, or you'll pull the fabric in weird angles.. Wont see it with solid colors as much, nor a bike seat "that" much... ( I can see it in yours, only because my grandpa would have beat my ass if I sent anything out to customer less than 100% perfect lol) Like I said, sorry for the double post, should have watched the entire thing first, hope this helps someone someday... All that sad, you did a solid job the imperfections wont be noticed by 99.9% of folks...
Can you use a palm sander to clean down the small ripples after the hot knife. Obviously is foam and would take some time but seems like it should work.
It's awesome Tanner said it's "kinda therapeutic." I love stuff like pulling staples or weather stripping perfectly. Btw... I've never heard someone such a fan of Husqies hate on uncle KTM so much. 🤣
My go to for this job would have been one of those electric carving knives that people bust out for Thanksgiving. Back in the day for my first job I got paid $3.15 at the local supermarket. I even remember getting a 10 cent raise. Companies like seat concepts should be more aggressive with the lowered seats that they offer. Somebody looking for a lowered seat wants more than just a little. Give them all you could give. At least offer a mild and aggressive option.
Did you check sag with her on it ? You can probably get a lil more drop with the right size rear spring/sag for her weight I'd imagine just about any stock spring would be too heavy for her .
Did you consider dropping forks in the triple clamps ad well? It will ever so slightly change the wheel base without changing travel or spring rate and backing off rear shock to get a bit more sag
I've done it but wouldn't recommend it, makes the stroke different. And I just knocked the plate and brake light off my bike in the whoops after going full sag.. 🤦🏻♂️
Loved your vid ..... I can not understand why all brands think we are all 2m tall.... Many riders have turned their backs to these because of that and they just cannot see it...
That looks painful lol. Id look into having the suspension lowered. Lowering the forks in the triple clamps that far can have a negative effect on steering angle especially at high speed.
Definitely a good option, however as stated in the video, we were on a time crunch and did not have time to order one so we did this instead and are happy with it! We got more inches out of it anyways compared to seat concepts!
@@AdventureDaily ah yeah fair, don’t forget to check out the zeta lowering rings for the pds suspension on the KTM, your girl dose really well on that bike I’m 5’7 and struggled so bad on my eXc 300tpi lol, but I put 2 lowering rings in and and cut the seat abit and it’s so Much better now
Please drop with the money bait on each video. A full EXC seat costs 200 bucks, you did not want to buy an aftermarket one, fine. But you don't have to throw "10k, 20k" il every title or thumbnail
@@KB3AOL I did not say I did not like the channel. I just think that they don't need to be click baiting on every video for people to actually watch the videos. It just gives a cheap image of what is a pretty good channel in my opinion.
An electric carving knife works quite well also for cutting seat foam, you can also reattach those big pieces with contact cement if you cut too much off, once the seat cover is on you can never tell.
Great video and nice cutting job! At 5'6", I've done my share of seat carvings. If anybody ever needs advice on cutting down seats, look for a short person on a dirt bike! Nice job with the hot knife; I use my wife's bread knife but may invest in one of those. I just did my KTM a while back. The only additional step I do is use my electric palm sander with some medium/fine grit sandpaper to round the seat edges and corners off nicely and smooth the rest of the foam out. One other piece of advice I would offer especially for those that haven't done this before is that when you look at the bottom of the seat pan, for many seats there are a lot of peaks and valleys so it's very difficult just looking from above to see how much material you can remove. So you have to be very careful 'drawing that curve out'. I generally try to leave myself at least 1" of seat foam at any point front to back (post-cut). I usually can get close to 2" reduction in seat height and that's generally my goal when I do mine. :)
What’s your reach like now? Is that all
The mods you did to be able to lower it? I’m 5’6. Thinking with boots and a 2” seat carve I’ll at least be able to touch with the balls of my feet? I’m on a Ktm 250 SXF
@@RodrigoGarciactg Hi Rodrigo, the seat is the only thing I've done. I believe my 2012 KTM 300 XCW original seat height was 37". With the seat carve I did, I'm at 35" now and can easily touch with the balls of my feet. You can also take some preload out of the rear shock and get a little extra depending on what type of riding you are doing. I have mine set a little on the soft side as I don't do jumps, etc. and I'm only 150 pounds so that combined with the seat adjustment gave me a good 2 inches.
I did the same thing to my wife's CR230F for her. It's really thin. The problem that she has is the seat being too wide for her thighs. It seems to "push" her legs out, which makes her legs shorter. I took a drywall rasp and rounded the edges a bit, and that helped a little.
I also put a Soupy's lowering link on it. And adjusted the spring dampener (preload) for her. She doesn't jump or anything, so she doesn't even miss the extra travel. I think all in all I dropped her bike 3.5 inches for her.
Addition... I just remembered that I loosened the fork clamps and slid the tubes up a little, after dropping the rear shock sag.
Alexis also noticed that too but when she had her riding pants on it didn't bother her. We will plan on lowering her bike when we get back home! Thanks for sharing and watching! 🤜🏻
@@AdventureDaily loving your new bikes 👍🏻 I'm so happy to see it when couples ride together. I taught my wife how to ride on a CRF50. Then moved her up to a CRF100. Then a CRF150. Now she's riding the lowered CR230F. I let her loose on my XTRAINER 300. Probably won't be too long before she wants one LOL. They make a factory lowered one. So.... yeah.... hahaha.
Keep up the good work. Ride on. Stay safe ✌️🤛
I used one of those cheese grater things for woodwork to shave down the seat on my xr650, took off 2 inches and very nicely shaped can hardly tell after the new red moose racing seat cover. Was kind of hard to fit that I ended up using spray Gorilla contact cement all over it and carefully stretching it on. Looks good, some little wrinkles but can hardly tell.
Oh this video brings me back to the day where you and I cut the drz seat and added some nice cushion. We were very professional. If anybody wants to check it out just search his channel for drz400 seat mod. 🤣🤣
My grandfather was an upholsterer, and as a kid I spent my summers making decent money pulling staples and tacks.. They make tools for such a task, and no you probably wont save any money buying the tools just for one seat, however you could rip all those staples out, even the ones behind that ridge rather quickly... He paid me 1 dollar more and hour than min wage back than... I was the only kid at 8 years old I knew making 5 bucks an hour on the weekend and summers... That money was well spent on BMX bikes and parts.... Love the channel, love the tech tips, and God damn Lex is mighty fine..... I mean... God damn bro, well done... You really ought to break out into the four wheeler tips and tricks too when you get back home.. I subbed to this channel back when you were doing your rancher/Rubi shit, be nice to see some more of that as well....
Sorry for the double post here, just watching the whole thing, I will say came out pretty good, but next time, find center first, of both the fabric, and seat, mark that on the foam, and cover.. Do both the north south east and west if you will of the seat.. North and south being long, east west short.. Start with center east west, pull tight staple both sides, than work your way north south evenly, keeping the north and south sides lined up centered.. Work you way south and north evenly pulling tight, that will stop any bunching or wrinkles.. Like I said In the first post, I grew up stapling fabric to shit, boats, RVS, couches, cars, you name it... The Idea is you want to stretch the fabric evenly on both planes from the centers out, not work your way to one side to the other, or you'll pull the fabric in weird angles.. Wont see it with solid colors as much, nor a bike seat "that" much... ( I can see it in yours, only because my grandpa would have beat my ass if I sent anything out to customer less than 100% perfect lol) Like I said, sorry for the double post, should have watched the entire thing first, hope this helps someone someday... All that sad, you did a solid job the imperfections wont be noticed by 99.9% of folks...
Air stapler is the SH!T for putting on seat covers!! Great job on that seat.
Sure is! Thanks man! 👊🏻
A 2" drop for $36 is a helluva bargain, nice work guys.
Exactly! When in a time crunch it works!
Can you use a palm sander to clean down the small ripples after the hot knife. Obviously is foam and would take some time but seems like it should work.
Dude you better put a ring on it. You’re good together.
That little knife is pretty cool, seat looks great!
Bread knife to cut the majority out and a wood rasp to smooth/shape it works great.
Man, I wish I could have gotten the trimmings from yal to add to my existing foam! I’d like to try a little taller seat
It's awesome Tanner said it's "kinda therapeutic." I love stuff like pulling staples or weather stripping perfectly. Btw... I've never heard someone such a fan of Husqies hate on uncle KTM so much. 🤣
Lmfao the final count down got me cracking up
😂
😅😂
only thing i would have suggested was use a palm sander to smoothen the foam out
Love the hot knife trick, turned out good!
Thanks man! Appreciate it! 🤜🏻
I just realized it was hot knife not hot wife lmao 😂
man yall been teasing tf outta me i wanna see em rip!
Suggestion: Magnetic screwdriver so the staples don't go flying. Good job on the seat adjustment.
First hourly wage $2.65 or $3.65
Good idea and DAMN!!
my first hourly wage was $3.35 and hour
My go to for this job would have been one of those electric carving knives that people bust out for Thanksgiving.
Back in the day for my first job I got paid $3.15 at the local supermarket. I even remember getting a 10 cent raise.
Companies like seat concepts should be more aggressive with the lowered seats that they offer. Somebody looking for a lowered seat wants more than just a little. Give them all you could give. At least offer a mild and aggressive option.
I did that 20 years ago for my cr250r ! Still have it!
Did you check sag with her on it ? You can probably get a lil more drop with the right size rear spring/sag for her weight I'd imagine just about any stock spring would be too heavy for her .
Stay tuned for upcoming video! 😉
When i started working minimum wage was $4.25. Seat looks great. Well done.
Thank you 👊🏻 and wooowee that's pretty low 😅
That couldn't have turned out any better.
Appreciate that Bill! We are happy with it too! Thanks for your support! ❤️
Did you guys get the suspension lowered yet?
HOT KNIFE VS THE WORLD!!!
Nice job! You only need to remove the stator side bolt to get the seat off, clutch side bolt does not hold the seat down
So two inches is all she needs nice 🤣 I hope you guys are doing great.
I’m in luck!! Thank you Paul we appreciate it and same to you!
@@AdventureDaily 🤣🤣🤣
I used a bread knife on the 450L seat and cut 1.5 inches of height off of it. Not as clean as your hot knife.
Nice job and thanks for the video
You guys vids are always fun and interesting.
Thank ya man! Appreciate that! 👊🏻
I'm probably going to shave down my Grom seat, like cut the foam from the back end and put it in the deep hole up front.
New Grom or OG?
@@AdventureDaily SF, the one that forces you to sit up to the tank.
Hey guys you killed that cut. If you make that cut on a beta bike you have seriously low seat height trust me
Did you consider dropping forks in the triple clamps ad well? It will ever so slightly change the wheel base without changing travel or spring rate and backing off rear shock to get a bit more sag
I've done it but wouldn't recommend it, makes the stroke different. And I just knocked the plate and brake light off my bike in the whoops after going full sag.. 🤦🏻♂️
First job was on a tobacco farm at harvest time, $5.00 per day, sunup to sun down but they did feed you lunch.
Wow that's crazy, what was for lunch? I imagine it couldn't have been anything too expensive haha
Loved your vid ..... I can not understand why all brands think we are all 2m tall.... Many riders have turned their backs to these because of that and they just cannot see it...
That looks painful lol. Id look into having the suspension lowered. Lowering the forks in the triple clamps that far can have a negative effect on steering angle especially at high speed.
Yeah we have plans to do that as said in the video...this was just to help in the meantime until we get back home!
@@AdventureDaily oh my bad, i didnt hear that.
I did the same thing to my seat. Not painful at all on fire roads and a good reminder not to sit on single track.
I’m in love with your girl bro😭😭😭❤️
need a sander dude for rounding and tapering.
$5.15….. to 6 figure salary.
The old hot knife in the seat trick eh?
You know it! 🤘🏻
Also if you know anyone interested in it it's got less than 10 hours of run time! Just been in storage!
short riders go through some much ass pain because they can reach the ground and get rid of all the foam
maybe change the suspension and springs that she can reach the ground without problems
Casting couch 😂😂😂
😅🤣
Trying to do this on a klr your comment on minimum wage started at $5.50 if I remember & tipped employees were $2 something
Lots of movement in the rear shock to make it even lower
Yeah stay tuned for upcoming video 🤘🏻
Nice 👍
Thanks!!
Awesome
I'm boomer enough, started at 2,75$ CAN, so basically 2$ US /hr 😂
Beta 200 would be the perfect bike for her but it's cool if she enjoys a 350
Check recent videos Bryan!!
by the way what is her height
easier to use screwdriver to pry up then use plyers to pull out
Did you not watch the video lol
Do your eyes and brain communicate with each other bro? Wowzers!! That may have been the most clueless comment I've ever read.
That is the lowest seat I've seen omg but if it works then that's all that matters plus u save some money
It worked! So best of both worlds! haha Thanks for watching Joshua!
At first glance I though the title was "Hot Wife vs Seat"
Now that's a new one I haven't heard.🤔😂
$3.35 an hour when I started working. :)
Think she just needs a smaller bike lol. She's barely tippy toeing with it cut
thought it said hot wife XD
I was 4.75 min wage
LOL $5 an hour. OMG that seat is gonna be miserable now. I can't believe they did that indoors.🤦
First time a chick has said an inch would be nice. 😊
$2.50 an hour ,before cell phones and electricity.
I would try to use a sawzall
A Sawzall seems to get carried away. I used a hacksaw blade. Just a blade without the frame. And I rounded the edges a little with a drywall rasp.
Nice clean cut like a pro!
I'm curious about the clutch, KTM have a hydraulic clutch right? That must make it a hell of a lot easier for Alexis!
Just get a seat concept low seat.
Definitely a good option, however as stated in the video, we were on a time crunch and did not have time to order one so we did this instead and are happy with it! We got more inches out of it anyways compared to seat concepts!
$4.75
DAMN!
$4.25 lol. 👍🏾
DAMN
Goosbye tailbone
$4.25/hr
wow a $10,000 seat? Ill pass thanks
$4.00 minimum wage back in 1982
Why are you lowering your own bike ? You look really tall ? Or is it just the camera ? Lol
This is her bike and she's 5' even...
@@AdventureDaily no bro In the video you said you was going to lower your bike also ?
@@offdapace2627 Ah I meant I am going to get the suspension done, I'm 6'4 200lbs with gear so a bit out of spec for the factory springs.
@@AdventureDaily ah yeah fair, don’t forget to check out the zeta lowering rings for the pds suspension on the KTM, your girl dose really well on that bike I’m 5’7 and struggled so bad on my eXc 300tpi lol, but I put 2 lowering rings in and and cut the seat abit and it’s so Much better now
Please drop with the money bait on each video. A full EXC seat costs 200 bucks, you did not want to buy an aftermarket one, fine. But you don't have to throw "10k, 20k" il every title or thumbnail
Lighten up, Francis. Everybody knew what they meant. If you don’t like it, there’s an easy remedy: Don’t click.
@@KB3AOL I did not say I did not like the channel. I just think that they don't need to be click baiting on every video for people to actually watch the videos.
It just gives a cheap image of what is a pretty good channel in my opinion.
Lex......You could just wear Platform's and save some money lowering the bike 😜
If the seat cost $10,000 I would hate to see what the whole bike cost !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
$3.25