New guy, weird build, seats??

www.organicengines.com
mesh seat $150.
Ben fox

"steamer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

--Howdy all. I'm in the process of designing some sort of trike
that I can build in time to take to Burning Man. I'm a machinist and I'm a
fair TIG welder so connecting the dots is the easy part. What I want to do
is buy, rather than fabricate, the really time-consuming bits, as time is
short (75 days to go!). The first thing on my list is a comfy seat or two
(max one driver, one passenger) preferably with a back on it, with webbing
laced onto a tube frame. Can you folks suggest where I might look to get
these for a reasonable price?
--TIA,

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Burn out ideological infections
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : with nuclear fire!!!!
http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

steamer <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

--Howdy all. I'm in the process of designing some sort of trike
that I can build in time to take to Burning Man. I'm a machinist and I'm a
fair TIG welder so connecting the dots is the easy part. What I want to do
is buy, rather than fabricate, the really time-consuming bits, as time is
short (75 days to go!). The first thing on my list is a comfy seat or two
(max one driver, one passenger) preferably with a back on it, with webbing
laced onto a tube frame. Can you folks suggest where I might look to get
these for a reasonable price?
--TIA,

"Reasonable" is relative. Recumbent seats come nearly as dear as the
rest of the bike/trike. Try here for a couple samples:
http://poweroncycling.com/RECUMBENT%20SEATS.htm

Jeff

Ben Fox <[email hidden]> wrote:
: www.organicengines.com
: mesh seat $150.
--Ouch! That's a *lot* to pay for a small bit of glorified lawn
furniture!

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Somewhere in Texas a
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : village has lost an idiot...
http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

Quoted message said:

--Ouch! That's a *lot* to pay for a small bit of glorified lawn
furniture!

Absolutely. Plus, it breaks. I have a RANS mesh seat that I've repaired
with J&B Weld, in lieu of getting a replacement for 70 bucks. OK, I'm
getting fat as a turtle too, so I need to get on the bike regardless of the
seat. But if I had to replace the thing, it wouldn't be with another mesh
seat. I'd get something like the M5 seat, in carbon fiber, for the value of
the weight reduction and the "push against" back stability.

--
--Scott

Seeing as how you have the manual skills, build one of these:

http://bikes.jkcc.com/cads/mk5%20seat%20frame.jpg
http://bikes.jkcc.com/cads/mk5%20seat.jpg

Very simple and fast to build.
- use 1" stainless steel tubing, ~.035 to .049" or you can use 1" EMT. The
seat sides are 33" long with a 60 degree bend at the15" mark. (I used an
EMT pipe bender that I picked up used for $10)
- the shorter connecting pieces are the same material, ~14" long with a 45
degree bend in the middle. Machine a contour on the end of them and weld
them to the side rails. That whole process takes about 45 minutes to weld
up a seat frame.
- the seat material is the mesh that is used to cover the tops of gravel
trucks. It sells for less than $10 a yard, and 1 yard of material will
cover two of these seats. Simply sew up a rectangle reinforcing the side
edges either with some cotton/nylon webbing, or just double the mesh
material on itself a couple times. Pop in about 15 grommets per side (you
can buy grommet sets around here for anywhere from $1 to $5 that include the
die, anvil, punch and 50 grommets), slap the cover on and lace it up with
1/4" bungee.

The nice thing about this style of seat is that the upper and lower seat
mounts (I weigh 235lbs and use simple 1" wide by ~1 1/4" long by 1/8" thick
mild steel tabs for them) can be welded anywhere on the cross pieces you
need them. Additionally, the mesh material breathes very well and has a
little give to it which makes it very comfortable. The whole seat would
take you about 3 hours to make and might cost you about $35 in material.

Quoted message said:

--Howdy all. I'm in the process of designing some sort of trike
that I can build in time to take to Burning Man. I'm a machinist and I'm a
fair TIG welder so connecting the dots is the easy part. What I want to do
is buy, rather than fabricate, the really time-consuming bits, as time is
short (75 days to go!). The first thing on my list is a comfy seat or two
(max one driver, one passenger) preferably with a back on it, with webbing
laced onto a tube frame. Can you folks suggest where I might look to get
these for a reasonable price?
--TIA,

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Burn out ideological infections
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : with nuclear fire!!!!
http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

Sticker Jim <[email hidden]> wrote:
: Seeing as how you have the manual skills, build one of these:

: http://bikes.jkcc.com/cads/mk5%20seat%20frame.jpg
--Hey I like it; nice and simple; I can figure that out, thanks!
: http://bikes.jkcc.com/cads/mk5%20seat.jpg
--Hmmm. The hard part. Actually I was thinking the kewl hack for a
covering might be to use one of the lace-on thingies seen on the
people-interface side of old backpacks. They've already got good solid
grommits and they're cheap-ish..

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Somewhere in Texas a
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : village has lost an idiot...
http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

Quoted message said:

: Seeing as how you have the manual skills, build one of these:

: http://bikes.jkcc.com/cads/mk5%20seat%20frame.jpg
--Hey I like it; nice and simple; I can figure that out, thanks!
: http://bikes.jkcc.com/cads/mk5%20seat.jpg
--Hmmm. The hard part. Actually I was thinking the kewl hack for a
covering might be to use one of the lace-on thingies seen on the
people-interface side of old backpacks. They've already got good solid
grommits and they're cheap-ish..

Do you mean a seat similar to this?
http://bikes.jkcc.com/trike%203%20front.jpg

If so, I would caution you. While it is super simple to build, all the
rider load is held by the string/bungee that fastens the seat mesh to the
seat frame. What happens is the grommets eventually chafe their way through
the string/bungee and right now, I have about 15 or 16 knots on the string
on this trike. If the seat material wraps around the seat frame, and THEN
it's tied with string/bungee, much of the force on the seat material seems
to be taken up by the seat frame and seat material instead of the
string/bungee. This is why I changed my design 🙂 On all the trikes that
have the seat mesh wrap around seat frame, I have had zero string failures.
IMHO, wrapping is the way to go. The only way the pictured trike seat would
likely be easier on the string/bungee is if I put more grommets in, maybe.

This seat also has side rails that are about 34", total, in length - just
for size reference.

Another easy way, and pretty comfortable too, is simply to use seat belt
webbing and wrap it around the seat rails until you get to the top. Secure
it at the top and bottom the same way lawn chair webbing is done - by
wrapping it around the pipe at least once and then screwing it into the seat
rail. Lawn chair webbing might also be a viable, simple and cheap
alternative as well using the same method of wrapping.