seat trim chrome

For those wanting to keep their bike the way the factory made them.

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F5
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seat trim chrome

Post by F5 »

Hey all. I'd asked this a couple of years back to no avail.

Does anyone have the hot tip for sourcing/replacing the chrome strip around the seat? Many classic bikes have the problem that this gets turfed in a cheapo bodged 80's seat recover & they aren't easy to find. Substitute trim that can be bent to shape somehow?
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by oldjapanesebikes »

F5 wrote:Hey all. I'd asked this a couple of years back to no avail.

Does anyone have the hot tip for sourcing/replacing the chrome strip around the seat? Many classic bikes have the problem that this gets turfed in a cheapo bodged 80's seat recover & they aren't easy to find. Substitute trim that can be bent to shape somehow?
Funny you should ask, as I was just 'talking' about that very topic here. I'm talking to three suppliers: one in Florida who frankly are over priced especially if you don't live in the US, one in Australia from whom I'm waiting for some photos, and one in Canada from whom I'm waiting for a reply. All of these would supply polished stainless steel trim - none of them would qualify as being a bargain :?
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by Suzsmokeyallan »

I had this problem too and found the easiest way out was to buy a seat off of ebay that had a good trim on it. It took me a while to find one with what I wanted on it and the end bid was around $50.00.
It had on a perfect trim, perfect hinges and lock catch, the sponge, base and cover is junk so i may consider tossing those parts out, but for $50.00 getting these perfect condition items is a bargain at that price.
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by markj »

Even the new replacement OEM seats don't have polished ss for trim. They use what looks to be some sort of aluminum alloy which isn't as shiny(at least thats what mine has). It works but it's not great. I've also been looking but haven't come up with anything that would really work. I've looked in boat mags, body work sites. Nothing seems to quite work. They have some small flexible stuff but you'de be hard pressed to figure out how to mount it.
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by oldjapanesebikes »

Suzsmokeyallan wrote:I had this problem too and found the easiest way out was to buy a seat off of ebay that had a good trim on it. It took me a while to find one with what I wanted on it and the end bid was around $50.00.
It had on a perfect trim, perfect hinges and lock catch, the sponge, base and cover is junk so i may consider tossing those parts out, but for $50.00 getting these perfect condition items is a bargain at that price.
Plus shipping I'm guessing ? So over $100 ?

Trying to locate good used stuff is what we've all done, and will continue to try and do :wink: , but of course the good stuff is getting harder and harder to locate so connecting with folks who will make good reproduction parts is something that needs to start happening more and more :D I suppose you have noticed that there is an outfit in Florida called 'Cool Retro Bikes' who will gladly make you seat trim - but only if you also send them your seat to be refurbished :? For me, having to ship down there and back again that means a hit of about $900 USD in total :shock: but I'm not quite that desperate just yet :D I'll keep looking.
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by oldjapanesebikes »

oldjapanesebikes wrote:
F5 wrote:Hey all. I'd asked this a couple of years back to no avail.

Does anyone have the hot tip for sourcing/replacing the chrome strip around the seat? Many classic bikes have the problem that this gets turfed in a cheapo bodged 80's seat recover & they aren't easy to find. Substitute trim that can be bent to shape somehow?
Funny you should ask, as I was just 'talking' about that very topic here. I'm talking to three suppliers: one in Florida who frankly are over priced especially if you don't live in the US, one in Australia from whom I'm waiting for some photos, and one in Canada from whom I'm waiting for a reply. All of these would supply polished stainless steel trim - none of them would qualify as being a bargain :?
Looks like it will probably be Australia - I'll let you know how it goes. 8)
Ian

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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by Suzsmokeyallan »

No it wasnt near $100.00 Ian, so i lucked out on this one for sure, just coincidence I stripped the same seat today, so i can safely say the parts are in near perfect shape.
Markj the new oem GT750 seats come with no trim, so i do not know where you got yours from with a trim on it, they also dont have the folded clips as the originals ones, but now carry 'the teeth' that pierces the covers edge to hold it on.
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by johnakay »

the guy who did mine , I'll ask him if he still do them. these are or were alloy.
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by oldjapanesebikes »

johnakay wrote:the guy who did mine , I'll ask him if he still do them. these are or were alloy.
Thanks John ! 8)
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by F5 »

Thanks for the replies guys. Getting a whole seat to NZ is a bit prohibitive + the US seats were longer on the Stinger apparently so I could end up with something different.

I'm not trying for 100%, just a good representation from 10ft.
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by markj »

Suzsmokeyallan wrote:Markj the new oem GT750 seats come with no trim, so i do not know where you got yours from with a trim on it, they also dont have the folded clips as the originals ones, but now carry 'the teeth' that pierces the covers edge to hold it on.
Hmm..it's been a couple of years and can't remember where I got it from. I'll get it out tomorrow and take a look but I remembered it having the trim. Must be a non-OEM replica.
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Re: seat trim chrome

Post by johnakay »

OK I've contacted the friend of mine about the seat trim.
the one he fitted to my seat is hard to fit as you will need special tools and they are not cheap to buy.
but what he did say is that he's getting to new trims very similar to the ones on my bike and a lot easier to fit.
he will contact me in two weeks time once he had tried them out.
if all OK the price will be around $40 to $47 plus p&p
yes they're pricey.
like everything else thing for classic bikes prices have rocketed here.
he's not making much out of it $6 but doing it as a favour to me.john
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