Corbin seat on low setting?

Vagabond327

Vagabond327

Joined
Aug 3, 2020
Messages
24
Age
56
Location
Quebec
Bike
2004 Honda ST 1300A
So...when I ride for a long period, I am starting to be uncomfortable on the OEM seat after about two hours. So I was looking at the Corbin seat but looks like those can only be installed on the "lower" seat position. As I prefer riding on the "high" setting (6.0' inseam 32) I wonder if putting a Corbin would help with the comfort? I know that the knees are too bent on the low setting using the OEM seat. Any of you out there with Corbin seats can advise? Also, looks like the "standard" Corbin seat would give me a little more height that the "close" version but I am worried that , since I still need it to install it at the "low" position, my knees would be too bent.
 
Vagabond327 said:
...So I was looking at the Corbin seat...
Click to expand...
I have a Corbin seat, with a Smuggler trunk installed behind it. My motorcycle looks exactly like Todd's, pictured above.

To the best of my knowledge, you can set the seat at any of the three possible heights. But this comment applies to the single seat (shown above), not necessarily to Corbin double seats, which may be a single assembly rather than the OEM-style two different cushions.

Corbin are a very co-operative company to work with, and they can make the seat as "thick" or "thin" as you want it to be. So if you are ordering a seat from Corbin, tell them you want a "fat cushion" on it - in other words, that you are looking to gain height - and they will make it so.

If your travels take you to Toronto, send me a message and I will arrange for you to visit and see my seat. I will probably be riding out to the Argenteuil area (Lachute) towards the end of August - if you are in that area, let me know and I will drop by.

Michael
 
Whisker Bill said:
...would the front half of a double Corbin fit in front?
Click to expand...
I kind of doubt it. The lower leading edges of the Smuggler reach forward quite a bit to wrap around the seat on either side - I don't know if the forward half of a double Corbin has been shaped with the wraparound of the Smuggler in mind. But, I don't know for sure.

Michael
 
ToddC said:
My Corbin will fit the high setting...
Click to expand...
I came into a lightly used Corbin Smuggler a couple of weeks ago,,, at a price that was simply too good to turn down. I have been riding around with it mounted behind a oem seat. That is comfortable enough for about 90 minutes,,, and then my butt starts asking for my old Corbin saddle. So I just mounted that on the bike a few minutes ago,, for a ride tomorrow. It was a tight fit,,, but I eventually got the saddle on in the lowest position. That's where I need it to be,, to keep my feet fairly planted on stops.

But speaking of the Smuggler,,, I am surprised at the poor quality of some aspects,,, given the $1200.cdn+ asking price of a new one. While it is good looker,, for sure,,, the lids lock and latch is a mess on mine. The bases striker is such a bad fit,,, that it will require significant shortening, so that the lid's latch can catch on it. As it is,,, the latch and lock does not function as intended. So to give it some semblance of a closing,, they took a disk grinder to the opposite side of the plastic lock barrel,,, to tune it till it could just rub past the back of the striker,, as a poor attempt at some kind of latching. What a totally lame effort,,, given the price,, and Corbin's good rep for quality. I am starting to wonder if Corbin mistakenly installed the wrong striker ??

Also,,, the bottom striker that locks the whole thing down to the bike needed about 3/16 worth of washers,, to space it down far enough that the bike could latch onto it. The PO would put a bungee right over the whole unit,,, to ensure the lid stayed closed, and that the whole thing stayed in place. On the other hand,, the hinge is aviation quality,,, although the lid to base gap is uneven,, and so it also rubs on opening/closing. Surprising,, huh,,, but I am just calling like I see it,,, cheers,, CAt'
 
I have a corbin dual canyon. I'm 6'4" with 33" inside leg / inseam. Yes it fits only on the lowest setting. When stopped I can put both feet flat on the floor, stand up straight with my butt clear of the saddle. I have managed to squeeze the seat it into mid setting, but its a bit tight, and I felt no advantage.
I really wanted it in the highest, but I got used to it when riding. I fitted my Oem seat - still unused - a few weeks ago, had a ride and didn't notice the benefit of the higher position.

My boots are probably more of a factor. I wear Altberg motorcycle boots - based on their excellent walking / hiking boots. Quite thick soles. I don't notice them now when riding - a case of getting used to them, but my feet were noticeably higher on the pegs when I first wore them, compared to my previous traditional touring boot. The movement to lift the gear lever was quite large, partly due to the thick sole, partly the top if the boot. No problem after the first ride, but I have noticed that I often wake up with cramp down the outside front of my left shin after riding. It may be due to a combination of things eg age, medication - statins. I can do things to prevent it happening - plenty of fluid, not letting legs get cold at night, stretching those muscles after riding (pointing foot down).

It is not comfortable to ride long with the ball of my feet on the pegs, with my boots.

Just suggesting that my boots are more of a factor than having the seat in its lowest position.

Re the latch - tends to get bent by placing the saddle on the floor when it is removed, and the angle gets altered if it doesn't quite fit in the latch properly. Certainly it can be tuned tou your bike, and a little bending and use of washers makes it latch into place easily. When it was first fitted, it latched perfectly, so any problems were down to me using / abusing it.
 
Similar situation here. I put the seat into the middle position and a few days later when riding felt it shift back to the lowest setting
 
Catmandu2 said:
I came into a lightly used Corbin Smuggler a couple of weeks ago,,, at a price that was simply too good to turn down. I have been riding around with it mounted behind a oem seat. That is comfortable enough for about 90 minutes,,, and then my butt starts asking for my old Corbin saddle. So I just mounted that on the bike a few minutes ago,, for a ride tomorrow. It was a tight fit,,, but I eventually got the saddle on in the lowest position. That's where I need it to be,, to keep my feet fairly planted on stops.

But speaking of the Smuggler,,, I am surprised at the poor quality of some aspects,,, given the $1200.cdn+ asking price of a new one. While it is good looker,, for sure,,, the lids lock and latch is a mess on mine. The bases striker is such a bad fit,,, that it will require significant shortening, so that the lid's latch can catch on it. As it is,,, the latch and lock does not function as intended. So to give it some semblance of a closing,, they took a disk grinder to the opposite side of the plastic lock barrel,,, to tune it till it could just rub past the back of the striker,, as a poor attempt at some kind of latching. What a totally lame effort,,, given the price,, and Corbin's good rep for quality. I am starting to wonder if Corbin mistakenly installed the wrong striker ??

Also,,, the bottom striker that locks the whole thing down to the bike needed about 3/16 worth of washers,, to space it down far enough that the bike could latch onto it. The PO would put a bungee right over the whole unit,,, to ensure the lid stayed closed, and that the whole thing stayed in place. On the other hand,, the hinge is aviation quality,,, although the lid to base gap is uneven,, and so it also rubs on opening/closing. Surprising,, huh,,, but I am just calling like I see it,,, cheers,, CAt'
Click to expand...
I can't imagine that it left Corbin in that condition. Mine fits and works perfectly, including the locks and latches, with no rubbing and adjustments needed. It sounds to me like one of the owners previous to you tinkered a little to much with it.
 
Catmandu2 said:
But speaking of the Smuggler,,, I am surprised at the poor quality of some aspects,,, given the $1200.cdn+ asking price of a new one. While it is good looker,, for sure,,, the lids lock and latch is a mess on mine. The bases striker is such a bad fit,,, that it will require significant shortening, so that the lid's latch can catch on it. As it is,,, the latch and lock does not function as intended. So to give it some semblance of a closing,, they took a disk grinder to the opposite side of the plastic lock barrel,,, to tune it till it could just rub past the back of the striker,, as a poor attempt at some kind of latching. What a totally lame effort,,, given the price,, and Corbin's good rep for quality. I am starting to wonder if Corbin mistakenly installed the wrong striker ??

Also,,, the bottom striker that locks the whole thing down to the bike needed about 3/16 worth of washers,, to space it down far enough that the bike could latch onto it. The PO would put a bungee right over the whole unit,,, to ensure the lid stayed closed, and that the whole thing stayed in place. On the other hand,, the hinge is aviation quality,,, although the lid to base gap is uneven,, and so it also rubs on opening/closing. Surprising,, huh,,, but I am just calling like I see it,,, cheers,, CAt'
Click to expand...
I had exactly the same experience as you described above. The whole locking / latching system is not what you would call "first class", and like you, I had to make numerous adjustments to get it to latch properly and reliably.

My guess is that the prototype that Corbin developed worked very well, so they put that design into production... but either because they did not use it themselves on a ST 1300, or they have not received any feedback about it, they are unaware of the small adjustment problems that exist on production units. I picked mine up at the factory, and had a chance to see them make it... it worked perfectly on the bench going through the final stages of Quality Control, but after a few thousand miles of riding, I noticed all the same problems you have described. Fortunately, they are pretty easy to fix.

FYI, the lock assembly (the cylinder & moving part of the latch) can fail, but exact replacements are available for about $15 on eBay or Amazon. There is a thread somewhere here in the forum with more details including where to order. I had to replace my lock assembly after 3 years of use - it was quick and easy to do.

Michael
 
Catmandu2 said:
I came into a lightly used Corbin Smuggler a couple of weeks ago,,, at a price that was simply too good to turn down. I have been riding around with it mounted behind a oem seat. That is comfortable enough for about 90 minutes,,, and then my butt starts asking for my old Corbin saddle. So I just mounted that on the bike a few minutes ago,, for a ride tomorrow. It was a tight fit,,, but I eventually got the saddle on in the lowest position. That's where I need it to be,, to keep my feet fairly planted on stops.

But speaking of the Smuggler,,, I am surprised at the poor quality of some aspects,,, given the $1200.cdn+ asking price of a new one. While it is good looker,, for sure,,, the lids lock and latch is a mess on mine. The bases striker is such a bad fit,,, that it will require significant shortening, so that the lid's latch can catch on it. As it is,,, the latch and lock does not function as intended. So to give it some semblance of a closing,, they took a disk grinder to the opposite side of the plastic lock barrel,,, to tune it till it could just rub past the back of the striker,, as a poor attempt at some kind of latching. What a totally lame effort,,, given the price,, and Corbin's good rep for quality. I am starting to wonder if Corbin mistakenly installed the wrong striker ??

Also,,, the bottom striker that locks the whole thing down to the bike needed about 3/16 worth of washers,, to space it down far enough that the bike could latch onto it. The PO would put a bungee right over the whole unit,,, to ensure the lid stayed closed, and that the whole thing stayed in place. On the other hand,, the hinge is aviation quality,,, although the lid to base gap is uneven,, and so it also rubs on opening/closing. Surprising,, huh,,, but I am just calling like I see it,,, cheers,, CAt'
Click to expand...
I have a Smuggler that came with my bike when I bought it. It was the wrong color so I "painted" it with a removable product. I didn't realize that the hinge is adjustable until I opened up the lid and promptly " removed " some of the paint! I loosened up the screws and got it so it doesn't rub anymore.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
It sounds to me like one of the owners previous to you tinkered a little to much with it.
Click to expand...
There is no indication of that. The single previous owner was so frustrated with it,, that he flipped it to me for $100.cdn So I am not complaining, as I can fix most things. It looks more to me that these are made in small batches,,, or even one at a time for older bikes,,, hence the unreasonably high price tag. CYYJ watched his being made,,, or at least assembled,,, so it depends who got the job that day,, and which parts were available, most likely,,, imho,,, CAt'
 
CYYJ said:
I have a Corbin seat, with a Smuggler trunk installed behind it. My motorcycle looks exactly like Todd's, pictured above.

To the best of my knowledge, you can set the seat at any of the three possible heights. But this comment applies to the single seat (shown above), not necessarily to Corbin double seats, which may be a single assembly rather than the OEM-style two different cushions.

Corbin are a very co-operative company to work with, and they can make the seat as "thick" or "thin" as you want it to be. So if you are ordering a seat from Corbin, tell them you want a "fat cushion" on it - in other words, that you are looking to gain height - and they will make it so.

If your travels take you to Toronto, send me a message and I will arrange for you to visit and see my seat. I will probably be riding out to the Argenteuil area (Lachute) towards the end of August - if you are in that area, let me know and I will drop by.

Michael
Click to expand...
Sorry Michael that I missed your message...I live not too far from Lachute...if you ever come by again let me know!
 
Andrew Shadow said:
I can't imagine that it left Corbin in that condition. Mine fits and works perfectly, including the locks and latches, with no rubbing and adjustments needed. It sounds to me like one of the owners previous to you tinkered a little to much with it.
Click to expand...
No I can totally imagine it. While attending the USGP at Laguna Seca several years ago I made a day trip to the Corbin factory to get my then 13 yo seat recovered. I spent most of my time inside the factory watching my seat get stripped, cover cut, sewn and reinstalled.

It's an artisan operation. Not high tech in the least. And it wouldn't surprise me if no two items they make are exactly the same.

I've shared my opinions of Mike and Corbin with the ST community in the past. I'll just say that I wouldn't ride my 1100 with anything other than my Corbin Dual Canyon Sport (or whatever he called the 'rumbleseat-less' Rumble Seat.)

The 1300 is a different story. That'll be up for sale when I get around to it.
 
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