Recovering seat - leather vs. vinyl

[JPaganel]

Last fall on a cold day my seat cover cracked. I'd like to fix this.

The original seat cover is a single piece of vinyl stretched over the seat. That's easy enough to replicate. All I need is a piece of vinyl, I have a heat gun to shape it. Marine-grade vinyl is about $50/yard locally.

eBay has several choices. There are a couple of shaped vinyl covers for about the same price as a yard of vinyl. Upside is, I can pick a fancier vinyl pattern, like carbon fiber grain.

There is also an outfit out of UK with the eBay handle topgaiters. They have a leather cover for $80 or so. Comes with the passenger half of the seat in different colors. Here is one of their auctions.

Has anyone used one of their covers? $30 isn't that big a difference, is it worthwhile going to leather?

[movenon]

Leather looks good but not to waterproof.  I would stick to a vinyl product.
George

[Joe Sull]

I recovered my seat a couple of weeks ago. You my have missed the post.

http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=10694.0

I payed $16 with the shipping, enough vinyl to do two seats.

[aviationfred]

I have a Corbin Gunfighter and Lady for My 89' with the seating areas made with Leather and a Corbin Gunfighter for my 87' with the seating areas made of vinyl. I have found with the firmer foam used on the Corbin seats, that the leather makes the seat almost too hard. I will be having the Gunfighter and Lady recovered sometime this spring with all vinyl.

For a OEM seat cover, I would recommend the following. I used the cover for my OEM seat and have since sold it. I liked it very much while I had it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yamaha-FJ-1200-SEAT-COVER-/141213193688?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts_13&hash=item20e0f655d8&vxp=mtr





Fred

[ribbert]

Has anyone used one of their covers? $30 isn't that big a difference, is it worthwhile going to leather?

Leather is the premium material for many things, clothing, shoes/boots, gloves etc. Motorbike seats are not one of them.
For comfort, durability, maintenance and appearance vinyl is by far the superior product for this application.

Noel

[Arnie]

I had a leather covered seat on my Norton Commando.  It looked nice when first installed, but didn't handle weather very well, and was slippery when wet.  I also had a Bultaco Metralla with a wide strip of suede down the center of the seat.  Great when dry, very cold and slippery when wet, and it stayed wet a long time.
(note: I did not have any incontinence problems, then or now)

I'd go with one of the vinyl seat covers.

[chocker]

Hi,
I recovered my seat with a Sargent seat cover that comes in either regular looking vinyl or the carbon fiber look. I bought the carbon fiber one. It was 69.90$ shipped in the US. Here is a picture

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz86/chockerca/SONY-VAIO/Pictures/20140313_163410.jpg

I recovered it myself. Not perfect but I think it is a good enough job compared to the original one.

Mark