Two-Up Harley Seat Questions

[The Butcher]

Hello,

I am planning on totally re-doing the seat on my 1983 Harley FLHT. Anyone who knows the FLH line knows these seats are quite a bit larger and much more "shapely" than a solo or a pillion seat. I am really looking forward to customizing this bike to be a real killer and wanted to do a seat that will look bad-to-the-bone as well as be functional for two people since my wife rides with me a lot.

Question is, what helpful tips can anyone here give me as far as what guage leather works best on a seat that has many bends and stretches to it, but yet can be tooled too........I have a great design in mind for it. Also, what pattern works best when doing a touring-type seat?......should it be a two piece, three piece design, should I plan on stitching or lacing it.......(I really want to keep the connecting points small and flat if I use lace, so I'm not sure what lace pattern to use. I am so comfuzed!!....

Got big plans for this old girl and thought you people would be great to turn to for some solid advice.

Thanks in advance.

[BillB]

The Butcher,

I have had both a 1991 Tour Glide Ultra (FLTCU) and a 2000 Road Glide (FLTRI) with an add on Ultra package. My wife and I have put over 100,000 miles on the bike riding two up and I have an additional 100,000 solo. My suggestion is that you consider using two weights of leather. A heavy weight for the sitting area that will also be tooled and a lower weight leather for the sides where all the folds are. Are you planning to use the original seat pan? Are you doing a Zeppelin seat (the one with inflate-able air bags? Do you also plan to do any back rests? Since I had the Ultra version, I would have to do the seat, the passenger backrest and the driver backrest. Not sure if you have all of them. Again you could do different weights on each.. You should also consider how much flexing you want to have in the leather. which also goes with the type of foam you are going to use. There is nothing worse than a seat that gets hard after 300 miles when one is trying to get 500 in on a day. Which brings up the point of "is this for show or is this for touring?"

Just some things to consider.

BillB

[The Butcher]

Thanks Bill,

The bike will be used regularly......whenever I have built a custom they are for show and go both......I was going to use the original seat pan, but decided to Fiberglas form a new pan and use the closed cell foam to recreate a moe form fitted seat to my particular bike.

I appreciate the advice......I was thinking of the two different weights for the top and sides, as well.

I do have a passenger backrest but think I have that planned out.......the seat was the biggest concern I had

[BillB]

I had considered recovering my FLTRI Zeppelin Seat with Buffalo hides due to it's weight, yet flexible and durable nature. It was jot suitable for tooling, so you have to work with the natural look, feel and grain patterns which in and of themselves were quite interesting. You could even say that you were riding an "iron buffalo" rather than an "iron horse". If you want heavy weight sides, you might want to look at buffalo hides. I never did do the recover since my joints got the best of me and I sold the HD to our son. One thing that I have found as I have looked at a number of production "leather seats" is that they use leather only in the sitting area and use synthetics for the sides and areas that have to flex a lot. I look forward to seeing pictures of the seat.

BillB