New Member & Cafe Seat Confusion

[Lonestar]

Hello all,

I've been mining the forum for valuable intelligence in recent weeks, and have now joined. The level of expertise here is most impressive.

I'm currently building a Mach 1 replica based on a 1966 Monza I bought here in Dallas in 2004. The bike wasn't running, and had been restored for sale by use of black and silver spray paint. It sat around my garage for years, during which time I gathered parts and a couple of parts bikes - a Monza Jr. and an SCR. Finally this year I started devoting time to the project, and it's now moving along.

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To the issue at hand - I'd acquired a Diana/Mark 3 style tank at the Mid Ohio swap meet a while back, and thought it would be wise to see if it fit before wading into repainting. Good news, it does - I was worried that my 27mm SSI carb wouldn't fit without some ball pein hammer work, but it looks to have enough clearance.

I'd already verified that the cafe seat I bought on Ebay fit, so all should have been sunshine and roses. (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180748708881). But it turns out that while the tank and seat each fit separately, they won't fit at the same time. The seat projects forward about 3" farther than the one which came with the Monza (which is from a Benelli, but fits).

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The new seat uses the two frame prongs to attach at the front, while the old one has tabs extending forwards. Does anyone know which models used the two methods originally? And which tanks the new seat would fit behind? Perhaps an early Monza with the peanut tank? I'll quiz the vendor on this and report any news.

My options seem to be,

- Cut down the new seat at the front to clear the tank (Perilous for one of my limited skills.)
- Restore the Benelli seat (Tricky, as it's the old-style spring construction And where to find a cafe-style cover and foam?)
- Get another seat (Where to find one at a reasonable price, that fits?)

Thoughts, wisdom & advice gratefully accepted.

Cheers,

Lonestar

[joe46ho]

There are several options on what to do, depends on skill. budget, etc...
But the reason that seat doesn't fit is because its not a mach 1 seat, that seat was meant for a widecase duke. specifically a later widecase 250/350 or basically any widecase 450 road, or scr model.

Joe

[JimF]

I bought the Mach 1 bum-stop from Road and Race.

http://www.roadandrace.com.au/cat15.htm

That being said, I bought mine about 10 years ago when one US dollar would buy two Australian dollars. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

That seat was maybe $300 back then, which meant it could be had for $150 USD plus shipping.

The AUD Is now worth more than the USD (when I checked a few weeks ago) and to add insult to injury you can bet shipping is going to add more than $100.

I doubt that Road and Race makes the seat themselves which means that some of that price tag could be shipping from wherever to Australia. Maybe somebody on the list knows who the seat fabricator is and if they''ll sell direct.

By the way, your bike is beautiful. You are doing a great job on it.


Jim

[joe46ho]

I believe this is the guy that makes them for phil, but im not certain... still $398 Shipped to the usa, thats a lot, and this is only the seat base. I used to see them all the time on ebay from italian motor bikes, but they kind of dropped off the map.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ducati-bevel-si ... _613wt_932

Classic ducati also sells an italian made replica (complete seat) same one as italian motorbikes was selling i believe... but it is 225 gbp, plus shipping, and C.D. only ships fed-ex so its very expensive...

http://www.classicducati.com/index.php? ... ductId=493

Joe

[Lonestar]

Thanks for the information, everyone. It didn't occur to me the widecase seats might be different, and the description for the one I bought claimed it would fit the Monza without specifying further. I think my best course will be to find a proper narrowcase cafe seat, and sell the one I have.

The Road & Race seat looks beautifully made, with suede panels - but it now goes for AUD $550, plus shipping from Australia which is hideously expensive. I'm considering the Classic Ducati one, waiting for a quote on shipping. It would be nice to find a suitable seat closer than 6000 miles away, though - especially since surface shipping seems rarely offered these days. An exception is Motocicli Veloci in Italy, which will ship via surface mail at considerable savings - good outfit.

My next adventure will be to blast the brushed-on black paint off my tank, and see what repaired horrors lurk beneath (it only has a couple of shallow dents visible now).

Cheers,

Dave

[Eldert]

Hi Joe

E Bay seller beveltracker is Phil Hitchcock from roadandrace

Eldert

I believe this is the guy that makes them for phil, but im not certain... still $398 Shipped to the usa, thats a lot, and this is only the seat base. I used to see them all the time on ebay from italian motor bikes, but they kind of dropped off the map.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ducati-bevel-si ... _613wt_932



Joe

[joe46ho]

Eldert, thanks for the tip, I had suspected that but I wasn't sure.

Dave, I found out, Italian motor bikes is still around, just not much into selling on ebay anymore since they have there own site up and running. The seat on my brothers 450 scr came from them, top quality. Shipping was reasonable, the mach 1 seat cost more than the scrambler seat of course...

here is the link, I think this is your cheapest option. 283.50 euro shipped to your door.
or $379.80 usd. Unless classic ducati can do better on the price.
But by my ball park calculations, one from classic ducati will cost at least $450 usd shipped, and thats only figuring $100 for shipping, it might be a little less, or more possibly.

http://www.italian-motorbikes.com/Pagin ... nglese.htm

[Lonestar]

Joe,

Thanks for the link - I hadn't known about that site. I ended up ordering the seat from Classic Ducati, since I needed a rear fender from them anyway and figured the shipping could be combined. Their seat goes for USD $350, and shipping for it and the fender was $70 via FedEx - not too bad. These seats may be from the same maker; the pics look identical, and the CD one is made in Italy.

Dave

[joe46ho]

Yeah, thats not bad on shipping costs. One thing thats good about fedex, and ups is that you can track it from there door to yours. I believe they are made by the same people, but have no way to verify that, they do look identical.

Joe