So my buddy finally got his KLX250s 2007 and he's a bit shorter than me. He wants to cut the foam on his stock seat a bit up near the tank to improve his reach to the slabin traffic conditions (he is going to be using the bike a bit as a commuter). I've seen some posts around about this but wanted to get an update;
Best way to cut the foam?
Is there any need to cut a bit extra and refill with a softer foam (ie-the foam is rock hard as you get into it?)?

P.S. While I'm at it, because I know he might want em, are lowering links universal? Or is it specific to bike make or model?

 

There used to be lowering links on e-bay, I would try that first, then drop the forks down a little and then as a last resort shave the seat, but I've seen the seat shaved, and it never looks very good after, sort of lumpy.

 

click here for lowering links, nobrakes cut foam out of his seat, try a search, I had my seat cutbefore I bought my bike by the dealer.

 

I installed lowering links (kouba) and lowered front fork the 3/4" (apprx) that you can without buying a bar riser. That didn't cut it for me, so I did some seat shaving as well. First used a serated knife. Cut through it fine, but the blade tended to "wander" a bit while cutting, making it tough to get a smooth cut. I had that "sitting on a dead squirrel" feeling. Went after it a bit with a low grit count sanding block, which helped clean it up a bit. After that, I had a bit of a low spot in the center of the seat, as I didn't really cut anything off the back portion of the seat. That pretty much sucked, as gravity pushes you towards the tank, and gave me a nice sore backside as a result. So, I decided to try to even things out. Basically going for the look/feel of the MX bikes, where the back of the seat practically fades flat to the rear fender. I decided to try a straight edged knife instead. Worked well. I am pretty happy with the results. Its not perfect, you can tell if you look really close that the seat cover has a few little bumps to it, but you can't really feel it. Just stretch the seat cover tight when you re-staple it back on.

I did consider getting some low density foam to the put a fresh surface on after removing the factory stuff. Probably would work well, just didn't have any laying around, and wanted to put my bike back together to ride.

Take your time and keep working on it until its smooth and nice, you can do it.

Good luck!

 

If you decide to start cutting into the seat foam, an electric turkey knife is what the pros use. Got mine for $14 at Wally world.

 

mmmmm turkey..... thanksgiving is coming up...... another deep fried turkey for turkey day again this year!!!!