Benefits: •Can remove seat without tools. •Seat cavity will hold 66 square inches or 1.1 liters. •More convenient to reach tools or others items stored in seat cavity. •Good idea to add more tools – you can attach more bands to the seat underside to hold them. •Reduces wear and tear on threaded holes – the threaded holes are 12mm too far back so the bolts have to be installed at a sharp angle. Owners not angling the bolts back enough can cause additional wear and even cross-threading. The Rebel 300/500 seat tab holes not lining up can result in wear/cross threading of the threaded holes.
Parts needed: •two #96651 magnets (2 inch diameter round base magnet 25 lbs pull magnet) $5.99 USD each at Harbor Freight •two M6 .75″ or 19 mm long bolts (18-20 mm is OK) •two M6 nuts
Installation: Remove seat, attach magnets (with magnet facing downward) with M6 bolts. Re-install seat, making sure that front tab goes in properly – you should not be able to lift the seat in front. The magnets will hold the seat in back – make sure the seat is as far forward as it will go. To remove seat, lift the rear of seat firmly.
For me, the seat was held in place well. If you want, you could add sheet metal screws near the rear seat tabs to prevent the seat from moving left. right, or backward.
Negatives: •Seat will be easier for thieves to remove now. •Magnet is .28″ or 7 mm high, so seat will be a little higher in back. If you are having your seat re-upholstered, have them put more cushion in the front part of seat to offset this.
Clearance from magnets to fender is 6mm – maybe putting a decal there would prevent scratches.
WARNING – This mod could be risky. A loose seat is against the law.
I always planned to use neodymium magnets but the Harbor Freight one had 3x the pull, was easier to find, and ceramic magnets are more durable (harder to break) than neodymium magnets. I put it on my Rebel 300 with stock seat. Next I’m going to do it with a Mustang seat and a Royal Enfield seat. The Royal Enfield seat will be different as it has a higher rear seat tab angle.
space under seat 1.5″ D x 6.5″ L x 5″ W front x 8.5″ W rear = 66 sq in or 1.1 liters
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Pay no attention to the writing below – it is just notes.
For the stock seat, you could use two neodymium magnets with hole, attached to the seat with a plastic bolt so that when you put the seat in place, the end of the plastic bolt will go into the original seat’s mounting hole. This will prevent seat movement; other than that the magnets should be strong enough to hold the seat in place. But the bolt does not line up – is 12mm too forward – that is why when you install seat bolts you have to tilt them back.
The Royal Enfield seat brackets are higher, so you can use M6 wing bolts to prevent movement (the magnets should be strong enough to hold the seat in place). Actually one wing bolt tightened only two rotations is all you need. The RE rear mounting tabs are plastic, so the magnets need to glued in. The M6 wing bolts come in colors, but I would get black so they will be less noticeable (to thieves – seat is easier to remove now).
This Harbor Freight magnet has 25 lbs of magnetic pull. I measured it at 13 lbs. (A 9.5mm x 19mm round with hole neodymium magnet I have holds 5 lbs.) Size is 50mm. It would resist breaking better than a neodymium magnet (they are brittle).
https://www.harborfreight.com/hardware/magnets/50mm-round-magnet-96651.html
Rebel500 