Mutazu Back Rest

[TheGreek]

Hello everyone!

I've been a long time Lurker on this forum, even before buying my Magna back in September. Since buying her, I've used this site for reference for several mods. So it's time I gave something back and post about my experience installing/modding the Mutazu "Driver Side" back rest, since I haven't found any info about it here.
You can find the back rest here:
http://www.mutazu.com/products.php?cat_id=121&menu=Driver side backrest&product_id=295&s=prod.php

I had previously sent my stock seat to Mean City Cycles to get my riding position changed. He was able to move me three inches down and three inches back, and shaped the foam to make it more comfortable. It was a big improvement over the stock seat, and well worth $40. Still, after a trip to the Hill Country and back I decided I needed some lower back support.

I decided to go with the Mutazu because it was the cheapest option I could find and I knew I would need to modify whatever I bought to fit my modified seat.

So this is what it looked like installed in its stock form:


It felt exactly off by 3 inches each direction, so I would think in its stock form it would work well with a stock seat. It's hard to tell in the pic but the bracket is pitched forward at something like 110 degrees.


Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of my progress, but I started first by lowering the back rest to correct for the height change in my seat. As you can see in the pics, the backrest is held on with four screws. I just lowered it by one set of screw holes. (I lined up the top holes in the back rest with the bottom holes on the bracket) Two screws hold it just fine. Then I took a sharpie and traced out a cut that echoed the original cut at the top of the bracket. Before I cut it I clamped the bottom of the bracket down and bent the bracket to 90 degrees so it would be straight up and down which corrected for the change back in the seat. I then cut it and ground it down to match the original cut.

This is how the back rest mounts to the seat. It requires the passenger seat, but doesn't require cutting either seat.


All tied together, notice how much thinner the seat is than stock, and it's still plenty of cushion.


Mounted


From the back



Anyway, feel free to ask any questions!

[MagnaMan84]

Great post!  I've been looking to add something to the Magna and I believe this is going to be it!  How long did it take you to have your seat restuffed?

BTW, I love all the strategically placed cans of SeaFoam 

[TheGreek]

Thanks MagnaMan84!

The seat work was a same day affair, roughly anyway. Basically you set an appointment day to have the seat done, and you just have to make sure it's there in time. I had mine shipped in time to get there the day before it was "due". They called me around 10am (central, 11am Eastern where they are) to tell me it was all done, and they were boxing it up to ship it back. So, they work fast. I shipped Friday, it arrived Tuesday, they did the work, called and shipped out Wednesday, and I think I received it Saturday or Monday. If you want to pay to speed up the shipping you can significantly reduce the turnaround time.

[roboto65]

Well welcome Lurker LOL and what a way to keep the PESKY Seafoam police at bay 

[TLRam1]

Fantastic first post!!

Welcome, bout time you came out of hiding with your creative ways.

[hootmon]

The Greek..



Good job on the SeaFoam!!!

My wife has one of their backrests on her 03 Sabre in the Corbin seat that she bought..
The 1st one broke, but it got replaced and has been fine since..

[Jigger]

Do you know if they make a back rest add on that fits a Mustang seat ? Seeing there are lot of people on here that have Mustangs on thier bikes.

[hootmon]

Do you know if they make a back rest add on that fits a Mustang seat ? Seeing there are lot of people on here that have Mustangs on thier bikes.

IF you did not buy the Mustang with the backrest, then an add on (that attaches to the seat) is unlikely since it is a one piece seat with nowhere to attach the backrest.. You would have to look for one that attaches to the side rails, but even most of those will not work with the Mustang.

[TheGreek]

I just bought my first can of Seafoam, so I felt I was now "authorized" to start posting!

At any rate this was the first mod I did that wasn't already covered on this site or in the forum.
(so far I've done the VTX headlight mod, added Kuryakyn longhorn mounted pegs to the down tubes, dropped in progressive front springs, and added a Sound Off universal cruise control)

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

[TLRam1]

Show us your cruise control, good use of the seafoam also, hats off to you.

[TheGreek]

Here are some pics of the Cruise:


I couldn't get the gaps any tighter due to the curve in the bars here...



If you notice the screw gap: I chose to go with out the spacer, and use the longer screw in the kit to minimize the amount I had to move the brake control, the spacer was too big, and "making it fit" caused the lock to bind up, interfering with throttle return. 


Cruise engaged


I'm very happy with the throttle lock, once it's all dialed-in, it works very well holding the throttle, but at the slightest touch of the throttle, or reaching for the brake, lets loose. It's not something I use often, but very nice to have on those long trips...


Also, I realized while taking these pics. (took them on my lunch break, so no seafoam... ) that I had missed the very first mod I did, that also doesn't seem to be covered here, the helmet lock re-locate to front wheel mod...




Again, no pics of the work, hopefully the pics explain enough. I removed the existing spacer/bracket that mounts between the fender and the fork, then fabbed a bracket out of steel, cutting it in a "L" shape to fit the shape of the lock, and the bracket it is replacing... took the spacers off the existing bracket, added them to the new one, and still had to add some washers to get the thickness back to what it was, I epoxied the spacers and washers in place and painted the whole thing gloss black to match the fender and make the whole thing sort of disappear. I like how the lock looks like its floating in there.

[lragan]

Now that, Mr. Greek, is a totally interesting mod!!  The helmet lock location is obviously left over from some other Honda design, since if you use it where it is, your helmet will melt against the hot pipe -- assuming you can use it at all, which you can't if you have luggage (saddlebags) attached.

The hard bags I bought from Leatherlyke have hooks at the back of them which are sorta locked when one locks the lid down.  With leather bags, there is no helmet lock available -- unless I move mine to the front like you did. 

Great idea!  Thanks for sharing this.

Why did you wait so long to "speak" up?  You are obviously brimming with ideas and talent...

[TheGreek]

Agreed. That's why this was the first thing I did when I got the bike, I don't like taking my helmet in everywhere I go.

To be fair, I got the *idea* to move the lock to the front wheel from some random place on the Internet I can't recall, but the guy didn't post any pictures or instructions so I had to come up with the HOW on my own...

I guess the reason I haven't "said" anything until now is I have been spending all my time doing the mods. Believe it or not, I am trying NOT to mod too much on this bike. One of the reasons/excuses I bought the Magna was to be able to keep riding while I work on my CL350 rebuild... Problem is, the more I ride the Magna, the more smitten I become....

[hootmon]

OK.. SO I know I'm not a hardcore mod'er like you guys..

BUT I went ALL out on the Helmet lock MOD...

Here is my helmet lock.. (I cut off my other one because it was in the way of my saddle bags)...

I've used this for several years and I can get two helmets locked, but it does require an extra key with me..

[Jerry G Turner]

WOW Hoot you should patent that ideal.