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[Twolanerider]

The problem of considering rear crash guards has come up pretty often.

[Twolanerider]

Remove the seat.

[Twolanerider]

Drill through the center of the pop rivets in an area about three rivets from center in each direction from your marks.

[Twolanerider]

The leather is not glued down.  There is a water proof membrane (I assume that's what it is anyway) directly beneath the leather.  Don't damage that more than can be avoided.

Fold the leather back and you'll find the ridge at the edge of the seat pan that is the area that contacts the bars.  That's the area to be worked on.  There is plenty of "give" in the leather to allow you plenty of room to work.

[Twolanerider]

A Dremel with a rotary sanding tool was the perfect little tool for this job.  Grind away the material in the area to be cleared.  Don't take a ton the first time.  Remove material, set the seat on the bike and see how you're doing for clearance.  Remove enough to allow the seat to clear the bar.  Don't grind away more than necessary as you could get through the hard glass and find padding (so says the guy at Corbin).

[Twolanerider]

Once enough fiberglass has been removed then blow everything off and lay the leather back down.  While sanding/grinding be sure and feather the edges so as not to leave a rough or sharp edge or other contact point that would eat the leather from the inside.

With the leather laid back down the rivet holes from the ends will still match back up just fine.  Pull some new pop rivets in the holes and work your way in toward the center of the work area.  

In the area you've worked it will likely be necessary to drill two or three new holes to account for the new shape of the pan and the way the leather will lay.  Just smooth the hide out and where it lays best rivet it in place.

When drilling new holes be sure and don't drill more deeply than necessary.   You actually have a fair amount of dead area above where you're working but it would be possible to push either out through the side or up in to the heater or electrics if you got really carried away.

When it's all laid back down and rivets back in place you hardly even notice the area you've ground out.  Will look better if you feathered out the work area rather than leaving a more abrupt transition point.

[Twolanerider]

When it's done it'll set down over the bar and look pretty much like a stock seat would that had been built to account for the crash guards.   The discoloration on the seat and the bar is fiberglass dust that hasn't been cleaned off yet

[Twolanerider]

Of course the tasks described will need to be done on both sides.

[darkvisorman]

I like your seat combo, with the studs and the piping how much was the complete item?
DVM

[Twolanerider]

I like your seat combo, with the studs and the piping how much was the complete item?
DVM

That one is heated doc so they charge extra.  It's the Corbin "dual touring" saddle.  Just checked their website to make sure it hadn't changed from when I bought mine.  Looks like it has gone up a bit since then.  They're charing $800 for the heated seat, $650 for the same thing without the heating element built in.  The backrest you see in the picture is now showing at $200.00.  

They don't charge any extra for the different colored welt bead or different variants of the leathers or other fabrics.  So you can get pretty radical if you want.

I was so tempted to go with a seat body that was a dark gold with the burgundy beading.  Thougth it would look really good on there.  But in the end I chickened out.  It looks good the way it is though so I'm happy  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]