Corbin worth the $$$?

What are the pros and cons of going with leather vs vinyl if rebuilding custom with a stock seat pan?

First, my brother had a Corbin on his Triumph Tiger and loved it. Despite being of similar build, I wasn't fond of it. There were pressure points and also a restricted seating position; I prefer flat seats I can move freely around.

Pro leather: Breathable, exclusive, supple
Pro plastic: Rugged, fairly waterproof, easy to clean, require no particular maintenance

Con leather: Must be regularly maintained, can stain, leaks and hold water
Con plastic: Hard when cold, sticky when hot

gwolever wrote: That seat looks great fordtruck. I wonder if the one with the seat pan already attached from ebay would fit on my bike like it says it would?

I don't know. The main thing to consider is the shipping charge. If I remember correctly the shipping on the complete seat was very expensive.

VenturaRider wrote: What are the pros and cons of going with leather vs vinyl if rebuilding custom with a stock seat pan?

leather is used on the seating surface leather breathes and traditionally wears better however alot of the leather is imported these days with the boom in discount leather upholstery (couches etc...)and doesnt hold up

most leather seats are a combination leather seating surface with matching vinyl trim

vinyl is cheaper and can be more versital most shops would rather use vinyl for intricate designs
pleating and soforth. as any miss stitch cant be hidden and ruins a 100.00 piece of leather instead of a 20.00 piece of vinyl

most people can't tell the difference as the vinyls have faux leather patterns these days

some seats are moulded and recovering with leather is near impossible without inappropriate pleats or darts unless the leather worker has many years of fine leather moulding exp.

so

Leather Pro= richer custom look,longer wear natural breathable less heat/cold
Con= More expensive, less versitile

Vinyl Pro- verstital durable less expensive
Con= cheaper looking (depending) man made product doesnt breathe aids in sweating in heat dries out and gets less pliable over time and tends to rip and crack

I am sure there are more pros and cons for each as a former auto trim man I prefer the richness of leather but prefer to work with viny

Corbin may work great or not. Don't matter as they are butt ugly. Not as ugly as them Guliani seats by 10x but still ugly with a capital UG. I'm sure ugly is second in line to comfortable for majority of guys, but for me ugly is out, and them seats are ugly! Sorry, I'll say less ugly than them Gulianis at least so if you must go ugly choose Corbin I suppose. By Guliani I mean them rediculous hump back pieces of? Well can't speak, but humpbacks belong on a camel, not a KZ, not any motorcycle for that matter.

I got a gunfighter from Roy awhile back, its a good seat but i've decided to go cafe on mine so i may be selling it

I'm gonna throw something out to you all that I thought of a couple of months ago but have not had the time to try yet. Last fall my buddy Rock turned me on to a place called Pull-A-Part when I was needing some parts for my motorhome. They have an interesting business model for a junkyard, the way it works is they buy junked cars, drain the fluids from them and then place them on jackstands made from welded together wheels, the customer goes to the yard and canibalizes whatever parts he needs.

The cool thing is the parts are the same price regardless of what type of car it is removed from. So a waterpump would cost the same for a Lexus as it would for a Chevy. This got me to thinking and what I'm planning on doing is to remove the leather seat cover from the rear seat from a big luxury car (lets sat a Caddy or a Lincoln)which will cost me $3.53 plus tax and my time to remove it. This should give me enough material to cover 1 possibly 2 motorcycle seats. I've never done this kind of work before but hey if it turns out looking like shit I'm only out four bucks and some time.

Rock bought a 77 1000 LTD from me and he has been working on it off and on this winter. One thing it needs is to have the seat re-done so his bike may be our first test case. I'll let you know how it goes when we get to it but I wanted to throw this idea out to everyone here in case you wanted to give it a try. Pull-A-Part has yards in many states and you can go online to check the inventory at any given location.

Sorry if I jacked this thread a little but I figured someone might get some benefit from the idea or if I'm totally out to lunch you'll tell me.

The Gringo wrote: I'm gonna throw something out to you all that I thought of a couple of months ago but have not had the time to try yet. Last fall my buddy Rock turned me on to a place called Pull-A-Part when I was needing some parts for my motorhome. They have an interesting business model for a junkyard, the way it works is they buy junked cars, drain the fluids from them and then place them on jackstands made from welded together wheels, the customer goes to the yard and canibalizes whatever parts he needs.

The cool thing is the parts are the same price regardless of what type of car it is removed from. So a waterpump would cost the same for a Lexus as it would for a Chevy. This got me to thinking and what I'm planning on doing is to remove the leather seat cover from the rear seat from a big luxury car (lets sat a Caddy or a Lincoln)which will cost me $3.53 plus tax and my time to remove it. This should give me enough material to cover 1 possibly 2 motorcycle seats. I've never done this kind of work before but hey if it turns out looking like shit I'm only out four bucks and some time.

Rock bought a 77 1000 LTD from me and he has been working on it off and on this winter. One thing it needs is to have the seat re-done so his bike may be our first test case. I'll let you know how it goes when we get to it but I wanted to throw this idea out to everyone here in case you wanted to give it a try. Pull-A-Part has yards in many states and you can go online to check the inventory at any given location.

Sorry if I jacked this thread a little but I figured someone might get some benefit from the idea or if I'm totally out to lunch you'll tell me.

We have a few of em in my area also may be better off looking for a lexus or camry not many caddys have dark interiors alot of light grey and maroon but if you could find a charcoal that would look good really a good idea because the boxing material will match

So I contacted Corbin again to make sure they had a seat to fit and both reps said that the seats only fit up to 1980 KZ1000 and that it might not fit my 82. My initial email to the a rep there said that the seat would fit when I told him what year bike I had. Not sure who to believe. There is a pic on the Corbin site of the KZ Gunfighter pan and it has the same hookups as my 82 CSR.

So anybody here have a Corbin Gunfighter on a KZ1000 model later than 1980?

The other seat we discussed on this thread from ebay is $180 plus $80 s/h from Vietnam, plus it is only the seat and foam.

OldBikeBarn.com has a seat with pan for an 81-82 KZ1000 LTD for $190 and looks just like the one on ebay (cafe style). Since the LTD looks almost exactly like the CSR, do you think I could get that one to fit with some minor adjustments possibly?

I like either style.

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Am thinking that oem seats for KZ models with tail pieces won't fit KZ models without tail pieces.

Good Fortune!

All 4 models use the same seat assembly, per kawasaki.com --

KZ1000-K1 (LTD) (1981)
KZ1000-K2 (LTD) (1982)
KZ1000-M1 (CSR) (1981)
KZ1000-M2 (CSR) (1982)

Thank you! Patton, you da man!