Tuono 1000 V4 Seat design

The other day I had both seats off my Tuono V4 when I was installing an accessory socket and needed to get to the battery. At some point during the process I needed to move the bike a few yards so I sat on it without the seat fitted and free wheeled it the distance. To my surprise I found the seating position was actually to my liking. Apart from being a bit uncomfortable sitting on the tank with the attached nuts and bolts also being a bit too low, I thought I might be onto something here.

If you own a V4 1000 Tuono you will already realise the seat on these bikes lack grip and tend to be a little too high, slopes too much towards the tank which puts your body weight through your wrists. Some owners have alleviated this by fitting bar risers. But I think the fundamental problem is the seat cushion design.
Looking at the seat base when fitted to the bike, it is on a different angle than the seat cushion:




I detached the cushion and cover, which is a one piece item, from the seat base.



Then refitted the seat base to the bike. Sure enough, apart from being a bit too hard and still a little low, the seating position was very good and felt more natural.



I got some 10mm carpet underlay foam, which is made up of lots of bits of foam, and stuck two layers to the flat part of the seat leaving the angle part of the seat bare. Then I covered the whole seat including the new two layers with another layer of foam. I covered the whole lot with some seating vinyl and went for a ride to try it out. Initial results are good and I think I'm onto a winner here. No more weight on the wrists or trying to stop yourself sliding forward.




This is the first prototype of my seat and I think I can improve it further.

180slayer said:

Looks good mucker, not sure about the colour :lol

Click to expand...

Yeah, not a good look I know but I'm not too bothered about that just yet.. The main focus is the comfort and ride-ability element the seat has. I rode 50 miles last night and it was so much better then the original. It now gives me so much more feel, confidence and comfort.
I really can't understand what Aprilia were thinking when they designed the seat cushion.

After a few attempts trying to completely re design the seating position and then trying to learn upholstery techniques, I have come to a compromising solution which, not only works well, doesn't change to look of my Tuono at all:

I built up the front of the seat base with three stepped layers of carpet underlay Polyurethane sponge.



I refitted the original seat cover with the aid of a hair-dryer to heat the seat cover which then stretched over the added foam.
the extra hight gain at the front of seat can be clearly seen in the next picture.


After washing and scrubbing the whole seat with detergent, rising with water and leaving overnight to completely dry, I cut and fitted a clear piece of vehicle sign vinyl to the top of the seat to give extra grip to my derrière
I also heated this with a hair-dryer to help the vinyl to bond to the seat surface.