I don't think mine is leather either (08 SERK), not that it matters tho . . . even if it was, it is damn uncomfortable. I'm always shifting around trying to find the "pocket", where your arse is supposed be!
Even though I've read a lot of complaints about various things on these bikes, Overall, I'm pretty satisfied (knock on wood), with the exception of the seat! Not sure what I'm gonna get yet, but the stock seat HAS TO GO!
For whatever it's worth, I had to keep the BSR happy and I did buy another seat. Just to keep it simple and quick, I bought the standard Sundowner seat from HD. It's butt ugly, as others have said, pun intended. That's the seat, not my butt....
I find it comfortable for riding like in Sturgis the past two weeks, a few hundred miles/day, but I'm not sure it would be an over the road long haul seat. The BSR loves the comfort on it compared to the stock SERK seat.
There was a guy at Sturgis making seats and I was going to ask him what he would charge to recover the stock Sundowner seat with a little more styling to it, but he was busy Thursday when I was there and then I went back early Sunday morning and he had already packed up and long gone.
From what I read here, there are very few seats that fit well for all the sizes we come in. What fits and works for me will probably only work for me, and so on. Seating is very subjective.
I will say this, that when I built my '40 Willys street rod, I bought a Glide seat from out west I think, and had it done in red leather. I used the foam kit that came with the seat and it was soft and felt good on the butt'r rooney. But after driving from Michigan to Bonneville in just a couple short days, the butt was feeling quite sore. Apparently the softness of the seat is counter to what it should be. I met a guy on our R&C tour, George Poteet, and he told me that he always pads "under" the springs to reinforce the seat even more. So after I got home and had just put 6,200 miles on it in 23 days, I took out the seat and did what George recommended. I built a bottom subfloor and padded between that and the springs. Now after that it felt firm, but was a lot more comfortable. On the soft seat it really does pinch your butt cheeks and that's what gets to you first.
I think the Sundowner is comfortable but still just a bit on the soft side. I know some of you guys have the pillow seats on the SEUC's, do they tend to pinch as well?