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!!!!
nmpproducts.comintro.htmOpen ↗ ---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: poweroncycling.comRECUMBENT%20SEATS.htmOpen ↗

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...
nmpproducts.comintro.htmOpen ↗ ---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:

bikes.jkcc.commk5%20seat%20frame.jpgOpen ↗
bikes.jkcc.commk5%20seat.jpgOpen ↗

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!!!!
nmpproducts.comintro.htmOpen ↗ ---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:

: bikes.jkcc.commk5%20seat%20frame.jpgOpen ↗
--Hey I like it; nice and simple; I can figure that
out, thanks!
: bikes.jkcc.commk5%20seat.jpgOpen ↗
--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...
nmpproducts.comintro.htmOpen ↗ ---Decks a-wash
in a sea of words---

Quoted message said:

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

: bikes.jkcc.commk5%20seat%20frame.jpgOpen ↗
--Hey I like it; nice and simple; I can figure that
out, thanks!
: bikes.jkcc.commk5%20seat.jpgOpen ↗
--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?
bikes.jkcc.comtrike%203%20front.jpgOpen ↗

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.