Rans seat question

[Tom]

A friend of mine has a Stratus he purchased in April 2002, my guess is he has about 2000 to 3000
miles on it.

The other day he showed me the fraying of material on the seat.

This fraying is on the lower part of the backrest and is about 2 to 3" long on the right side, the
opposite side also is fraying but not nearly as bad.

Can this be repaired ?

We are at a loss as to why it is happening, he only wears bike clothes, no belts or hard items are
even near wear this is occuring.

I tried seaching but only found fraying notes associated with the back stays not the front where it
wraps around the seat tube.

Any ideas ? Rans warranty item ?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Tom H Vision r40 and r50 (mpls)

 

[Dan Schaper]

I experienced fraying in what I think is the same general area on my 2k vRex. I don't recall the
mileage, it was at least a year ago I guess. I was able to stop it progressing across with needle &
some nylon thread. The start seemed to be in the vicinity of one of the water bottle mounting holes.

Recently it seemed to me the the mesh was giving too much at the bottom, likely due to my
unprofessional sewing job, probably also from age and poor spinning technique. This afternoon I
finished reinstalling my seat after replacing the mesh with the 2003 style. Upon reading the
instructions on RANS webpage to use a hot soldering iron to poke holes for the bottle braze-ons (in
addition to busted bottle cages due to carting the bike around in the back of the car laying on the
cage). I decided to convert to a Platypus water bag and I hoseclamped the remaining undamaged cage
to one of the struts(maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to reach it). I'm hoping the thicker gray nylon
on the edges of the 2003 mesh, coupled with no hole poking will prolong its life.

My bike was at least 2yrs old when the fraying 1st occurred so I didn't ask RANS about it.

tom wrote:

> Can this be repaired ?
>
> We are at a loss as to why it is happening, he only wears bike clothes, no belts or hard items are
> even near wear this is occuring.
>
> I tried seaching but only found fraying notes associated with the back stays not the front where
> it wraps around the seat tube.
>
> Any ideas ? Rans warranty item ?

 

[Rick Moll]

I've had to replace the seat fabric on my V-Rex twice now, due to fraying in the same location. I
had about 5000 miles on the bike, so I'm getting about the same mileage out of the seat material.

The first time I replaced it, last year, RANS sent me a new one free of charge. I also purchased a
spare at the same time. I just recently had to use the spare to replace the seat fabric the second
time. I haven't yet contacted RANS to see if they'll send me a new seat fabric now that the bike is
over a year old.

I tried repairing it both times, but only managed to get a few hundred miles out of my repairs.

Rick Moll

tom wrote:
> A friend of mine has a Stratus he purchased in April 2002, my guess is he has about 2000 to 3000
> miles on it.
>
> The other day he showed me the fraying of material on the seat.
>
> This fraying is on the lower part of the backrest and is about 2 to 3" long on the right side, the
> opposite side also is fraying but not nearly as bad.
>
> Can this be repaired ?
>
> We are at a loss as to why it is happening, he only wears bike clothes, no belts or hard items are
> even near wear this is occuring.
>
> I tried seaching but only found fraying notes associated with the back stays not the front where
> it wraps around the seat tube.
>
> Any ideas ? Rans warranty item ?

 

[Paul Minnis]

One edge on my 2000 Stratus seat base frayed, due to leaning the bike against a table in my office,
and the the seat back mesh has worn in a number of places. Household Goop (Shoe Goop or its many
other forms) works really well. For the mesh, I use black thread to sew the gap and then add the
Goop. When dry I run a black major marker over the repair. These may not be the prettiest repairs,
but I have over 6000 miles on the original seat fabric and should get many more. I've also used Goop
in my BikeE seat with the same satisfactory results. Goop is great. As an archaeologist, I rank it
up with Duct Tape and Zipties as essential repair supplies for the my field work in Mexico. paul

Rick Moll <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I've had to replace the seat fabric on my V-Rex twice now, due to fraying in the same location. I
> had about 5000 miles on the bike, so I'm getting about the same mileage out of the seat material.
>
> The first time I replaced it, last year, RANS sent me a new one free of charge. I also purchased a
> spare at the same time. I just recently had to use the spare to replace the seat fabric the second
> time. I haven't yet contacted RANS to see if they'll send me a new seat fabric now that the bike
> is over a year old.
>
> I tried repairing it both times, but only managed to get a few hundred miles out of my repairs.
>
> Rick Moll
>
> tom wrote:
> > A friend of mine has a Stratus he purchased in April 2002, my guess is he has about 2000 to 3000
> > miles on it.
> >
> > The other day he showed me the fraying of material on the seat.
> >
> > This fraying is on the lower part of the backrest and is about 2 to 3" long on the right side,
> > the opposite side also is fraying but not nearly as bad.
> >
> > Can this be repaired ?
> >
> > We are at a loss as to why it is happening, he only wears bike clothes, no belts or hard items
> > are even near wear this is occuring.
> >
> > I tried seaching but only found fraying notes associated with the back stays not the front where
> > it wraps around the seat tube.
> >
> > Any ideas ? Rans warranty item ?

 

[David Luecke]

I repaired my seat fabric by sewing nylon strap material on as a patch along the length of the tear.
It has lasted several thousand miles, and only cost a few pennies for the zip ties. I cut the nylon
strap off of an old camping-chair case.

I am not excusing the fact that the fabric frays, and is easily damaged. I think it should be more
durable. But it is not too hard to patch.

--
David Luecke Ridin' a RANS Vivo (wahoo!) Merritt Island, Florida USA
http://community.webshots.com/user/david_luecke