Seat Recovering can be expensive, but is quite easy to do by yourself if you have the right tools. Here is a quick easy way to fix a rip and make that seat look new again. I’m using a ZXR250 A rider’s seat , first off pop down to Clark Rubber or a similar shop and pick up some Vinyl. I bought a few meters for $30 so I’m good for about 4 or 5 seats. Tools Required 1. Scissors 2. Small flat bladed Screwdriver 3. Hammer 4. Pliers 5. Staple Gun ( these are on eBay for $5-$30) 6. Staples 7. texta\ shapie Step 1. Remove Seat from Bike Step 2. Using a flat bladed screwdriver, start levering up the staples holding the Vinyl down on your seat (use a pair of pliers to pull them up if only one side comes up), do not discard your old seat cover as your will use this a template. Step 3. Remove the Vinyl from the seat base; make sure all old staples are removed from the seat base. Step 4. Layout out your new vinyl face down on a flat surface and use your old seat cover a template, using a texta\marker\sharpie whatever , trace a copy of the seat cover on your new vinyl. Step 5. Cut your Vinyl, I always cut about 2-3mm bigger than the old seat so I have plenty of vinyl to work with when reattaching Step 6. Layout your new vinyl face down, place old seat base on top and staple the front and rear sections, keep a little tension on the vinyl when you do it so it finished up with a snug fit. Once this is done, do a run or 4 -5 staples on either side as well. Step 7. The corners are the hard bit, try gathering the vinyl so it folds over it set in the middle of the corner and attach with a staple, then try and smoothen out the vinyl on the other parts of the corner and staple away. Step 8. Once all the corners are done, staple all the areas between the corners and the sides where you tacked it. Step 9. Some staples won’t go in all that well and some of the head will be protruding, use a hammer to drive them flush against the Vinyl. Step 10. Refit your seat to your bike, crack the top off a cold one and celebrate your awesomeness.
excellent....a hot air gun helps. i paid an upholsterer as i felt nervous about doing this. you saved 40 bucks.
Done mine last week. I found that the marine vinyl from Clark rubber is quite slippery. Makes it not very fun when braking.
i looked on clark rubber website and the standard vinyl they only say indoor in the ad. would this still work?
I'm chasing a red sticker kit for it as well. I would definitely recommend putting extra foam on the seat as well. I'm gonna redo mine with extra foam some time this week.
I was quoted $150 to have these seats upholstered, so i decided to do it myself. Cost me $10 for a 2 metres of black vinyl, and only took about 30mins to cover both seats. it would definitely pay off to have a powerful staple gun mine was pretty cheap and weak, had to hammer in a majority of the staples.
Well done Rose....seats look great. I have done a couple myself with similar looking staple gun, I certainly did not have to hammer any staples in.
How did u do the handle on rear seat @Rose ? Looks great by the way Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It gets a little trickier with the double seats like on a spade, where they step up a level. You have to start in the middle pulling across at the rise, stretch it down the fall so you don't have it bunching on the top inside turn. That's from what I recall of fixing one. And I'm sure some of you guys know better than me, anyway. I saw this thread and looked because I may have to cover my ZX2R seat, too. And the VTR250.
excellent post i love all these how to's, the more pics the better!! every day is a school day as they say.
I did my FZR400 pillion seat recently. I had a bit of trouble in the corners, the original vinyl was two piece due to the square ridge at the front of the seat. It came out OK, a little rippled in the corners but definitely passable for me.
Hmm. After recovering the vtr seat, maybe I shouldn't be giving advice. I'll let it stretch and settle for a while and then take the slack out of it. I also had to cut and add foam because of sun damage.
