I decided to try an experiment/idea I had to make my fusion freeride saddle even more comfy for long rides. I know that the “channel” in the center is supposed to relieve pressure on sensitive parts, but when you’re sitting on the saddle, that channel is at least partially, if not mostly rendered useless because the fusion cover does precisely that; it “covers” the channel by stretching tightly accross is as you’re sitting on it, thereby not allowing your sensitive area to rest in the channel)
So I simply cut the center part of the cover out and now the channel is fully exposed! (I used contact cement to attach just the center part of the cover to the foam to keep it from moving.) It may not look great, but it sure feels better! I guess I could stitch a piece of nylon or some other stretchy material over the channel so at least it will “give”, and allow your parts to “rest” more fully in the channel. See the pic.
If you have another fusion cover around I have a better idea. How about put an un-cut cover over your cut foam, put some glue on the walls of your “groove” and press the cover in and tack it down so that it doesnt stretch tightly across the “groove”? Might look better…
Already tried that…it doesn’t hold. Pops right back up when you sit on it. You would probably have to take the cover off, stretch the hell out of it in the center area, then tuck & roll it with stitching to get it to stay down. But then what would you tack it to…the seat base? That’s too far down really, and you can’t stitch it to the foam. Good thought though… great minds think alike!
I did. I enlarged the channel width-wise slightly, then cut the center portion of the cover, reinstalled it, glued the center section and the spray painted the white exposed foam. A new cover is cheap, so I didn’t sweat trying this idea. So far it seems so have worked out great!
Yeah that’s my Muni saddle; don’t have a coker yet. But when I do get one, it’ll be coming with a fusion ff as well, so then I’ll switch them then, since when I ride muni, I’m off the seat a fair amount of time and of course don’t do 20 milers on the muni!
Yeah, it seemed to be a little overkill seat modification for most muni. Maybe long XC muni rides would get some benefit.
Go to a bike shop and look at the bike saddles. A few have a stretchy fabric covering the cutout. You might be able to do something similar with spandex or something.
I don’t really see any seat mod as being overkill for comfort, no matter what the riding is. If your seat isn’t comfy then why would you want to ride it. I say if its a free mod, then it is always worth it.
Yeah, I did it primarily for coker riding. And pretty much every coker ride is a minimum of 20 miles. But even without the mod the saddle is the most comfy I’ve ever used. I want to start doing the full 50 mile bike path, from Torrance beach to where the path ends at the 25 mile mark, then back. A nice 6 hour excursion! (about 8 mph average with stops, and an average cruising speed of around 10-11 mph.)
I did my original mod over a year ago and it worked great, but it was starting to wear out and come loose. This time I used better, more durable stretch fabric, and like before, I glued velcro strips into the foam channel. Then I placed the corresponding velcro pieces onto each piece in the channel, added a little CA glue to each piece, then layed in the fabric and pressed it into the channel to lock it in place.
The only steps left was to spray 3M adhesive to the rest of the foam base and underside of the material, then smooth and shape it over the foam and staple it to the base, and cut off the excess. Took me all of 10 minutes, and it’s ready to ride!
Yesterday I rode my 36er a mere 10 miles and I had saddle soreness; I was using the old stock KH fusion cover in the interim. What a difference this modification makes!
That’s what I want to do with my seat. I want to widen the cut-out a little more and cut the cover completely away. The KH seat is a big improvement but I still get sore after an hour or two. I was afraid to cut it the way you did but now that you have tried it I feel better about it. What is the contact cement that you used? I just don’t want to use the wrong adhesive for something that will get really hot and sweaty. I also noticed you used a grinder to widen the cut-out. Does that work well? I was told to use an electric knife, but the grinder looks easier.
I didn’t widen this particular foam base; I just used it stock which seemed to be fine as long as the material goes down into it. Yes you can use the wheel grinder and it works well, but wear a dust mask if you do it.
I used 3M spray adhesive and it works really well! Spray both sides that you want to stick and just press down and smooth out. It remains tacky for a while so it’s easy to reposition while you are stretching it around the foam and smoothing it out. Also, do this with the foam on the plastic base.
I’m still with the freeride, since my last post I also tried to enlarge the groove inside the foam, and I stretched the cover during all the week end.
Then I tested it on a 38 km ride and found that it was a bit better.
But the cover didn’t stay on the bottom of the groove.
I removed the cover, sanded more foam to make the groove larger and deeper.
Then I super-glued a scratch band to the bottom of the groove and stitched the other scratch band to the inside of the cover (this part was easier than I thought) and just put all together.
I didn’t put any spray glue on the cover.
Not: this is an old kh cover with extensible tissue on the top of it.
Here are some photos :
Sorry for the fuzzy photo:
Modified the photo luminosity to make the groove appear.
While the test ride:
I tested this setting yesterday on a 54km very mixed G36 ride.
It was way better, at least during the first 45km, then it started to be a bit less comfortable for the last 10 km.
The ride started at about 1 pm and I was back home at 6 or 7 pm, even if I took many breaks, I spent a lot of time on the saddle cause I also had a lot of low speed parts (walking speed) .
Considering that, the crotch pain I used to feel came very later than without this modification.
I also used to wear two padded shorts at the same time but started to use one only 3 or 4 rides ago to avoid numbness on the crotch area.
So It feels harder than when I wear two padded shorts but the crotch pain is just not there anymore.
The only downside is when I go out of the saddle and on again quickly (bump, hops) sometimes it hurts, for Men reasons, you know what I mean… but I’m rather happy with this simple mod.
