denty said:
Rircardo
You really seem to know your stuff.
I was just about to place an order for a corbin seat (got the same deal as Rollo) and then your piece on this tread - then spent the next couple of hours researching you seat suggestions.
Richs' seats look good, but I won't be able to pay him a visit so those are ruled out. Don't fancy Russell seats (not into sprung seats). Rocky Mayer's look interesting but what do you think of RICKY Mayers ?
His web site is very interesting and I like the look of his seats (I prefer the stitched look). He seems to know what he's talking about. The price would equate to about the same as the corbin but Ricky requires the seat pan (corbin doesn't). I think if I can get hold of the adventure seat pan in the US and ship directly to him I might take that option., One thing that put me off the corbin was that I'd lose seat height - I'm 6ft 1 and I find the original seat height fine and don't want to lose any leg room. As far as I can tell I wouldn't lose any seat height with the Ricky Mayer seat.
Have you had any experience of these seats ??
Cheers
Denty
let see to many questions to answer...
first the COrbin Possition,,,,to me the most important factor...
in the case of the GS ADVenture corbin provide you with a seat that is far lower and much farder back then stock(horrible for passangers by the way),even funnier(on a very sad way) since the seat is really wide at the front and does not provide any improvement on the stand over height(leg reach) the GS's love to be ride with forward vias weight,since the steering is kind of "disconnected"(you don't get much feedback) the more mass you put on the front the better the bike is going to handle...
one thing i can not believe is that you guys don't have anybody on that wonderful country that can make a proper seat,your country man have international fame in terms of quality of crafmanship and Inovation,,just remenber is not just about recovering the seat to make it look better or even different ,the really important part is under the cover and how the seat foam is crafted,,I will say look around in your country first most be some harley seat maker or a wheelchair manufacture that know about ergonomics
about the Corbin and then the rest of the seat manufactures...
will you ever go to a clotthing store and just buy a pair of shoes?,,any size....No.!!!!!!!!!!!
well that is what the current corbin proposal is,a one size fits all when in reality each person have diferent needs and for sure diferent body arquitectures...
also the current Corbin quality leave a lot to be desire(covers break,sttiches fall apart,foam delaminate,,etc),,just check on ADVrider for all the complains,,tons of them all over the place)
many times I see guys like Rocky making seats for guys in europe and in fact all over the world,they only need your pictures(side views, seating, standings, next to the bike ,,etc) and a comprehesive letter explaining what you want to achive,I'm sure Ricky,rich,russell provide a similar service,what ever the result is I'm sure will be far better than corbin can provide,,actually corbin seats are pretty comfortable the only problem that they present is that they decrease the way the motorcycle handle,in short if what you want is a "couch" for your living room go for it,if you want a Proper Seat to make your bike a better vehicle stay away from them..also remenber that when you move your body farder back and low you also need to adapt the rest of the bike to this new possition,the windscreen is going to make more noise (since is a bigger gap for the air to generate turbulence) the instruments are going to be farder away but more than anything the bars for that new condicion need to be re-arrange by moving them backwards this bringing at added cost for barbacks and then a detriment in the way the bike respond since is more "CHopper like" than use to be(I see about 4cms change from stock seats to corbins,,ridiculous if you ask me.
seat pans...
the stock seat pan is made of a flexible plastic and features certain level of flexibility(suspension,moldavility),like on a modern bicycle seat were the plastic of the seat plays as much of a role as the foam on the seat,,actually the touratech pans are really nicelly made but the fibre glass on the corbin is just way to stiff not to mension really heavy...
I see seats on
IBMWR.org all the time,take a look on the oilhead twin section and figure out a way to send a pan to whoever you select,,but do you self a favor first and look around you country(at least Europe) for a guy that know this trade, most be somebody even from the Vintage car trade that understand how a seat needs to be made
also remenber to try to stay as close as you can to the bars and as high as you possibly can, this way your legs will have more room,plus if you stand up will be far better for the transitions(I do know you guys never ride in the dirt) also make sure that the seat is narrow at the front to gain reach were you legs are more paralel when in comparation to a Corbin seat that is like seating on a horse mount
