My new F5 came without a seat. I pulled the Euromesh seat from my Corsa and have been using it. But, that seat is eight years old, and has over 25,000 miles on it. Plus, pulling it from the Corsa left the Corsa unrideable. I decided the F5 deserved a new seat.

I opted for one of the RailGun seats made by rbenter Kent Polk (goatstick). I received it last week and installed it yesterday. There is still quite a bit of tweaking to be done, but I think the adjustment is getting close. I did 30 miles on it yesterday. This is what the seat looked like when it arrived last week.

My F5 came with only the bottom half of the RANS sprint braces (or rear seat bracket, if you prefer), so I’m using the Corsa sprint braces until I get upper sprint braces fabricated. I didn’t find hefty enough aluminum C-channel to suite me for the sprint brace brackets, so I just bought 3/4″ square tubing from Lowe’s and made this bracket.

I beveled the flat washers on the seat side of the sprint brace mounts, so the flat head screws wouldn’t stick up, and since my front bracket is made for a flat head screw bolting from the bottom, I took a 1/8″ thick piece of aluminum, bent it to match the curve of the seat, drilled and tapped two holes in it, mounted with screws from the bottom, then ground them off flush. It seems like a very solid mount. The Fastback Double Century bag setup mounts very well on the RailGun seat, and sticks out less on the sides than it did on the Euromesh.

The headrest is from a Profile Design Aerobar II. I found one on ebay. It was in an obviously very old box, but looks like it was never installed. The pads had never been stuck on their mounting plates. I used a heatgun to bend the headrest bracket, plus added a longer mounting bolt, to get the headrest where I need it. I’m not sure if this is the final adjustment, but it’s getting close.

The safety triangle I use on the back of the seat is attached to the Double Century bag. The RailGun is a longer seat than the Euromesh, so the triangle is too low and facing down instead of out. I need to move it higher up on the RailGun seat.

As advertised, the RailGun has a very solid feel. Of course, the down side of that is that it doesn’t ride quite as nice as the Euromesh. The 2″ thick filter pad that comes with the RailGun is the right pad, I’m thinking. The seat has a very different feel. While most seats seem like they grab and hold your behind, this one seems to grab and hold the lumbar area of your back. There really is no leg interference. And the narrow front of the seat makes it easier to get your feet on the ground, too. How it does for me on longer rides remains to be seen, but it seems very comfortable so far.

Edit: I forgot to mention how good the RailGun seat feels on my shoulders. Both my shoulders are bad. I’ve already had surgery on my left shoulder, and ruptured my right bicep at the shoulder. I have multiple rotator tears in both shoulders, and for some time now, very reclined longer rides on a narrow Euro style seat with zero shoulder support has been a problem. The RailGun is wide enough at the back that it actually gives some shoulder support. It feels very nice on my shoulders.