I'm not new but I've been gone so long I might as well be.
"I look around, I look around, I see a lot of new faces." So perhaps I should reintroduce myself. My name is Marc, I'm from SE Michigan and I have a 1985 vt700 that we can talk about later.
hey there @welby. I remember you and your bike. I know what you mean about the various changes. It all changed... but it's still the same. Welcome back.
Don't mind a bit and I'm a little flattered. You have a nice looking bike there. How did you do the rear seat? It looks a helluva lot better than mine.
Thanks Welby, I made the seat after reading some stuff on line, pretty easy really. I took the stock rear seat and used the back rest part as the new seat pan for the rear seat, basically, first you take off the seat cover and foam, then you cut the original L shaped pan near the bend at a length that the cut side will fit against the back of your front seat and the other end will cover the indentation on the fender. Then I rerouted and double sided taped the ignitors etc against the fender and cut holes in the new seat pan for them to stick through a bit so the pan fits flush against the fender. Drill two holes through the bender where the original bolts of the pan went into the sissy bar. Finally trim the padding so it sits flush against the front seat and recover with either the original cut cover, or do like me and make a feeble attempt to recover it yourself if it is bad. tada!
I used the same 6" dogbone risers and bars as you had mentioned somewhere, and they really are the perfect height, although a pain to finally lock down so they don't move up and down, now just stealing your paint scheme is left haha.
If you weren't all the way out in New Scotland I'd give you the paint job. I'm getting rid of it anyway and figure if I could find somebody to swap tins with they could keep the notorious look alive.