Anyone put a single seat tail on a dual seat frame?

TonyA said:
The bracket you need is for an OMEX ecu not a SC. They are different .
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Yep, thanks Tony - OMEX bracket. All of the Aussie ECU’s were swapped out under warranty from SC to OMEX really early on. Not sure what happened elsewhere in the world.
 
Stephen_Spencer said:
Yep, thanks Tony - OMEX bracket. All of the Aussie ECU’s were swapped out under warranty from SC to OMEX really early on. Not sure what happened elsewhere in the world.
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That upgrade was only specified for the Dualseat 961 and Norton didn't make brackets for the single seat . I was told by David C. and by the time 2016 rolled around only dualseats were made . David made a few out of Alumunum sheet for Omex singke seat conversions . PM me if interested .
 
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Voodooo said:
Stephen I literally just shown you a single seat days ago. You don’t remember?
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We’ve got crossed wires Voodooo 🤣 - thought you were talking ECU brackets! I purchased the tail unit you identified, as I said - it’s on its way👍

Interestingly though, I don’t see the tail unit with the tank unless viewed directly through your link. My guess because the vendor notes on eBay USA that they won’t post to Australia - I guess eBay Aus must filter them out if that’s the case. Interesting to note though - opportunities may be missed. That’s where this forum comes into its own!
 
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Stephen_Spencer said:
We’ve got crossed wires Voodooo 🤣 - thought you were talking ECU brackets! I purchased the tail unit you identified, as I said - it’s on its way👍

Interestingly though, I don’t see the tail unit with the tank unless viewed directly through your link. My guess because the vendor notes on eBay USA that they won’t post to Australia - I guess eBay Aus must filter them out if that’s the case. Interesting to note though - opportunities may be missed. That’s where this forum comes into its own!
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I couldn’t see it in Canada has well. I could only see what seller can export. Maybe due to fuel tank having fuel pump assembly still attached to it, can’t be exported. The tail from Japan will not ship to Canada
 
Stephen_Spencer said:
We’ve got crossed wires Voodooo 🤣 - thought you were talking ECU brackets! I purchased the tail unit you identified, as I said - it’s on its way👍

Interestingly though, I don’t see the tail unit with the tank unless viewed directly through your link. My guess because the vendor notes on eBay USA that they won’t post to Australia - I guess eBay Aus must filter them out if that’s the case. Interesting to note though - opportunities may be missed. That’s where this forum comes into its own!
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Sorry, I took your comment towards Stu as the seat tail.

Perhaps you could make a bracket or use Velcro.
 
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Last week, there was basically a whole cart full of 961 commando parts available from the Japan seller. He either was selling the bikes in pieces or had used spares laying around.
 
Voodooo said:
Sorry, I took your comment towards Stu as the seat tail.

Perhaps you could make a bracket or use Velcro.
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Tony has kindly sorting me out thanks Voodooo👍. He has a OMEX single seat bracket he picked up from Dave Coote.

Bit of a lesson for me though - Ebay has more hidden treasures than we might see when viewing through our own country/regional sites. Worth putting it out there on this awesome site and checking for each other; might then be possible to offer inducements to the seller to ship farther afield.
 
Both of these suppliers on EBay spotted by Voodoo have multiple 961 parts. Both show 100 positive feedback.

I can vouch for Takis 94 - great communication. The single seat unit arrived at my door in 7 days. Very well packed. Great condition - couple of minor blemishes from manufacture. Great result.

Moto Moto has a front carbon mudguard also MAK, if you don’t want to wait for a dealer/Norton to get their act together.

Anyone put a single seat tail on a dual seat frame? Anyone put a single seat tail on a dual seat frame?
 
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Completed the Dual Seat to Single Seat conversion today - Omex ECU. Ironically, what appears a larger space under the single seat hump is in fact tighter, as the ECU cannot sit forward like on the dual seat setup.

It’s definitely a five beer undertaking🥴, before you give up and go back the following day! Needed to work out how best the components would fit - a bit of trial and error required. A few observations:

- I was lucky to get an Omex bracket for single seat conversion from Tony (👍), one of only a few produced by the Cootes. Making your own or managing without would be quite difficult.

- This was a straight swap, no modification to any parts required; including cables/connections etc.

- ECU mounts from the left (viewed fm front of bike). Bracket is sized to clamp the OMEX to the seat unit, but requires foam (or sheet rubber) packing to effect clamping and protect the ECU. I used adhesive foam sheet.

- The dual seat has three 12mm spacers between the unit and the frame at the mounting points. The single seat has a further two at the front which I had to manufacture.

- Single seat is 1.25 Kg lighter which is a bonus.

- The end result ain’t exactly pretty but is the only way I could get components to fit. Next is to get the plastic seat pad covered in leather. Hopefully they will be able to trim the foam to fit better than it does currently.

Hopefully this thread may be of use to anyone thinking about the conversion.

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Have the ‘brains trust’ got any experience with manipulating/reforming ABS plastics?

Let’s call em quirks:rolleyes:, but some of the parts (hand built of otherwise) on the Donnie bikes were ocassionally of different spec to the bike sat next to it on the production line! Seat pads an example. My dual seat pad was always badly misaligned to the tail unit (from new).

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Similarly, the single seat pad does not fit well to the single seat unit. Potentially a poor manufacturing process or the ABS plastic has formed up (to the rear) over time, through the weight of the rider.

This makes for an irregular gap and misalignment to the tail unit. It also puts a lot of force on the seat unit, via the seat pad locating stud.

I’m hoping I can leave most of the problem to the seat expert, through reshaping of the seat foam/covering. I guess I may be courting disaster in attempting to reshape the ABS seat base (pad off of course) with a heat gun. Anybody have any experience?

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Stephen_Spencer said:
Have the ‘brains trust’ got any experience with manipulating/reforming ABS plastics?

Let’s call em quirks:rolleyes:, but some of the parts (hand built of otherwise) on the Donnie bikes were ocassionally of different spec to the bike sat next to it on the production line! Seat pads an example. My dual seat pad was always badly misaligned to the tail unit (from new).

View attachment 117179

Similarly, the single seat pad does not fit well to the single seat unit. Potentially a poor manufacturing process or the ABS plastic has formed up (to the rear) over time, through the weight of the rider.

This makes for an irregular gap and misalignment to the tail unit. It also puts a lot of force on the seat unit, via the seat pad locating stud.

I’m hoping I can leave most of the problem to the seat expert, through reshaping of the seat foam/covering. I guess I may be courting disaster in attempting to reshape the ABS seat base (pad off of course) with a heat gun. Anybody have any experience?

View attachment 117182

View attachment 117183
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Looks like you need thicker spacers under the rear part of the seat, about 1/8 on a inch. Are the spacers all the same thickness for the single and the dual seats or different thickness
 
Stephen_Spencer said:
Have the ‘brains trust’ got any experience with manipulating/reforming ABS plastics?

Let’s call em quirks:rolleyes:, but some of the parts (hand built of otherwise) on the Donnie bikes were ocassionally of different spec to the bike sat next to it on the production line! Seat pads an example. My dual seat pad was always badly misaligned to the tail unit (from new).

View attachment 117179

Similarly, the single seat pad does not fit well to the single seat unit. Potentially a poor manufacturing process or the ABS plastic has formed up (to the rear) over time, through the weight of the rider.

This makes for an irregular gap and misalignment to the tail unit. It also puts a lot of force on the seat unit, via the seat pad locating stud.

I’m hoping I can leave most of the problem to the seat expert, through reshaping of the seat foam/covering. I guess I may be courting disaster in attempting to reshape the ABS seat base (pad off of course) with a heat gun. Anybody have any experience?

View attachment 117182

View attachment 117183
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If you look closely you can see that the base does seem to follow the tail, but the side panel on the seat cover does not ( certainly on the right anyway, and I can’t see the left side properly), so I think it makes it look worse than it is. Maybe unstaple the offending area, and pull the padding tighter? My single seat is very tight up against the tank, is that the same? If so it’s probably pushing the top edge of the seat up above the cowl as well. If you are going to have it re upholstered anyway, why not remove the cover and padding first fit the base and then adjust as nessesary.
Anyone put a single seat tail on a dual seat frame?
 
All good points guys - thanks👍

Had a closer look and there are a few issues combining. I loosened all five mounting bolts, made sure the seat cowl was sitting correctly and just lightly nipped up the bolts. Put the seat back in place without bolting it down. It sat much better (although not perfect).

IMG_6838.jpeg


Originally noticed that the front two mounting bolts (in yellow) needed tightening quite a way before the spacers were clamped (not rotating). Think the front spacers need to be slightly thicker than 12mm, or the front may sit/flex lower than it should be. I’ll place a fibre washer either side of the spacers - should do the trick.

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Bigger problem - fitted the (angled) seat pad bolts (crap design as we know). This had the effect of pulling the rear of the seat pad away from the cowl and misaligning it again. Aided slightly by minor wear/damage to the cowl seat stud mounting hole.

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With the cowl correctly positioned, sorting misaliment of the rear of the seat pad as the pad is secured to the frame is a more difficult fix. I’m tempted to ride without the seat pad securing bolts fitted - it’s wedged in there pretty well - don’t see it going anywhere with my fat arsed 90 kg sat on it. What can possibly go wrong🤔!! Anybody done this?

Fixing the cowl mounting hole might help.

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Stephen_Spencer said:
All good points guys - thanks👍

Had a closer look and there are a few issues combining. I loosened all five mounting bolts, made sure the seat cowl was sitting correctly and just lightly nipped up the bolts. Put the seat back in place without bolting it down. It sat much better (although not perfect).

View attachment 117186

Originally noticed that the front two mounting bolts (in yellow) needed tightening quite a way before the spacers were clamped (not rotating). Think the front spacers need to be slightly thicker than 12mm, or the front may sit/flex lower than it should be. I’ll place a fibre washer either side of the spacers - should do the trick.

View attachment 117188

Bigger problem - fitted the (angled) seat pad bolts (crap design as we know). This had the effect of pulling the rear of the seat pad away from the cowl and misaligning it again. Aided slightly by minor wear/damage to the cowl seat stud mounting hole.

View attachment 117189

With the cowl correctly positioned, sorting misaliment of the rear of the seat pad as the pad is secured to the frame is a more difficult fix. I’m tempted to ride without the seat pad securing bolts fitted - it’s wedged in there pretty well - don’t see it going anywhere with my fat arsed 90 kg sat on it. What can possibly go wrong🤔!! Anybody done this?

Fixing the cowl mounting hole might help.

View attachment 117191
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Maybe try sitting on it for a while , this may help the fit .
 
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