Motorcycle seat upholstering?

Question

The vinyl seat on my Suzuki Bandit is coming apart at the seam. How can I repair this for this least amount of money?

Answer 1

Take the seat to a local upholstery shop. You might be suprised how resonible they can be. A seat like that to then is easy. They can do it in less than an hour.

If that is too much money buy faberic from them, so you get the right stuff. then do it yourself.

Answer 2

We have re-covered several motorcycle seats using vinyl material obtained from a place called JoAnn fabrics. I don't know if this is a chain store or not (this one is in Fort Collins, Colorado). They have a heavy grade of vinyl (marine) and a lesser grade which stretches more (this lesser grade was an exact match for what was originally on the seat, but you might want the heavier stuff for added durability).

Two of the seats required more than one piece of vinyl which had to be sewed together. We used heavy upholstering threads obtained at our local Walmart store to sew them together (and a sewing machine of course).

The other seats only needed the vinyl cut and stretched over the seat foam and stapled to the plastic base. We used a staple gun which previously was used for fiberglas insulation.

All seats look perfect like just straight from the factory. If you do the stretching properly no one could ever tell it wasn't a factory original seat.

It takes quite a bit of work and time, but it is very inexpensive. I think the vinyl for 4 seats didn't cost over $40.

Answer 3

The question answers itself, you can take the seat fabric off and repair the seams with any sewing machine.
Or you can take it to an Upholstery shop and for $50 an hour plus material have it repaired correctly, total about $110.
Buy a new one at Suzuki, $150-$300/?
Take it to a local Upholstery Auto Upholstery shop and ask them, estimates are normally free. Then look at a new one, then ask the Upholstery shop if you can do it yourself and give them like $45 for explaining to you and showing you the right stuff to use and how to use it.
Least amount of money, take it off, take it apart, restitch the seams,
done.

Answer 4

I'm not familiar with the Bandit, (the seats shape). On several bikes & boats I've done some nice recovering on seats. A smooth cover stays clean & dry compared to allot of stitching & buttons.You can get a piece of vinyl from an upolstery shop & try to stretch and pull to make your own (costom ) cover. You may be able to remove the seat's cover & re-sew where she's coming apart. Good Luck !

Answer 5

My seat had some holes in it because a cat jumped off my jeep and landed on my bike with his claws out. I took the bike to a car upholstering place and they replaced the part with the holes. Looked just the same as a new seat.

Answer 6

Yeah - cheapest option is to buy some black vinyl. Strip the old one apart at the seams to make templates, cut out the new vinyl and stitch it together, attach it to the seat base and "Bingo !!! "

Answer 7

You may find a seat cover at JC Whitney. It would probably be cheaper for you to make one out of marine grade vinyl.

Answer 8

If you just want to do it yourself, not too worried about appearance, and just want to stop it from coming apart further, get a curved upholstery needle (like in the pack in the link below):

http://tandyleatherfactory.com/products.asp?number=1201-00

Use some waxed thread:

http://tandyleatherfactory.com/products.asp?number=11207-01

It won't look great, but it'll stop the seam from opening up more.

Answer 9

youre local dealer has them our you could sew it youre self with a big needle and large thread Ive done it and it works fine!