Wildguzzi.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: sstone14 on June 30, 2021, 05:40:50 PM
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The used V7 Classic I bought came with a shaved seat and I want to replace it with the OEM seat because I'm a bit taller than the previous owner and feel that I would benefit from that extra height.
The manual has the seat height at 31.69 inches, but I just want to know if that's from the lowest point of the seat to the ground, so I can determine if I'll actually gain significant height from the OEM seat. If it's a few inches, I'll buy it, but if it's less than an inch, I can't imagine it making much of a difference.
Lemme know if you know!
Thanks!
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You would be amazed at the difference one inch makes on a motorcycle. One inch bar risers make a lot of difference. One inch higher seat changes the rider triangle to the bars and pegs.
Why not do an experiment and grab a towel and fold it to where you have an inch of thickness and place it on the seat and go for a ride.
If the previous owner shaved the seat, did they pull the cover material tight and staple so you couldn't return to normal without holes showing? If the towel experiment works out you could always remove the staples and add some foam back, or have a local upholsterer do it for you.
Good Luck.
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The preceding post is good advice.
As for your question, I don't think anyone really knows how the factory measures seat height, any more than we know how they measure horsepower or curb weight. Wishful thinking seems to be involved.
The height in inches you reported is almost certainly a conversion from 80.5 cm, measured by somebody using a tape, somewhere. It should be the distance from the lowest point of the seat to the ground, but how is the motorcycle to be loaded, if at all, before the measurement is taken? Should a carpenter's level be placed across the lowest point of the seat to provide a reference? (Yes!) Who knows?
Instead of trying to measure the actual seat height on the motorcycle, I think you would do better to directly compare the two seats themselves. Maybe you can sit on the same model with a standard seat if you are one of the lucky few who is near a dealer or fellow owner. Maybe you should take a photo of your seat from the side and compare it to photos of the factory seat. Maybe you can call the previous owner and ask him or her if it made "a big difference." If it made a big difference for them maybe it will make a big difference for you to go back.
Moto
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Harley is the only manufacturer that I can recall publishes TWO seat heights. The first is the unladen motorcycle at rest, and the second is with a 180# rider seated. Though even that leaves us the questions of to where the measurement is taken (lowest point, middle of seated area, etc) and even to what the sag is adjusted (though I'll assume sag properly set as per owner's manual).