Forza seat piston

Monty1952 · Post by **Monty1952** » Wed Feb 25, 2015 10:55 pm

Vote on status of your Forza seat.

speedandstyle · Post by **speedandstyle** » Wed Feb 25, 2015 11:24 pm

By "piston" I assume you mean the strut that holds the seat up when open. I also assume that your's has failed.

gn2 · Post by **gn2** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 4:38 am

16,000 miles on my Forza, seat has been opened at least twice most days in the last 18 months, lifter works perfectly.

Monty1952 · Post by **Monty1952** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 7:57 am

speedandstyle wrote:By "piston" I assume you mean the strut that holds the seat up when open. I also assume that your's has failed.

Yes, it just seems most people refer to it as a piston - even in the Honda dealership!

Atis · Post by **Atis** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 8:49 am

Mine has not worked since day one. I was going to write it of as a pain in the neck poor design but since I have to go in for the fuel pump recall I will ask the dealer to address it then. Honestly though the fuel pump recall with all the horror stories of damaged panels concerns me more, makes me afraid to bring the bike in for any repair, much less a repair of a defective recalled part.

Monty1952 · Post by **Monty1952** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 9:00 am

Atis wrote:Mine has not worked since day one. I was going to write it of as a pain in the neck poor design but since I have to go in for the fuel pump recall I will ask the dealer to address it then. Honestly though the fuel pump recall with all the horror stories of damaged panels concerns me more, makes me afraid to bring the bike in for any repair, much less a repair of a defective recalled part.

Make sure they know your coming in for the seat as well as its likely they have to order the component in. Most places don't keep in stock.

SteveP · Post by **SteveP** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 12:14 pm

Mine hasn't failed (4800 miles) but it is "weak"...won't hold the seat open against a light wind.

gn2 · Post by **gn2** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 4:04 pm

gn2 wrote:16,000 miles on my Forza, seat has been opened at least twice most days in the last 18 months, lifter works perfectly.

Actually that should have read at least four times a day.
Going by my Fuelly records I have used my scooter at least 300 days, so the seat has been opened a minimum of 1200 times.
Estimating opening duration, at roughly ten minutes a day, the seat has stayed open for around fifty hours.

Monty1952 · Post by **Monty1952** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 4:10 pm

gn2 wrote:
gn2 wrote:16,000 miles on my Forza, seat has been opened at least twice most days in the last 18 months, lifter works perfectly.
Actually that should have read at least four times a day.
Going by my Fuelly records I have used my scooter at least 300 days, so the seat has been opened a minimum of 1200 times.
Estimating opening duration, at roughly ten minutes a day, the seat has stayed open for around fifty hours.

Consider yourself lucky - go buy a lottery ticket!

dergav · Post by **dergav** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 4:31 pm

seat strut/piston is useless.

Bigboss242 · Post by **Bigboss242** » Fri Feb 27, 2015 1:34 am

Mine hasn't worked since day one I always thought that was how it was supposed to be.

Monty1952 · Post by **Monty1952** » Fri Feb 27, 2015 7:48 am

So 9 votes is not statistically relevant really but 2/3 have or had problems. With it not really being a safety factor I am not sure Honda will rush to a global recall. In some countries the recall law requirements are not just safety driven so you may see some recalls but not globally.
I know in a few weeks I will be cursing the seat again when I put the battery back in and the piece of wood I use to keep the seat fully open falls causing the seat to fall on me yet again! I have warranty (second on seat) repair booked for April. If you exclude the non riding winter months that will be 4 warranty repairs in 4 months.
Out of interest I look at several other brand forums and it seems scooters period do have their share of problems. Google recalls for the major models out there and there is not a brand that escapes issuing some.

speedandstyle · Post by **speedandstyle** » Fri Feb 27, 2015 5:59 pm

I can tell you that it isn't just the Forza's strut that has problems. The one on my 2006 Burgman 400 doesn't work that great. I have to pull the seat all the way up or it won't hold. It also does not like the cold{which makes sense because it is hydraulic}.

An option to waiting on Honda is to simply replace it yourself. There are many affordable struts out there. The trick is finding one with the correct specs{compressed length, uncompressed length, strength, mounts}.

Monty1952 · Post by **Monty1952** » Fri Feb 27, 2015 6:52 pm

I was doing a few things on my Forza today and put the battery back in for a few hours. While doing that the freakin seat fell on me several times and turned what should have been 5 minutes effort into 20 eventually. 10 below freezing in our underground parking and I was cursing Honda and that crazily designed seat! The seat designer must have been hammered on Sake
the day he put that piece of poop into production. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

gn2 · Post by **gn2** » Fri Feb 27, 2015 6:53 pm

speedandstyle wrote:I can tell you that it isn't just the Forza's strut that has problems. The one on my 2006 Burgman 400 doesn't work that great. I have to pull the seat all the way up or it won't hold.

Not sure about the burger, but the Forza seat is only supposed to stay open in the fully raised position.

pruddell · Post by **pruddell** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 2:17 am

My seat will stay up by itself - just - provided that there is no wind and I'm parked on flat ground. I'm not happy about it and have complained to my dealer. I was advised to leave it and see what developed.

Monty1952 · Post by **Monty1952** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:02 am

pruddell wrote:My seat will stay up by itself - just - provided that there is no wind and I'm parked on flat ground. I'm not happy about it and have complained to my dealer. I was advised to leave it and see what developed.

I was shown the Honda dealer notice on this by my dealer mechanic. Slightly lengthy but bottom line, the dealers are instructed to only repair under warranty (or request warranty repair parts) when the seat will not stay open at the top. The fact that they issued a notice on the specific topic simply tells us they know it's a big problem and a defective design. Because they know it's not something that is dangerous during riding let's them off the hook for a full recall.

Forza 300 · Post by **Forza 300** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 5:55 am

SteveP wrote:Mine hasn't failed (4800 miles) but it is "weak"...won't hold the seat open against a light wind.

Mine was like that when new ,wait until you try it in cold weather or if the bike sat outside for the night in cold weather around 0 -8 celsius the seat will fall and hit you in the head. To me it fails if it doesn't hold the seat up in light wind ,after all the scooter was designed to be used outside.

Don

gn2 · Post by **gn2** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 6:32 am

Mine stays up in windy conditions when the temperature is below freezing.
It lives outside uncovered.

dergav · Post by **dergav** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 6:19 pm

AAh...maybe the seat piston was designed by an Aberdonian in Aberdeen?...that would explain it...works in the freezing cold and windy!!....

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