Saddlemen K602 seat cover?

[Turbojoe]

Wondering if anyone has recovered their 500 seat. After a particularly brutal summer this year the cosmetics on my bike really took a beating and it really hasn't spent as much time as usual out in the direct sun this summer as back problems have relegated me to the old PT Cruiser for transport. The seat has been recovered by a shop before I bought the bike and this cover started showing some cracks and quickly started splitting like a spider web as it dried out and got brittle. The clear coat has burned off the front fender and the paint is fading on the tank. The clear coat is burning off the side of the car too! Oh well, fall will be here soon along with those great temps that are perfect for riding any time of day or night here.

I've been looking at the Saddlemen seat cover on ebay. EVERYBODY sells it for $72.00 and then one seller dropped it to $69.84. What the heck...I pulled the trigger and it should be here on Friday the 16th. I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos on recovering seats and it looks like even I should have success.I know the cover comes with instructions but can't find them to download from Saddlemen website, Google or YouTube. It would just be nice to look them over before it gets here. No biggie I guess.

When I get up the nerve to go to the point of no return with pulling the old cover off I'll post my impressions of the product and pictures of the finished seat. The top center section shows to have a different texture. I hope it's more heat and sun resistant than what is on there now.

Joe

[Turbojoe]

Not a lot of traffic here anymore but what the hell, I'll keep posting on this seat re-cover as I progress. The Saddlemen seat cover got here today and it looks really, really, REALLY good. The center section has a slightly rough texture that still looks good and will definitely keep my butt planted firmly in place. No more sliding around in the saddle. Buttons are already installed in the factory locations so aside from the textured center section it'll look just like factory.... I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew with this though. I did test and my staple gun can sink staples into the plastic pan all the way home so that's good. I won't have to buy a new staple gun and that's a good thing. I have never done ANY upholstery work and as far as installing it over MY existing seat cover using the drawstring method Saddlemen suggests as one alternative installation method......that ain't gonna happen. WAY too tight with the extra 1" of foam they applied to the cover. Also, my seat was recovered once before I bought the bike. It may have extra foam underneath the cover. I'll find out when I remove it. I'm not going to try using the new cover as just a "cover" over the old crap. I hope once I remove the old stuff the new cover will be easier to pull into place. I'm sure I'll have several false starts with this but I'm sure the effort will be worthwhile in the end. I plan to try to work on it this weekend but I doubt that will happen. I haven't had a free weekend from work call outs for months.

Joe

[Turbojoe]

Can't get the site to upload all pictures so let's try this.....I'll add the rest to THIS post.......

Joe

[Triangles]

Interesting. Be sure to take plenty of pictures so we all can learn. I bought a second seat years ago with plans of doing a custom seat build. I just never found the time to do it and the stock seat is tolerable for the most part. So I've lacked motivation to move forward on this. Someday I might give it a try.

[Turbojoe]

I definitely bit off more than I could chew at first. Found out my manual staple gun that on first try drove a few staples in OK. Going through the cover AND at some of the offset angles showed that stapler was worthless for this job. I started looking online at prices for electric and pneumatic staple guns. After my heart started beating again I went to the Harbor Freight site. Now THAT'S my kind of pricing for something I'll likely only use once! I got the http://www.harborfreight.com/20-gauge-wide-crown-stapler-68029.html Also grabbed some 5/16" staples for about $3.99. This stapler does an awesome job! Drives the staples in fully and never jams. It's a must have.....

The cover install.......Right off I found that the really nice looking buttons supplied have long metal clasps like you see on an office envelope. They are way too short to reach through the seat and out the hole in the seat pan. Even if they reached just bending over the tabs would NEVER hold the buttons in. I ended up using the buttons from the old cover. Not as pretty but they use nylon string and little stubs next to the seat pan holes to lock that string to when you get the buttons to the right tension. I replaced the string with longer sections of nylon string normally used in chalk lines. I'll cut it to proper length when done. Installing the cover is not that hard really. I centered and stapled the front and rear ends of the cover first and started working my way around. For the last few days I've been fighting trying to get the last 3 inches up and over the point where the main seat starts to kick up for the rear seat area. I just can't get it to stretch over so I can staple it and be done! As much as I hate to I may have to pull the 64,872 staples out and remove the extra foam layer that was supplied with the cover. It feels SO much better with it though. I'm going to keep fighting it as I feel the urge and hopefully get the cover on WITH the extra foam. I'm in no huge rush right now and only mess with it when I feel like it.

I'll post some pictures when it's done. With the new staples and pink string I used on the buttons you'll be able to see exactly what I had to do.

Joe

[Triangles]

On my factory seat the buttons are molded into the cover.

[Turbojoe]

On my factory seat the buttons are molded into the cover.

My seat had been recovered at least once so not sure what it had originally. Those nubs next to the holes in the pan are definitely button string related though. Having the buttons in place with tension from the string will help keep the cover from shifting and I don't want to abandon that. I REALLY don't want to remove the extra foam either. I'm still in no rush so I'll plug away at trying to get those last few inches to play nice and let me finish the staple job. If it wasn't so blasted tight in that last area the entire cover installation would take 30 minutes tops. Again, I have zero upholstery experience so I'm probably doing absolutely everything wrong.....

Joe

[Turbojoe]

Well I finally got off my butt and finished up the seat cover install. I got my buddy to bring back my heat gun that he's had for close to a year now. Using the heat gun did the trick to help me get that last little area stretched over the edge and stapled into place. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. A good staple gun and a heat gun are absolutely critical for success though. With the right tools it's not a hard job at all even for someone like me that has never done any upholstery work at all. It's also a TON cheaper than buying a new seat or even a used one for that matter.

I'm a little on the fence about the strap now. With the extra foam it puckers the cover a bit but after a few days of the Phoenix sun it'll probably lay down just fine. I'm sure it'll tighten the area between the main seat are buttons too.

Joe

[Turbojoe]

Ho-Lee cow! I wish I had done the seat YEARS ago! I put the seat back on and took the dirty little girl down to the quarter car wash to blast three major Arizona dust storms worth of accumulated silt off of her. Unfortunately she lives in a covered patio partly exposed to the elements. For not having been ridden in about 3 months I'm surprised everything was just fine after putting some air in the tires. Fired right up and ran like she was parked only yesterday.

After the bath I was planning a ride for a few blocks just to blow off the remaining water but that turned into a 40 mile ride. With my disc herniations at L-4 and L-5 it's difficult for me to sit very long and especially to ride more than 30 minutes tops without extreme pain. I'm glad I stuck with it and left the supplied extra 1" of memory foam. No more scooting my butt around trying to get comfortable. The extra foam adds just enough to the rear section height to act as a minor lumbar support. PLUS it's soooooooooooooooo much more cushy and comfortable. I got back home with no additional back pain. THAT'S a FIRST! Worsening back problems and the record breaking Arizona heat this year is what made me park her for a while.

Keep in mind the old seat had been recovered by an upholstery shop according to the previous owner and not with a factory cover. It did have about a 1/8" layer of additional foam on it when I pulled the cover off. Why did they even bother? The base foam was undamaged. The entire time I've owned the bike the seat was the only thing I didn't really like about it. (OK the crappy head pipes breaking sucks too). Time will tell how the new cover and extra foam holds up to the Arizona elements. Honestly, if I have to replace it after every summer I'll be OK with that just for the increase in comfort. It'll be worth every penny. I never gush about ANY product but the transformation this seat cover (and foam insert) made in taking the original seat from riding on a stack of bricks to riding in an overstuffed chair has been phenomenal. Looking forward to riding her to work every day again!

Joe

[Turbojoe]

Well we had the longest run of 100 AND 90 degree days in Arizona history last month. I've been riding the 500 to work all but two days. It sits in the parking lot fully exposed to the elements all day with no shade whatsoever. The seat still looks like the day I finished it. It's still a pleasure to sit on for the ride home. It's absolutely amazing what a difference that little bit of foam and the soft leather of the cover have made in the ride experience. Now that it's FINALLY starting to cool off into the 80's I'm thinking about a nice long ride next weekend. That seat cover is the best money I've ever spent on this bike!

Joe