1100 Seat strap

[PaulD]

Ive been asking around for a seat strap for my Kat because the seat has got the pop studs fitted and it annoys me
Anywhoose our glorious leader Fossie lent me his old strap to copy the brackets that fit onto the top of the shocks and I bought a new grey strap & pop studs. My first attempt was made in aluminium which looked half decent but I deemed it not strong enough so I attempted one in mild steel which didn’t work at all due to my very limited metal working abilities I enrolled the help of a mate who works in engineering and he made me some out of stainless steel but to be honest I don’t think his heart was in it as they where a bit rough!
John R one of our club members spotted this on eBay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Suzuki-G ... SwRaRZrsPx
and as the brackets looked very close I bit the bullet and bought one. They turned up the other day so I got stuck in tonight and I’m chuffed with the result. Here’s some photos incase someone else needs one without paying £60 odd plus postage from Japan.

Fossies original (right) and the new strap

New strap made up with fittings stripped from the eBay strap

Finished and fitted to the bike

[fossie]

We should call you Tenacious D! You certainly are that sir.
Good work.

[johnr]

i figured that suzuki wouldnt make a different strap mounting for every single different model they sell, so i figured that a seat strap for any twin shock bike of the era would use the same mounts. not a bad guess. glad you got it sortd, and another useful bit of info to file away in the technical section that we will hopefully get soon.

[PaulD]

Thanks for taking the time to look it up for me John, your a star. They are very slightly different to the originals but only a rivet counter would know. For those that do care the originals are slightly different left to right, one is bent slightly different to the other. If you look at the pic below with the new one compared to the original you can see the original is slightly deeper for some reason? the other side is almost identical. The only other difference is the original is made from thicker gauge steel. A big plus for the new ones is they are made from stainless steel so no rust.

[stockcar]

Anorak question but I didn't think UK Kats had the strap??

[PaulD]

Anorak question but I didn't think UK Kats had the strap??

I think your right they didn’t, the previous owner of my bike bought a nos seat from Spain which had the pop studs fitted. Things like that niggle away at me so I fitted the strap (EVENTUALLY)

[johnr]

nope, uk regs didnt require them, but some markets require a physical strap that a pillion could hold onto, hence the straps being secured to the top shock mounts for security. uk spec seats dont have the poppers on them to hold the strap in place. import bikes do.

[stockcar]

Thanks John, thought that was the case......