Corbin Smuggler Saddle

[michael]

OK, after all the Corbin bashing I've done over the years (including a scaving email to every mailing list in the world and cc'd Mike Corbin), I think it is only fair that I relate my recent positive experience. Several people have told me over the years that the only way to deal with Corbin was to go there and have them make you a custom seat. It turns out they were right.

I made a appointment for last friday about 4 weeks ago. I was told to show up between 8-10am at their plant in Hollister. BTW, I used a fictitious name just in case they keep records of people who have slandered them. :-)

Anyway, I showed up at 8:30 am, and got lucky and walked into the correct door. The gentleman at the counter looked up my appointment, had me fill out some paperwork, handed me a certificate for a free meal at their Corbin Cafe, and then opened a garage door and showed me where to put my bike.

5 minutes later another gentleman (Tom), walked up to me and my bike with a Corbin Smuggler Saddle to use as a example, and proceeded to ask me questions regarding how I wanted to customize it. After a couple of questions, he says "Oh, I see, you want to be able to hang off. I know exactly what to do. We do this all the time." He tells me to go grab a cup of coffee and come back in 10 minutes. So I go to the cafe (very nice, dinner style restaurant, with pictures galore of racers and various history of Corbin.) I ask for a cup of coffee, and pulled out 2 dollars to pay for it, because I wanted to save my certificate to eat lunch. The girl asked me if I'm having a seat made, and I reply yes. She then tells me "its on the house".

I go back into the garage, (which is in plain view from the cafe windows), and Tom comes back holding a uncovered seat for me to inspect. He puts it on the bike and I make sure that the outer lips have been modified the way I wanted. It was perfect, just what I wanted. I then shows me several samples of covering material, I select the "Corbin Fiber", and then explain to him that I do not want any welts, or the smooth fabric on the side of the seat. He writes a few notes, then tells me my seat should be ready in about a hour.

I go to the cafe and have a tasty sandwich, and inspect the pictures and artifacts on the wall. The biggest picture on the wall was of Bubba Shobert on a Honda Dirt Track bike. The interesting thing was that there were no Harley logos, pictures, or even bikes in the show room. I asked the cute waitress about that, and she explained to me that ever since Corbin started development on their own V-twin motor, that they have severed relations with Harley. Hmm..

After lunch I went back in the work area, and talked with a guy who had brought in a ZX-6 for a custom seat. Of all the bikes having seats made, most of them were BMW's, and only 2 harleys.

Before the hour was up Tom came back with the seat, and put it on the bike. It was perfect. Just what I wanted. Tom was not happy with the way the seat was lining up on the bike, and brought back to his work bench to make some adjustments. He then brought it back to check it out and even pulled out some kind of a feeler gauge to check the clearance of where the seat meets the bike. He then took off the seat and makes a further adjustment. Next he pulls out a shipping tag, and has me fill it out to send my stock seat to the person who is buying it. Then I went to the payment window, and the gentleman asked me exactly what customization I did to the seat. I thought he was trying to figure out how much to charge me, but it turns out that they keep a data base on seat customization to see if trends develop or if someone has a good ideal so they can change their "off the shelf" seat. The price was exactly the same as the "off the shelf" seat, even after the extensive customization!.

By 11:00am I was out of there! I was a very happy customer! I really like my new seat. It is slightly less comfortable than my Gunfighter and Lady seat, but it is much easier to hang off, shift my weight around, and the comfort factor is really not that much different. Having the extra storage space is awsome. I remounted my black box to go on the left side of the frame, behind the heat sink, so it gives me more trunk space. I am considering cutting a hole in the top of my tail locker so I can access that storage space from the trunk door, but have not done it yet. Now that I got a trick mount for my Emap, the Corbin trunk, and the Taillocker, I no longer have to use a tank bag!! I hate tankbags!

Karl Marsh

99 VFR800FI "RC46"