Has anyone had a stock seat customized by sargent? I'm pondering a memory foam upgrade to my stock seat, while leaving the shape and style essentially the same. I can usually ride for a tank of gas without too much monkey butt on the stock saddle, plus it lends itself well to the...err...spirited riding that I tend to do. I'm mostly just looking to make my 40 minute commute to work a little less tiring.

 

No, but I did it myself with their foam. They don't advertise it (it's buried deeeeep on their website) but they will sell a blank of their for foam for only $25 plus shipping. BTW, they shipped the foam in a box filled with..... you guessed it, foam peanuts. I wonder what the IQ of the shipping dept. is? LOL

Anyway, a staple gun, an electric carving knife, and some sandpaper are all the basic tools you need to shape it yourself. I also found that cotton batting (fabric dept at walmart) laid between the foam and cover really helps smooth out the transitions. I would rate this mod at about 60% effective to the real deal.

Most custom auto upholstery shops will do something similar for usually under a $100.

BTW, I've owned 3 corbins and 2 sargents and they are worth the money but I try to buy 'em used if I can.

 

How would you rate the corbin vs. sargent? I used a Corbin on my 919 for a few days and several hundred miles, but I hated it and never got comfortable. Stock let me ride longer in greater comfort.

 

I only had a corbin on the VTR and liked it just fine. They differ in build practice. Corbin uses a leather cover and a hard subsurface whereas sargent uses a man made cover with a softer foam. Note: both have options and/or custom designs.

Currently I have had both on my VFR and I prefer the corbin just a tad more because the shape and leather suited cornering better. The sargent looks better IMO and is slightly more comfortable in the upright highway position and is lighter. Coin-toss for me.

On the VFR boards, I've read a couple of reports of the sargent's starting to "go soft" and pack down after a few years. You don't hear that with corbin as it's stitching or leather aging issues with them. I've never kept either that long as I trade bikes too often (confessed bike ho').

FWIW

 

Never had a corbin so I can't say anything there but I have a sargent on two of my bikes and am now thinking about putting one on the superhawk. The sargent was a huge improvement over the stock seats on my tuono & vstrom. Tuono stock seat felt like piece of wood and vstrom was way too soft for me. I can now ride for longer on both.

I've been fairly happy with the stock on the superhawk but am starting to think I'll go to sargent there as well since I've been so happy with the results I've seen so far. Customer service everytime has been great from Sargent.