Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
It's the lack of lean I struggle with on the 80x seats, so sounds quite promising! All of this sounds like great news just as I'm starting to resume regular trips down to London.
I find the issue with Sophias is pretty much the same as the OP describes. The seat base is shaped a bit like this, i.e. the back of the cushion is more than twice the thickness of the underthigh bit:
front - back
****\____/
The main problem I find with them is that you can feel where it drops as the cushion is too soft. The heavier you are, the worse it is, which is why some can't feel it. It's less of an issue on very new units, but as they get older they all collapse and it happens.
You can see why this is if you see the slightly odd shape of cushion they are actually designed for. If fitted with this type of cushion, neither bit is too thin.
The problem is thus that DaFT and FirstGroup cheaped out.
Fainsa Sophia seats - photo from the Compin Fainsa website - note the raised bit at the front