How To Recover A Motorcycle Seat With Leather

A quick diary of games and fun related to my trying to re-upholster a motorcycle seat on my Ninja 650, including some mistakes I made along the way. I bought a Kawasaki Ninja 650 (known in Australia as the ER-6F). a lot of cosmetic work to make it look good. I learned a lot along the way and decided to keep some notes here for posterity as well as for anyone else working on it. Suitable for re-upholstering simple “surfboard” style motorcycle seats, even those with a few curves like the Ninja’s. Upholstering a motorcycle seat is an adventure! The main resource I use is this tutorial from Revzilla’s Common Tread blog, although I did reference several other YouTube videos in the process.

General overview of the re-learning process

Here are the steps, you are ready to go.

Remove the seat from the motorcycle. This is really easy, but I’ve had motorcycles where it’s hard (sports bikes, for example, where you basically have to remove the entire top half of the bike, then access the bolts for saddle from below)

Remove the old vinyl. This is fast and fun! Beyond age!

Measure your new fabric, cut it to shape. Easy and fast.

Spread the fabric to cover the motorcycle seat and pin it in place. THIS IS HARD. You need extra vinyl because if this is your first time and/or if the chair has an odd shape, you are very likely to get a kink.

Reinstall the chair. Fast, hopefully.

Although I said stretching the fabric is hard, it’s not technically difficult. It’s just confusing. I’m the type of person who breaks things and knocks them over, and I still get it done with satisfaction. It will take you a few hours and work out it only costs about $200 (more or less, depending on where you live and the seat) to professionally re-upholster your motorcycle seat, you might want to do that if you don’t think it’s worth your time.

The tools you need to re-upholster a motorcycle seat

Read more: how to make your lawn mower run faster The tools you’ll need to re-upholster your motorcycle seat are:PictureItemA staple gunpinMarine grade vinyl (yard side), 6 feet / 2 metersPliersheat gunTools needed to re-upholster a motorcycle seat No glue required. I’ve seen some tutorials claiming that you need glue to bond the fabric to the foam. I think it’s short-sighted if you’re a first timer, as you might screw it up. If you have to take the vinyl off and redo it, the glue will mess things up. The glue gives you the false feeling of “hey it’s sticking down” and then you can end up with wrinkled upholstery. to overtake me.)All the tools to re-upholster a Ninja 650 motorcycle seat: saddle, some pliers, a knife and some marine plastic. Pictured below is the original Ninja 650 motorcycle seat. It had a huge hole in the seat that the previous owner had covered with duct tape. It also has some stains. I may have caused one or two of them when cleaning my motorcycle with my cleaner (it was really dirty!)Original Ninja 650 saddle. I removed the first pins with pliers. I pulled the first ones apart, then used the weight of the vinyl to manually tear the rest of the pins.Pins removed from Ninja 650 saddle It took about 10 minutes to pull all the pins properly and leave the motorcycle saddle naked Read more: How to block people on paypal This is a naked Ninja 650 motorcycle seat – just sponge.The Ninja 650’s seats are bare, vinyl has been removed. To re-wrap it, I followed procedures that I found on several corners of the Internet. The procedure below does not work.

I fasten the front and back (mistakenly)

I don’t use glue (some sites say yes, some don’t and the original doesn’t) – yes

I try to stretch the fabric across the sides, once the sides are fastened. (but I don’t stretch enough)

This didn’t work, this is after my first attempt to re-wrap it.Upholstery of motorcycle seats – broken stitch The main mistake I made at this step was Do not use a hot air gun or a hair dryer.Second time around – these steps worked. I encourage you to follow these.

I hold it tight only at one end. I ended up fastening it as the more advanced one.
I stretch it around the sides.
Then, across the mountainside, I start using a hair dryer to loosen the vinyl before pulling tight. I pulled tightly on each side until there were no wrinkles running along the edge.
I put metal handle along the way, but not as much as I need in the long run.
Finally, I pinned around the head then re-pinned everywhere to secure the whole thing.

Why do I use a hair dryer? Turns out my hot air gun was 110V and I left the US for the rest of the world (almost all) using 220-240V. Sad face. They’re not expensive, but it’s inconvenient. However, I don’t recommend using a hair dryer as you can melt it if left on for too long and run out of plastic…many cheap hair dryers may not have enough ventilation. This is the final product.The last motorcycle seat is covered with new vinyl. Perfect! (well, almost) Looks much better. Not perfect – there is a small ridge on the top left that you can see. But a BIG improvement. Read more: how to unblock someone in league of legends