MXA TEAM TESTED: THINK TECHNOLOGY LITE SEAT FOAM

 

 

WHAT IS IT? An aftermarket seat foam replacement that is lighter than air.

WHAT’S IT COST? $259.99 (seat foam and two Ti seat bolts), $289.98 (with hump), $49.99 (Think seat cover), $349.95 (carbon fiber seat base), $24.99 (titanium seat bolts).

CONTACT? www.thinktechnology.us or (949) 444-4916.

WHAT STANDS OUT? Here’s a list of things that stand out with the Think Lite seat foam.

(1) History. You probably have never heard of Think, but Think parts can be found on the bikes of Ryan Villopoto, Justin Barcia, Chad Reed, James Stewart, Trey Canard, Broc Tickle, Jake Weimer and Josh Hill. What does Think make? Ultra-lightweight seat foam. And we aren’t talking about a tad lighter, a little lighter or even significantly lighter—we are talking about phenomenally lighter.

(2) Lite seat foam. Think Lite seat foam was created from foam originally designed for use by NASA. The blocks of proprietary closed-cell polyolefin foam are CNC-machined into shape and hand-finished. Each seat takes one hour to complete.

(3) Weight. We weighed the stock seat foam from a 2014 KTM 450SXF. It weighed 1 pound. The Think KTM seat foam weighed 3 ounces. The Think foam was 13 ounces lighter. You read that right! Although Think Lite foam is expensive at $260, it is cheap when you realize how much it would cost in titanium bolts to save that much weight.

(4) The future. Since Think makes the seat covers for the factory teams, they have more tricks up their sleeves. There are Think carbon fiber seat bases, titanium seat bolts and special seat covers that can save almost 2 pounds over a stock seat. How much would a complete Think seat cost? For the foam, seat base, cover and Ti bolts, the price could easily exceed $600.

(5) Performance. The MXA wrecking crew has a lot of experience with lightweight seats, because we have ridden virtually every works bike made. But, riding factory bikes with lightweight seats isn’t the same as living with them, so we installed Think Lite seat foam on our KTM 450SXF and started racing with it. It held up much better than the stock KTM foam and showed no signs of sagging after three months of racing.

(6) Downside. Most motocross racers want to buy anything that the factory riders use, but will they buy a part that is hidden under their seat cover? Even when MXA showed the Think seat to its test riders, we had to take it off the bike and hand it to them. They couldn’t see how lightweight the foam was, but they could feel it. Will local heroes spend the money on an invisible part?

WHAT’S THE SQUAWK? We aren’t bothered by the price. This is a works-bike part and if you are in the group that can afford it, you get your money’s worth.