I didn't pull the seat. I used a 2 X 3 foot piece of plywood and a jack stand.
My bolt was a bit longer than necessary and to hard to remove from to the right. So I bent the bracket a touch to get it out. I shortened the bolt up for reassembly. Bent the bracket back.
Clamping to the snout is the way to go! Thanks! This also allows more handle throw all of which falls under category 1: grotesque error on my understanding of what I was looking at. No seat was the way to go, I guess no Cirque du Soleil after all.