AJS & Matchless Owners Club

Another hare set running for you all to chase. I prefer saddles - a single sprung - seat on old bikes rather than the dual seat. The 46 Ariel VB looks mighty fine with its Lycette, and on the 55 G9 I feel the aesthetics and the slight "bobber" look is quite pleasing. It looks like early model 20s had a single seat/saddle, and they look quite nice. As I have Jampots, I guess I'll have to limit the springing somewhat for fear of being bounced off!

Thoughts very welcome, how to retrofit?, frame parts required etc......

Hi Mark, there should be several threads covering this in the forum history, have you tried searching?

Fisrt thing I did - there are indeed threads and info for other bikes, not much for 55 G9s - which as far as I can see have no lugs for a saddle.

As you note those designed to accept a saddle have a tube fixing for a bolt to hold the spring welded to the frame, there was a period clamp/bracket that could be added to the frame on each side (this was a quiz picture many years ago) for those that did not have the tube, if you line it all up it shouldn't be too hard to either fabricate a clamp or weld a couple of vertical fixing tubes to the frame, the short pillion pad type springs should give you just enough movement with this setup. A clamp that straddles both frame tubes may be a more robust fixing than individual clamps by being less likely to rotate.

Yes - thinking of something like a clamp with some appendix to fix the bolt for the springs. What happens at the front? Does it just rest on the frame?

At the front, the original saddle hinged on a boss in the frame. At least you have a cutaway at the back of the tank where it will fit.
Dave.

The trials models continued with a saddle. Different frame and tank but might be worth having a look how they did it.
Stan

I think the last year the front boss was on the frame was 1953-4 certainly not 1955.