Too hot for leathers- my custom seat cover

[rowdy]

My old seat had a couple of tiny tears in it, and I managed to bag a brand new one off of the bay for a whole £5.
With my old seat sitting redundant in the garage and an old suede coat kicking around I thought I'd have a crack at recovering the seat.

So, to start, take one suede jacket and a pair of scissors
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/20120810_122458.jpg

Add a staple gun, as the piece of suede I was using had a seam on it, I turned the seat upside down and started at the back of the seat in the middle, to get the seam central. I then worked my way backwards from the sides, starting just about central, pulling it tight to stop it sagging as much as possible.

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/20120810_121537.jpg
Having roughly stapled the all the way around the back and sides of the seat I then trimmed up the excess material and redid any dodgy staples that hadn't gone in properly.
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/20120810_121603.jpg

I then worked around the front of the seat, trimming the corners as I went. You have to keep pulling the material tight at the edges and spreading the material with the other hand to keep all wrinkles and sagging out of the material. The front is a little tricky as the material will be very tight around it but it was all good and didn't take long at all to do in the end.
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/20120810_124121.jpg

Have to excuse the pictures, taken on my phone and it has uploaded them all the wrong way round and can't for the life of me get them to copy and paste onto here once I've corrected them :???:

And fitted to the bike (you'll have to turn your head to the side)

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/20120810_125014.jpg
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/20120810_125022.jpg
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/20120810_124959.jpg
http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz220/rowdy_23/20120810_125044.jpg

Hopefully uploaded now!

[flymo]

cant see any pics

[rowdy]

Anyone see them?
just looked on my phone and they aren't there, but they show on my laptop.

[Elliott]

Nope me neither

[rowdy]

Anyone know what I might have done wrong?
I took the pics on phone and emailed them to my email address, then moved them to the pictures folder on the laptop. When I try and copy and paste them onto here from the pictures folder it won't let me but it let me copy and paste them from the email that I sent myself.

I am not the best with computers :-)

[punkyp]

Upload to http://tinypic.com/ and use the links it gives you. The src you have set the images to in in your live mail account, that is why you can see them on your laptop.

EDIT: Use the resize option if they are massive.

[rowdy]

Thanks, I've got a photobucket account will try through that.

[rowdy]

Right, hopefully you can see them now :).

[rictus01]

that should soak up water nicely....;)

[flymo]

nice job

[rowdy]

that should soak up water nicely....;)
I've left the original cover on so it doesn't soak through to the sponge. I still have the other seat so the suede one can be for summer use only (+ the nudger be'em behind the sv is the winter hack anyway) :thumleft:

[Elliott]

Actually really like it!

[rictus01]

fair enoughI tend to stick to textured vinyl myself.

[rowdy]

fair enoughI tend to stick to textured vinyl myself.
Its up to you what you get up to behind closed doors rictus ;).

[maviczap]

Nay bad look you've got there, should be a bit more grippy than vinyl?

[rowdy]

Thanks, its quite grippy yes, but to be honest it was just an excercise in fannying about and making good a slightly torn seat + its original :)

[missyburd]

that should soak up water nicely....;)
Lol that's the first thing I thought! But not so bad with the original cover underneath...

Back when I rode on the back of YC a lot we did a similar thing with some non-slip mat, just on the pillion seat to stop me sliding about as much...and 'cos we were too tight to spend £13 or whatever it is on a Triboseat :smt082 Worked a treat. Nowt wrong with a bit of DIY upholstering :cool: Good job, looks rather posh!

[rowdy]

It did cross my mind before I started but I thought bolox its a motorbike if it rains your gonna get wet.

Anywho whats this doing in bikes talk and issues, I swear I posted it in sv section :confused:

[Bibio]

i was wondering what a suede seat would look like. i like :-)

[P-J]

Yep I like!:) Gonna copy it now :D

[Kenzie]

Don't let it get wet or it may stain. Nice job though.

[missyburd]

Don't let it get wet or it may stain. Nice job though.
'Pends if his leathers are black or not, otherwise wouldn't be an issue! :p

[femaleacid]

Actually looks really smart - definitely done a good job :) as for the rain it would be quite uncomfortable but if yiure wearing leathers it shouldn't be too much of a problem especially with standard seat cover under it. But if you're wearing textiles - ooooo that'd be cold and wet! :lol:

[rino60]

One thing I noticed, was just how perfectly aligned that centre seam was.

Tops job mate, really well done

[rowdy]

Thanks very much. One thing to remember if anyone is going to try this is to staple the back of the seat in the middle, and then proceed from the lowest point of the saddle. This way I find easier to keep the material tight.

Oh, and another thing http://www.gear-zone.co.uk/outdoor-footwear/footwear-accessories/shoe-care/nikwax-nubuck-and-suede-waterproofing-spray-125ml ;-)

[m`baubz]

i really love how the above link got shortened