Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Classic short-frame models

Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Postby Mikes » Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:12 am

Hi, I just joined your group because I purchased a '66 XLCH, fulfilling a 50 year itch, and am returning the bike to as original as possible. I have located a dual seat 52012-66A. The parts books shows a rubber cushion 52051-66 between the seat and fender. There is a stud in the rear of the seat pan that appears to be for a bolt or screw to attach the cushion to the seat. Is there a coresponding hole in the fender so the fastener can attach fender, cushion, and rear of seat? The front and middle attachments on the seat seem to be the same as the buddy seat 52490-60. Let me know if that is an incorrect assumption. Thank you.
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Re: Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Postby Magneto Sportster » Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:50 pm

Mikes wrote:Hi, I just joined your group because I purchased a '66 XLCH, fulfilling a 50 year itch, and am returning the bike to as original as possible. I have located a dual seat 52012-66A. The parts books shows a rubber cushion 52051-66 between the seat and fender. There is a stud in the rear of the seat pan that appears to be for a bolt or screw to attach the cushion to the seat. Is there a coresponding hole in the fender so the fastener can attach fender, cushion, and rear of seat? The front and middle attachments on the seat seem to be the same as the buddy seat 52490-60. Let me know if that is an incorrect assumption. Thank you.


Neither the correct -66 dual seat or buddy seat require any hole in the rear fender. They have two mounting points: 1. The "ears" that stick above the backbone of the frame, and the two rear holes in the casting that extends behind the upper rear of the frame. The -66 dual seat has a rubber cushion that bolts to the bottom of it which rests on the rear fender. Be cautioned that this rubber cushion will rub the paint off your fender when the bike runs.
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Re: Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Postby thefrenchowl » Tue Jan 24, 2017 1:46 pm

MS: Be cautioned that this rubber cushion will rub the paint off your fender when the bike runs


Dear me, as bad as some modern bikes that carry the sticker "if you use this bike, it will wear down..."

; O n Patrick
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I'm the one who has to die when it's time for me to die so let me live my life the way I want to...
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Re: Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Postby Magneto Sportster » Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:28 pm

thefrenchowl wrote:
MS: Be cautioned that this rubber cushion will rub the paint off your fender when the bike runs


Dear me, as bad as some modern bikes that carry the sticker "if you use this bike, it will wear down..."

; O n Patrick


Have you ever seen the gnarly mark that the -66 seat leaves in the paint of a rear fender? It will wear the paint all the way down to metal over an area about the size of a post-it note. And it doesn't take much riding for it to happen. If someone plans to switch between a solo seat and dual seat, they will be surprised when they remove the big one only to find their expensive paint job has be ruined. Or even worse, the original paint job.

But I ride my bikes a lot, so maybe this isn't a problem for people who keep them tucked away in the garage.
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Re: Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Postby Simon » Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:52 pm

I saw a NOS rubber on that auction site right now, in all its paint-scrubbing glory...
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Re: Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Postby Mikes » Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:18 am

I just bid on the fender rubbing part. Thanks for the alert.
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Re: Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Postby Mikes » Wed Jan 25, 2017 2:37 pm

I have purchased a dual seat 52012-66A. The seat was common with the Aermacchi Sprint and the seat I purchased is for that bike so I have to fabricate the middle mount. I can see the shape of the sides of the mount in my parts catalog, but I can't tell what it looks like underneath. Does someone have a photo of the bottom of the this seat with the middle mount attached? Thank you.
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Re: Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Postby Kevin56 » Thu Feb 09, 2017 3:20 am

I have also been chasing one of those seats for a blasphemous retro looking effect on my '74 XLH . Photos I downloaded of 66 model seats from ebay may help. BMI go-karts sell a white Giuliera for a Sprint for $29.95 direct or $60 on ebay. Its 24" long and 9.5" wide and looks the same from 10,000 miles away on a computer screen, but the mounts underneath are wrong. For that price and the fact none of you will ever get close enough to knit-pick its worth my time to get one, modify the mounts and change the cover. The seeds are already sown for me to convert and buy a genuine '60's Sportster for restoration.
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Re: Buddy seat for '66 XLCH

Postby Mikes » Thu Feb 09, 2017 9:59 am

Kevin,

Thank you. Peter on this forum sent me photos of an original seat. (Neither of us can use the computer well enough to attach photos here). From Peter's photos I have been able to make jigs to duplicate the spacer at the rear and the middle brace. The middle brace is complicated because it has two angles on vertical plane and two more on the horizontal plane. A friend with a '67 XLCH is bidding on the eBay seat in the photos you sent. Hopefully he will get it and I can actually compare my work to an original. The friend with the '67 and I have both purchased Sprint seats from Jim's Harley in Mendon, OH. (Good tip from Dave Hennessy.) Those proved to be identical to, and made by the same company in Italy, as the original HD dual seat, except for the rear spacer and middle brace. Since welding on the middle brace with ruin the paint on the seat pan, I will sandblast and black powdercoat. Rick's decals made new yellow "Made in Italy" stickers to replace the original that will be lost in the sandblasting. I'm not trying to pass this seat off as original in a judged show but it should suffice for getting my bike back to what it looked like when it was sold in '66. I am planning on attending the antique motorcycle event in Oley, PA at the end of April and will have my refinished seat there if anyone wants to look at it. Hopefully it will be on the bike and in use by mid-summer.

Regards,

Mike
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