MnHPVA Show-N-Tell




Dave K's carbon fiber seat pan Dave showed a newly built carbon fiber seat pan, one of a run of five he laid up on a mold pirated from the tractor style seat base of an old ReBike. The ReBike was the first bargain priced CLWB recumbent (a precursor of the EZ1, you could say), but it weighed a ton and had poor components, so pirating the seat base is one of the few things they are good for! Dave laid it up with two layers of 10 ounce carbon cloth between two outer layers of 6 ounce fiberglass. This sounds like a lot, but the seat was actually quite light. He plans to stiffen it with some small foam ribs covered with strips of fiberglass, then attach a seat mount to its bottom. He recommends using a thick layer of open cell foam with a thinner layer of stiffer closed cell foam on top plus a stretch fabric cover.