My last post to the thread was just before the we set off on our trip to Redding for a ride-in appointment at Laam Custom Motorcycle Seats. We had a great ride down, taking an easy four days to ride the 2400 km to Northern California. We arrived at Seth Laam's house promptly at 8:30 am, he had us sit on the seat to see how we fit, and then he got to work. We agreed on the carbon fibre look vinyl for the top with a white accent thread. The entire process took three hours to do both rider and pillion seats and looks great. It might have taken less time if I hadn't asked Seth one question after another about the process, the materials, his experience and his business. It was a fascinating conversation, but I'm sure it slowed the process down.
Seat impressions:
After having ridden 4000 km on the Lamm built seat I'm very pleased with the level of comfort. Both of us were able to ride longer days in greater comfort on the trip home. Our final day was 840 km and neither of us had sore butts, just aching knees and feet. The seat has a centre section of memory foam to cushion your hip bones and sections of firm, special recipe foam on the sides and rear that form a cup to support and distribute the weight. Neither of us found any hot spots in the seats.
Nothing is perfect and I have a couple of niggling issues with the seat. First, I think the skirt Seth put at the front that fits against the tank is smaller than the one on the stock seat, leaving a gap between seat and tank for hot air to rise through to heat your front. In 60 F temperatures on the Oregon coast it's nice, but... I'm going to see what I can do to fill the gap without shipping the seat back to Seth for a repair (which I'm sure he'd be happy to do at no charge. He really takes the service thing seriously.) The second issue is that I find the seat material more slippery than the stock vinyl, and even though it has a noticeable "cup" that your tush fits into, road bumps and hard braking send me slipping forward. Again, I'm going to try and adjust the level of the seat to see if I can't tip it backwards and stop the tendency to slide forward.
Seth impressions:
Seth appears to be a very genuine, honest man who loves his work. If you want to contact him use the phone, as he told me he only checks his e-mail box once a week. He's a Californian, so his work isn't his life and I gathered that he likes to play as hard as he works, and he may not be in the "office" every day. I really enjoyed our conversation and feel confident he stands behind his product.
Conclusion:
Having spent three hours talking to Seth talking about his technique, tools and materials, and watching him rebuild my seat, I can only say I'm impressed with the man and his product. At $385 for a custom, hand built, double seat I don't think you could find a better value. As I've never ridden on any of his competitors' seats I can't say that there isn't a better seat out there, just that I haven't seen anything like this at this price and I'm very glad I chose him as my seat builder. :bow1: