Seat springs

Used Chevy valve springs under the seat on the last hard tail chopper I worked on. They will bottom out on a hard bump (like just about anything will) but for the most part they seem to work fine.

Ive used the little 3" beehive springs before. They seemed to do the job but on a severe bump, they would bottom out, and then "unwind" really hard firing me up off the seat. The little shock I run now is a whole lot better.

I've seen a couple of people using the shocks from mountian bikes as of late. Might be worth a shot.

Yeah I would have went that way maybe before, I'd have to rework my whole lower seat area. I was going to have a well padded seat hard mounted.
Now I'm thinking a cast seat.

Goldy said:

Used Chevy valve springs under the seat on the last hard tail chopper I worked on. They will bottom out on a hard bump (like just about anything will) but for the most part they seem to work fine.

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What's the approximate length and i.d on those do you remember?

ShovelJockey said:

Ive used the little 3" beehive springs before. They seemed to do the job but on a severe bump, they would bottom out, and then "unwind" really hard firing me up off the seat. The little shock I run now is a whole lot better.

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Yeah beehive seem to fat.
I Love it Johnny you do good shit.

THey have small 2" round and maybe even 1" coils I think . i like the little 2" cause they have some give and are small. I got 2" hairpins on my bike and they are pretty much rigid .

AttilaHOD said:

I've seen a couple of people using the shocks from mountian bikes as of late. Might be worth a shot.

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I mounted two of those mountain bike shocks under my seat.Its like sittin on concrete. Im gonna replace tbe springs with cut down fork springs see how that feels.

Jeff L said:

I mounted two of those mountain bike shocks under my seat.

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I wonder how one shock would feel? I imagine seats are different for different weights of riders, as well.

Cannt remember what the spring was rated.It was off a 20" bike.I sat on the bike & bottomed out quick.I weigh 220.Thats why I thought 2 would be fine.

Ah, gotcha. I'm liking the idea of chevy valve-springs, myself. Or I might do a little home-made leaf-spring setup. Not sure, really.

My shovel has 1 fox mtb airshock under the seat,when you find the right pressure for your weight its all good and doesn't btm out I just find springs with no damping just don't work for me.

YETI CUSTOMS said:

My shovel has 1 fox mtb airshock under the seat,when you find the right pressure for your weight its all good and doesn't btm out I just find springs with no damping just don't work for me.

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That's a good idea, I never thought about an adjustable air shock. Hmm. Do you have pictures? I'd love to see how you mounted it, and how big it is. My problem is I'm pretty picky on how much new-fangled looking stuff goes onto my ironhead.

I had chopper shox before. The spring rating system is wayyy the fuck off according to the guy that sells them and i guess made up his own spring rating system based on his liking of rigid seats . Springs for A 165 LB rider hardly move at all. I wanted to but never tried the lightest gauge springs the same guy ( owner) said they would bottom out. The mid grade rated for 165 to 185 lbs or some crap like that according to him, barely moved and i weigh 210. Should have gotten the light ga.

As far as bottoming out goes why is it so bad? Hard springs are like always bottoming out. A soft descent from light springs coming down and then the cushion on your seat takes away the impact. Even a huge thick padded seat on a softtail bottoms out to a degree.

I'm not worried about bottoming out. I'm worried about getting catapulted off of the bike. A few years ago I hit a railroad track a little faster than I should have, and i swear my balls were hanging free six inches above my front headlight before i came back down on the tank. I bolted my seat to the frame for a while, and eventually I changed those springs out for something a little lighter guage.

The airshock thing has me wondering, though. It won't recoil as quickly as springs. I mostly wonder if you can hide it enough to keep it from being an eyesore.

rockett said:

I mostly wonder if you can hide it enough to keep it from being an eyesore.

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Yeah I can see it being incorporated into an overall design but it's got to fit the ride style and it's not an easy lump of mechanics to hide so then you'd have to make it into a featured part.
I too wouldn't mind seeing pics from anyone that feels they have pulled the look off. I'm still leaning towards springs.

selectedgrub said:

Yeah I can see it being incorporated into an overall design but it's got to fit the ride style

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I know it wouldn't fit well on the ironhead I'm doing now. I do have a more modern-inspired build on the drawing board for the future, though. I will keep the air-shock seat in mind for that.

Grub: as far as springs, I'm pretty curious about the chevy valve springs. I might actually give that a shot.

I made a custom set of springs to install in the rear verticle tubes(where the original spring seat for a sportster are) used custom cut washers to make a bottom in the casting, against the tubes, and found a set of springs at a local hardware store(looks similar to original pogo seat stock) and custom built a seat mount, with a pivot on the front, attached to the original seat mount bosses. Sits well, rides well, and does not bottom out, but I still have the shocks on the swingarm, so that helps. No rebound, like behives or hairpins. Looks like the original stuff, but the springs are not but about 1.5 inches long, hidden and pretty easy to fab. If you look at the early sportster service manual, or parts book, you can see what you need to fab, even though it is not stock, it looks that way, and no springs visable. Photos available if anyone wants to see it, installed.