Seat Abrasion

I’ve got a Beasley CIK seat for my Birel AM29, and now have a couple days of laps under my belt. Seat bottom is taking some dings.
Has anyone tried putting a Rhino-lining type material under the seat as a sacrificial layer?
Any cons?

Kevlar cloth works really well

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Tell us more about the Kevlar cloth. How does it adhere to the seat?

You put your gloves on, cut out the pieces of Kevlar, mix up some polyester resin and MEK-P hardener, dip the cloth in the resin, slap it on the seat, and brush the excess resin off and smooth out the cloth.

Usually that part of the seat is abraded enough to give good adhesion.

Is your seat base protruding beyond the frame rails?

Something like this for the kevlar?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LYJEWT4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_ZE84GHEGYWQXSX0RNH2D

When you mount the seat, if you set a sprocket on the frame positioning bars or piece of wood whatever you’re using, and use that to set the vertical position of the seat, the bottom of the seat sits a sprocket width above the bottom of the frame, and doesn’t get scraped

On my kart the recommendation from Birel is to have the seat 10mm below the the bottom of the frame rail. Since I am a short diver I could probably raise that to even or higher, but I suspect most drivers are setting their seat lower as that is typically the ideal set up.

Unless you’re tall, in which case you’ll be mounting below or even with the bottom of the rails. OP said he has a Beasley seat which is a lay down seat I presume? So that would be mounted low too.

My seat is usually mounted 5mm above the bottom of the rail and I still get scrapes from curbs, and once in Arizona I had an off at a Pro Tour race, went trundling through the desert for a bit, and the entire bottom of my seat ripped off over a cactus or a tumbleweed or a cattle skull or something, and I had to finish the last three laps with no seat bottom.

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Mannnn that’s hardcore!

Ouch!

Yes, Beasley is a CIK legal layback type seat for taller drivers. I’m 6’2" @ 215 lb. Only avail thru Comet AFAIK, as Lawson designed it.

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No. It sits 0-2mm above bottom of rail. Yes, slight upward slope from back to front of seat.

Back on point, sounds like a sacrificial layer of a rhino-lining, kevlar cloth, or possibly another material is a good idea then.

At least I’m not hearing any naysayers thus far.

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We need a memorable quote section! I like this description!

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I know some guys add an extra layer of fiberglass to the bottom, or I’ve even seen plastic number panels riveted or duct taped on the bottom to help keep the seat a little less prone to scrapes.

Rhino lining or kevlar cloth sounds like a fancier, nicer way to do accomplish it.

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Riveted steel sheet works OK and creates sparks to intimidate the competition.

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Titanium. White sparks. Effin brilliant idea :smiling_imp:

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Unfortunately, a seat is a consumable item in karting. I budget for a couple per year.

For rally we use UHMW plastic. Very tough (what cutting boards use), and lightweight. A very thin bendable sheet attached to the bottom should work great. Example:

Yeah I was thinking the same - those things are usually Teflon based. Should work well.