Seat question

[Rixb73]

Hi guys

I'm looking at a few bikes and I've seen that the 99 speed has two different seats... One seams to be split with the pillion higher and the other is a one piece....

What's the crack with this

[DEcosse]

There is only one type of seat.
The rider seat is always solo individual piece; the pillion seat can removed and replaced with the plastic cowl
There is no one-piece Speed Triple seat - if you're looking at a bike with a single dual seat, it is probably a Sprint (which won't fit the Speed Triple)

[FoothillRyder]

Don't the newer S3's have a one-piece seat?

[DEcosse]

Correct, my comment was specific to the 99 model referenced in question
The 97-01 and then 02-04 (different seats* but similar config) are individual rider & pillion (or cowl) and from 05+ are single dual seat.

* Both rider and pillion seats look very similar between 97-01 and 02-04 but are not compatible fit with each other.

To fit an 05+ S3 seat to an earlier model would require the subframe and plastics (and more) from same also.

This is my brother-in-law's Sprint - it has Speed Triple lights (on a Hayabusa front end!) and standard Sprint tail/seat.
Although looks solo rider seat, that is indeed one long seat - on the Sprint, the cowl cover goes over the stock full-length seat



Here's Sprint from same gen (not same bike) that shows the same full-length Sprint seat without its cowl

[Rixb73]

Chees, I'm learning about these bikes from scratch.

I've only just discovered the model had an update in 2002.

Seen a couple of nice 2002 bikes I'm going to view this weekend.

[DEcosse]

Originally Posted by Rixb73

... I've only just discovered the model had an update in 2002. ....

So what model was it, and what was it updated to?

[FoothillRyder]

I think he's referring to the significant changes to the 955i Speed Triple that happened in '02?

[Rixb73]

Yeah, sorry for the confusion . the seat question was generic and not specific to a certain bike.

foothillryder is correct.

I've seen a nice 2002 with only 7k mies on. And a 2002 win 30k ... There s only £350 difference between the two bikes.

[FoothillRyder]

In '02 they went to the pressure cast engine cases and spiced the tune up a bit. The '02-04 Speedies are quieter at idle (less mechanical clatter) and put out roughly 10hp more than the '99-01 955i's. Worth an extra few bucks.

If the maintenance records are clean, there's not much difference between a 7K bike and a 30K bike. (IMHO, of course)

[Rixb73]

The 30k bike looks clean . Full history, last owner had it for 5 years. He seems to have sorted a few common issues too