Seat lowering: DIY How-To

Ninja 250R Seat LoweringReader John sent in some great details for people looking to minify the height on their 250R without the use of Lowering Links.

Cool Trick John! Thanks for the submission!

Dr Mr. 2Fiddy,

I did the same mod on my GXSR 1000, as it helped me to touch the ground flat footed. I did this mod to the 250 for my wife who is only 5′1″ tall. She can now touch flat footed with her riding boots on. And the bike suspension hasn’t been disturbed so she can still carve up the corners with the best of them.

I gutted the seat down to the base, cleaned all the glue off and sanded it. Then I filled the voids in the seat base with 30 minute epoxy. If I was going to do this again, I would probably fill the voids with something easier to work with like Bondo. The void filling process should be done in two steps as the back of the seat pan is at an angle much different than the bottom….

Ninja 250 Seat Lowering

I then spray painted the pan, after I broke the glaze off the epoxy in the voids with some 400 grit sandpaper. I used satin black, but I would likely use flat black if I did it again as the satin is a little too shiny when next to the black side panels.

After the paint was dry, I glued a piece of 1/2 inch neoprene foam I ordered from Air Tech onto the base, “FOAM3″ on their website. I considered doing the rear angle part of the base with foam too, which would have looked better but would have limited movement some. Since you don’t sit on the back (angled) part of the seat, I chose not put foam there. I had also masked off the area the foam would be glued, so I was gluing to the base, not to paint.

We did a 160 mile ride and the seat is very comfortable, but its not a Corbin either. It’s more comfortable than the stock seat which was too soft for me and crowned enough that it cut off blood flow to some of my male plumbing making the equipment go numb like road bike seat (bicycle) after about 30 minutes in the saddle.

So one more way to help out those vertically challenged, and not screw up the great handling of this bike by lowering it.

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5 Comments »

  1. ghillie Said,

    July 28, 2008 @ 1:58 pm

    Just for info, I’m John better known here on 2fiddy as ghillie……. ;-)

    [Reply]

    Mr. 2Fiddy Reply:

    Well had I of put 2+2 together I wouldn’t of posted it… ;)

    [Reply]

  2. ghillie Said,

    July 28, 2008 @ 2:18 pm

    Nice!

    My bad for not being clear in the email. :-)

    [Reply]

  3. DJAZ Said,

    July 30, 2008 @ 12:41 am

    This is a bad picture of a good idea.

    Too soft!? Where did you get your bike? Mine has the subtle caress of vinyl wrapped ironing board.

    [Reply]

  4. Eddie Said,

    September 10, 2008 @ 2:49 am

    I’m a short new guy and I was wondering how many inches you shaved off the height.

    [Reply]

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