Thanks for posting that outsider13! Is it from Retro Cruisers?
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Comfortable (even custom?) banana seat?
- Thread starter Hammond Eggz
- Start date
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Sometimes it isn’t the seat that’s the source of rider discomfort, but what the rider is wearing. When I go on long rides of greater then 20-miles, I always wear 8-panel roadie cycling shorts with a deep chamois under my shorts. This combined with the banana seats on the ’06 Manta-Ray and the 07’ BFK has never caused me any discomfort, including, while riding the road bike (a fully restored 1970 Peugeot UO-8) or rail trail bike with a Fi’zi:K road saddle.
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No its actually one I did with smart ? mattress foam..?, so its dense but has cushion. Its Was a wrestling match with a heat gun, glue and a lot of leverage and grunting..
Wow, you did a AWESOME job on it! I can only hope to do that good a job.No its actually one I did with smart ? mattress foam..?, so its dense but has cushion. Its Was a wrestling match with a heat gun, glue and a lot of leverage and grunting..
Cheers!
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Maybe I'll cut a hole in mine, just for you dude! [emoji12]
My sketch already looks like Spy vs. Spy
I might as well go for this!
I'll call it the Screaming Banana!
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I have thought of widening a banana seat for a project. I think it is the skinniness that hurts on long rides, not the lack of padding. I would cut it in half from the back up to a couple of inches from the front. Pull it open, and fill in the gap. The front would still be narrow, and it would widen in the back.
That's a good idea, would the sissy bar also need widened?
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I did this on my swing bike, never got around to covering it or padding but it was much more supportive than a standard one!
Luke.
Here's one I built from pieces and parts from a throw away stroller I picked from the side of the road. She ain't much to look at but was very comfortable.
Eventually though I ordered the white banana seat and sissy bar since I never intended to ride this one on long rides.
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Eventually though I ordered the white banana seat and sissy bar since I never intended to ride this one on long rides.
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Man if you covered it with possum skin that seat would look like road kill !Here's one I built from pieces and parts from a throw away stroller I picked from the side of the road. She ain't much to look at but was very comfortable.
Eventually though I ordered the white banana seat and sissy bar since I never intended to ride this one on long rides.
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Probably. That's what I was thinking. There might be a way to narrow it back up where the sissy bar mounts, but if I did that, then I might as well just weld a solo seat pan on top of a banana seat.
Hey, that might not be terrible, either.
Lol...so true! It looked a little like a run down Tony the Tigers head...it was comfy but it had to go. One of those looked better in my head before actually make it sort of projects.[emoji3]
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One thing I learned today after I installed my brand-new banana seat on this year's "project bike": the shape of the seat pan makes a big difference!
For the past few years, I've been using a fairly nice 18" long seat on a couple of bikes, but never really liked it for rides over mile or so. As it turns out, I think a big cause of the discomfort was the fact that the top surface of the pan was almost flat, and when it bent to become the vertical "side walls" of the pan that bend had a very short radius, so it kind of felt like I was sitting on a 6" wide plank with the corners barely sanded down.
My new seat is only 3 3/8" longer, but the top surface of the pan is slightly curved, and when IT bends to become the "side walls" the bend has a much longer radius, so it's more like sitting on top of an American football (or rugby ball) and it's MUCH more comfortable! 25 mph winds (with gusts to 40 mph) meant I didn't feel like riding very far today, but the new seat felt a lot better just riding up and down the street, and especially going over the bumps of the concrete gutter at the foot of the driveway.
You can sort of see the differences in the "side walls" in the Googled photos below and the corresponding sketches:
As a nice side note, the new, larger seat is JUST the right size to fit on my 26" tire cruiser frame. The old seat was just a little bit too small, which caused the sissy bar to lean forward quite a bit, and caused my friend buzzrocker13 to suggest that I get another "layback seatpost" to try to move the seat back a few inches. With the new seat, the sissy bar is vertical and looks great!
For the past few years, I've been using a fairly nice 18" long seat on a couple of bikes, but never really liked it for rides over mile or so. As it turns out, I think a big cause of the discomfort was the fact that the top surface of the pan was almost flat, and when it bent to become the vertical "side walls" of the pan that bend had a very short radius, so it kind of felt like I was sitting on a 6" wide plank with the corners barely sanded down.
My new seat is only 3 3/8" longer, but the top surface of the pan is slightly curved, and when IT bends to become the "side walls" the bend has a much longer radius, so it's more like sitting on top of an American football (or rugby ball) and it's MUCH more comfortable! 25 mph winds (with gusts to 40 mph) meant I didn't feel like riding very far today, but the new seat felt a lot better just riding up and down the street, and especially going over the bumps of the concrete gutter at the foot of the driveway.
You can sort of see the differences in the "side walls" in the Googled photos below and the corresponding sketches:
As a nice side note, the new, larger seat is JUST the right size to fit on my 26" tire cruiser frame. The old seat was just a little bit too small, which caused the sissy bar to lean forward quite a bit, and caused my friend buzzrocker13 to suggest that I get another "layback seatpost" to try to move the seat back a few inches. With the new seat, the sissy bar is vertical and looks great!
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Been playing around with my 'wide bottom' banana seat. Here's the prototype...it's a 60s Persons cruiser seat mated to a 70s Viscount banana seat.
I've mounted it on my 'test bike' and it is considerable more comfortable.
Stay tuned.....
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I've mounted it on my 'test bike' and it is considerable more comfortable.
Stay tuned.....
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Here's my attempt at comfort. I started with a cheap seat. I think it's the square sidewall kind like Rauol Dude showed. I glued a layer of closed cell foam first. Then I added a layer of this grey colored composite looking material that looked like an old horse blanket. Like padding you'd find in the back seat of an old car. Then I covered it with leather. Better than stock but not the end all for comfort. Gary
I'm in the market for a banana seat for my 26" Speedster / Fastback conversion. The standard Stingray seat is horrible on my skinny bony butt. Thanks for all the tips so far.
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If you could build one with a flat bottom strong enough to withstand the weight, you could increase the thickness of the padding, allowing a softer cushion for a given visual thickness. Ultimately, if one subscribes to the idea behind hammock-style saddles, I don't think this style using cushion would ever be good for long distance except for those of us with Buns of Steel (or kids—as a kid, I rode the most horrible BMX saddles all day, but now my posterior is old and ornery).
After looking at this website, I gave them a call. They only list 18" long seats in the site. I was actually looking for a bit longer one. He said they offered them at one time, but nobody bought them. He thinks the standard 18" seats look better on 26" bikes. Opinions? Would my Speedster look better or worse with a longer seat?
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I can't speak for your Speedster, but here's a Schwinn Classic Four with an 18" Retro Cruiser Bicycles seat in the top photo and a 21 3/8" Beach City Bikes seat in the bottom photo:
I prefer the longer seat since the sissy bar is vertical, rather than leaning forward as it did with the smaller seat. I also find the new seat to be more comfortable because of the shape of the cross section, as mentioned in post #34 above.
