Sargent Seat Update

[Eric Sheley <eric@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Picked up the new seat on Saturday - all I can say is "ahhhhhhh...." ;-)

I have posted some pics of the seat (and a few other Sargent Accessories) 
on the Accessories page of the ST site. Or follow this link to just view 
the page http://www.triumphnet.com/st/acc/sargent/index.htm

As you may remember, I arranged with Sargent to drop off my bike on 
Saturday (they are open Mon - Fri). I was told that they would bring 
someone in on their day off to meet me and take the bike in. I arrived on 
Saturday (the 13th) and headed off to find my contact. I found him in the 
building next door - an old printing shop that they had purchased to expand 
their operation. The gentleman introduced himself as Mark Todd - not to 
bad, the owner there on a Saturday to meet me - things were looking great. 
He gave me a mini tour of the "complex" - the original building consists of 
6 to 7 bay doors on each side of an office section. Sargent was originally 
Automotive, but now has Automotive (general consumer and restoration), 
Commercial, Marine and now motorcycles. They have been so successful as of 
late that they purchased the commercial printers building and are in the 
process of renovating the space for new offices, R&D, and some injection 
work. They have just purchased an injection molding system and are planning 
to begin manufacturing their own seat pans with Sargent extras, like 
folding cargo hooks and built in storage. They plan to use new lightweight 
materials so that their seats will weigh in far under that of their 
competition.

So I left my bike in his hands with the promise that I could retrieve it 
one week later (Saturday the 20th). I outlined what my basic desires were 
and was told that Bill would contact me to work out the details (BTW, Bill 
was the person that did the restoration seat for my Harley Sprint). As 
promised, he contacted me and we went over what I was looking to achieve. 
My needs were pretty simple:

- - more comfort for the driver and passenger
- - increase the driver area a little to allow for more movement on longer trips
- - retain the ability to use the seat cowl if possible
- - slightly widen the driver seating area

I also decided to use a color matched cover on the passenger portion to 
give the illusion of a single seat with seat cowl even with the seat cowl 
off of the bike.

The first step was to replace the stock foam with the Sargent "Super Cell 
Atomic Foam". Mark gave me a piece of the raw product which I brought home 
- - I'll be sure to take some pics of it and post it off to the list. The 
foam offers much more support than stock. It feels soft to the touch, yet 
even with my full body weight on it (standing) I couldn't get it to 
compress more than 25%. The really amazing thing is that it doesn't feel 
"hard" - it provides an incredible amount of support but still remains 
incredibly comfortable.

Next was the foam modifications. With the new foam in place, the rise was 
moved back more than 1 inch and the edges were moved more toward the 
vertical to widen the seat slightly without making it look like it was 
hanging over the edge. Then came the problem. In order to give the 
passenger area more support, the height would need to be increased. 
Unfortunately, this would mean that the seat cowl would not fit because of 
how far it comes down in the front. On a positive note though, because of 
the amount of open space under the cowl, the front edge of the cowl could 
be cut to match the profile of the seat. If I hadn't paid to match the cowl 
to the bike, I probably would have just placed the cowl on a shelf, but I 
will end up cutting the front edge to match the profile of the seat. Minor 
problem - given the choice between my wife's comfort and getting the seat 
cowl to fit properly, I think you can see what choice needed to be made.....

Skip forward to Saturday the 20th.... needless to say I was more than a 
little anxious when Mark opened the bay door where my ST was sitting. The 
view in front of me blew me away - I remember thinking to myself "if it 
looks half as good as it feels, I am going to be very happy". The fit and 
finish of the seat was incredible. It fit perfectly to the bike - no gaps 
or unevenness. The seams were all tight and uniform and Bill had done a 
great job tying the red of the seat into the lines of the design on the 
bike. He added a blue welt to the driver area to tie everything together.

After a nice conversation with Mark and his wife and some pictures of the 
bike, I was off for the most important part of the whole day - to see how 
the seat felt. I was lucky to have about 150 miles to get home, so I had 
plenty of time to get a feel for the seat. Even though I had not been on 
the bike for a week, it was easy to feel the difference. While I was still 
nicely cushioned I did not feel as if I was sinking down in the seat. I 
could easily move side to side and front to back - and over the 150 miles I 
did not experience any numbness or discomfort.

(had to take a break to watch the Atlas II launch - about 10 miles from the 
Cape - those night launches are awesome to watch - back now to the Sargent 
discussion)

And all that for $220 - I would call that a bargain.......

I also picked up their metro tank panel system - a nice narrow tank strap 
with a small bag for glasses, cell phone etc and a web pouch toward the 
back of the tank. Attaches quick and looks great. Looks good on the red, 
but I think it would be really sharp on the black or blue ST's.

I can't think of anything else right now - suffice to say that I am very 
pleased with my Sargent experience.

- - Eric




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