necron99
Crotch Rocket
Hey folks... I intend this to be a bit of an ongoing seat review of my C14 seat job done by Baldwin Motorbike Saddles - http://www.motorbikesaddles.com/.
First my background. I've owned about 10 bikes in my life, and had non-stock seats on all of them since the early 90s other than 1 ZX11 that I only had for about a year. I've had Corbin seats on sport bikes and my VTX, and I've had a couple other seats on the VTX as well. When I got my Concours, I found a Sargent seat on Craigslist locally, and thought it was better than stock, but it still wasn't my cup of tea. So I sent my stocker off to Baldwin.
I asked Loren @ Baldwin a few basic questions about seats and turn around time before I had made the decision to do it. He always responded so very quickly, and professionally. I had some questions about materials and he quickly offered to send me samples of several of the materials that I was considering. They arrived within days, as he sent them USPS priority mail. I made the decision to do the deal based on his professionalism, the good looks of the seats on his site, and the materials provided.
I put my stock seat in a box and dropped it off at the post office on 12/27/2010. Loren let me know on New Years Eve that it had arrived. When we discussed the seat through December he said that if he had the seat before the end of the year, that he'd be done by 1/7. So his current turn around time was pretty short. On Tuesday 1/5 I got a UPS notification that my seat was already being sent back. WOW!
I pinged Loren and told him I was amazed at how quickly he had turned the order around, and he said, "It wasn't really all that fast, I worked on it over the weekend." Well, I'm not sure what world Loren lives in, but in my world, that's FAST. The fact that he too time on the weekend to get me up and running quickly, even though I didn't have a specific need, is commendable.
The seat I chose to do is the "solo" option, which basically keeps the stock foam in the passenger area and replaces the rider foam. I also had him include a gel insert. I went with "carbon fiber" looking vinyl.
So the seat arrived last night. I got it, put it on the bike in my garage. I took some pictures, below. They're really poor, the flash did something weird to the color. I'll get better pictures this weekend during the day time. I have sat on it in my garage, and ridden, as of this writing, on the seat a grand total of 20 miles. So these are my very very very first initial impressions.
First, Loren claims that he re-designs the seat so that you are not thrown into the tank like the stock seat does. This is an absolute fact, for me. I sat down on the seat and rode 20 miles and I was exactly where I was when I left. I didn't feel like I was sliding forward. It made the whole bike feel better! The seat is the right firmness. 20 miles isn't enough to know if it's going to be perfect. I'll hopefully get a better ride in soon. Maybe even next weekend if the weather promises to hold, as I have to drive down to Austin.
Second, fit and finish. Loren is as professional in his workmanship as he is in his customer service. There isn't a flaw. He's been doing this a while. It's balanced, smooth, terrific seams... just a gorgeous job.
I'll come back to this thread a time or two to give my developing impressions. I'll try to put up a 1000 mile impression and an impression after a longer trip or at least several hours of constant saddle time. Here are the pictures... The color just isn't quite right. It's not a matching blue, I wanted contrast, and I think it looks sharp. Yes, it's two tones...black and blue. If you want higher res images, go to this directory and look at the pics without the letter "s" in the file name.
http://home.armourarchive.org/members/morgan/connie/baldwin/
First my background. I've owned about 10 bikes in my life, and had non-stock seats on all of them since the early 90s other than 1 ZX11 that I only had for about a year. I've had Corbin seats on sport bikes and my VTX, and I've had a couple other seats on the VTX as well. When I got my Concours, I found a Sargent seat on Craigslist locally, and thought it was better than stock, but it still wasn't my cup of tea. So I sent my stocker off to Baldwin.
I asked Loren @ Baldwin a few basic questions about seats and turn around time before I had made the decision to do it. He always responded so very quickly, and professionally. I had some questions about materials and he quickly offered to send me samples of several of the materials that I was considering. They arrived within days, as he sent them USPS priority mail. I made the decision to do the deal based on his professionalism, the good looks of the seats on his site, and the materials provided.
I put my stock seat in a box and dropped it off at the post office on 12/27/2010. Loren let me know on New Years Eve that it had arrived. When we discussed the seat through December he said that if he had the seat before the end of the year, that he'd be done by 1/7. So his current turn around time was pretty short. On Tuesday 1/5 I got a UPS notification that my seat was already being sent back. WOW!
I pinged Loren and told him I was amazed at how quickly he had turned the order around, and he said, "It wasn't really all that fast, I worked on it over the weekend." Well, I'm not sure what world Loren lives in, but in my world, that's FAST. The fact that he too time on the weekend to get me up and running quickly, even though I didn't have a specific need, is commendable. The seat I chose to do is the "solo" option, which basically keeps the stock foam in the passenger area and replaces the rider foam. I also had him include a gel insert. I went with "carbon fiber" looking vinyl.
So the seat arrived last night. I got it, put it on the bike in my garage. I took some pictures, below. They're really poor, the flash did something weird to the color. I'll get better pictures this weekend during the day time. I have sat on it in my garage, and ridden, as of this writing, on the seat a grand total of 20 miles. So these are my very very very first initial impressions.
First, Loren claims that he re-designs the seat so that you are not thrown into the tank like the stock seat does. This is an absolute fact, for me. I sat down on the seat and rode 20 miles and I was exactly where I was when I left. I didn't feel like I was sliding forward. It made the whole bike feel better! The seat is the right firmness. 20 miles isn't enough to know if it's going to be perfect. I'll hopefully get a better ride in soon. Maybe even next weekend if the weather promises to hold, as I have to drive down to Austin.
Second, fit and finish. Loren is as professional in his workmanship as he is in his customer service. There isn't a flaw. He's been doing this a while. It's balanced, smooth, terrific seams... just a gorgeous job.
I'll come back to this thread a time or two to give my developing impressions. I'll try to put up a 1000 mile impression and an impression after a longer trip or at least several hours of constant saddle time. Here are the pictures... The color just isn't quite right. It's not a matching blue, I wanted contrast, and I think it looks sharp. Yes, it's two tones...black and blue. If you want higher res images, go to this directory and look at the pics without the letter "s" in the file name.
http://home.armourarchive.org/members/morgan/connie/baldwin/
