New seats

[K-Man]

"I have been afraid that the exotics are too fragile for a bike seat....Bikers are not know as the most sensative guys when it comes to the treatment of their "ride". Watch 'em do burnouts sometime..... Laying rubber until the tire catches fire and blows out.....Not sure that guy is going to be happy with the durability of a beautiful alligator hide insert in his seat."

Try shark, elephant (main body), or stingray - all very durable skins. Elephant ear and trunk are available also, but are thinner and thus less durable. Ostrich would work, too, if thinned down and then adhered to a 3/4 oz (minimum) piece of veg tan. Stingray can be a pain to sew at times, depending on the means you do it by. A needle and awl machine has fits with it, hand sewing would be absolutely no fun either. I have a couple Artisan Toro 3000s and have had no problems. The shark, ostrich, and elephant are soft - just like leather - so they're easy to sew.

Edited February 21, 2007 by K-Man

[Johanna]

A properly done inlay is durable enough for a seat, but I don't recall seeing too many bikes with inlays on the seats. The gas tank, yes, but not the seat. I used to keep a scrap with different samples (snake, stingray, etc. ) sewn and laced in different styles to show people because most don't know what options are available. That "scrap" sold a lot of belts. Inlays are more work, but then the price goes up accordingly...something to think about.

Johanna

[ClayB]

The lace is Tandy's 3/16" 55006-03 natural calfskin lace. It is very inconsistant in quality so if you know of a good source for 2-3 oz 3/16" lace please let me know. Dave

Dave,

You might want to try some kangaroo lace. I have been getting it from Jim Downey and the quality is good and so is the consistancy. It comes in dozens of colors.

Jim Downey

Box 30

Skull Valley, AZ 86338

928 442 3638

928 925 3365 cell

j.c.downey@worldnet.att.net

[BruceGibson]

Just a quick side note...if the K-Man who posted at #41 is who I think it is, then we have a holster-maker extraordinaire among us. And he's got PICTURES!

Kevin, would you create a "Holster" entry here in the Show-Off section?

[BruceGibson]

Back on track--thank you again, Dave. What are you using for seat padding?

And I agree with the posts on kangaroo lace--the stuff is said to be the toughest and densest of all leathers for its weight. I don't know if that's true, and I've never laced with it, but I have braided a fair amount and it's some strong stuff. If you ever want whole kangaroo hides Weaver's got them.

I use Alum Tanned latigo for bullrope handle lacing, and that stuff takes a lot of abuse with little stretch. I cut my own because precut's aren't wide enough, or long enough. Plus, it tends to pull down and get narrower. For your purposes you'd have to split it down, but it may be worth a try. When I lace rope handles, I saddle soap the heck out of it to limber it up (after beveling the edges) and it lays down real nice. It tends to be real dry.

[wolvenstien]

I am interested to know if you have done any recovers.... I have a 98 Honda Magna, with the main seat and passenger seat as two parts, and I would like to recover it this spring and make it look good. I have already covered my tank with a chap and added other lether to the bike as well. I just dont know about seats.... I dont want to pull my seats apart and not be able to recover them and a month later not have a bike to ride... Any info that can be given would be great.

Mike

[Johanna]

Kangaroo is wonderful lace...stretches just enough, uniform thickness, good hand...but the ultimate in lace is made of goat. It's hard to find these days, but if you use goat lace, you will never want calf again. It's stronger than kanga and will not "snap" when pulled. I have very seldom seen old goat lace dry rotted, even on items that were never properly cared for.

Johanna

[Guest]

Thanks to everyone on the last day's responses.

There was a wealth of information in them. I will be looking into the kangaroo lace.....my only encounter with kangaroo leather is that my son used to play soccer in kangaroo skin soccer "boots". They sure were tough but very comfortable once you learned how to break them in.

I'll be contacting Jim Downey this evening about roo lace.

Thank you all for the very kind words, I've responded to wolvenstien in a separate email.

Dave Theoebald

[wolvenstien]

Sorry if my post sounded like I was asking for someone to do my seat for me, I was not, I was asking if anyone had experiance with re-covering factory OEM seats.

[BruceGibson]

Dave,

Here's the link to Jeremiah Watt's Blog that has the stingray seat insert on one of his custom saddles. I think you (and the rest of us) will enjoy his carving, too. The guy does amazing work. I think you'll find a bunch of ideas that you may want to incorporate into your bike seats...heck, technically they're "saddles" too!

There are also examples of what he does on scrap pieces of leather to come up with different ideas for leaves, flowers, scrolls, etc., to use in his carving.

As an artisan, he's one of the standouts that always come to mind--he makes the Horseshoe Brand tool line, builds custom saddles (5-year backlog last I heard), does silver work, makes his own saddle trees--from raw lumber to rawhide-covered finished tree, and last Fall rode his bike from California to Norfolk, Virginia.

Beyond all that, I don't think he does much.

I post this here for the saddle seat inserts we were talking about, but I think everybody will find something to learn from...

Here's the link, y'all: http://www.westernfolklife.org/weblogs/artists/watt/