Attaching/drilling to a hard seat

[belgiangoth]

I was wondering about attaching:
* bottle cages
* rear light
* an attachment for a saddlebag
to the back of my recumbent's seat.

I figured that it would be a case of taking out the drill - there's already a diy headrest attached by the previous owner. Is there something I should consider before I irretrievably damage it? I'm IKEA furniture level of DIY skills so a little nervous, but the cost of bespoke recumbent solutions is even more frightening.

[nigelnightmare]

Fit the rear light to the headrest post/rods.
^^"ICE trikes" sell a bracket for this .^^

The more holes you drill in the seat the weaker it will be.

Have a look online to see how other's have done theirs.

HTH

[belgiangoth]

Fit the rear light to the headrest post/rods.
^^"ICE trikes" sell a bracket for this .^^

I've sen that, but I don't have n ice headrest. Mine is more of a flat bit of metal than a tube.

[ONETAL]

WP_20180822_001.jpg

I made a light bracket out of an aero bar extension. I've also drilled holes for bottle cages with out a problem on hard shell seats.

[nigelnightmare]

I take it you have the body link seat.
HP Velotechnik sell a bottle mounting plate for two bottles behind the seat. 49 euros.
Alternatively you could zipp tie one to the seat mount tube.

Pictures would help.

[recumbentpanda]

Drilling into any kind of fibre reinforced laminate is a bit of a mission. Unless precautions are taken, the drill bit can easily skate about and wander on the gel coat. Glass fibre is horrible crunchy stuff, like trying to accurately drill shreddies. Carbon fibre even worse, plus the dust and debris is hazardous to health. Having said that, the hard shell seat on my bike has sixteen holes drilled in it as part of the original design, for mounting the seat itself, plus racks and headrests, -strength does not seem to be an issue on either the glass or carbon versions.

[PDQ Mobile]

I sucessfully drilled one to take a Klikfix bar bag mount.
Just to state the obvious, use largeish washers to spread the load around the hole.