Corbin for Wethead

[John in VA]

I've had Corbin leather seats for my '00, '06 and '13 RTs because they always "fit" me and now I'm considering a Corbin for my '16 RT.

 

I've read reviews about other seats but does anyone have the new one-piece Corbin?

 

Thanks -

[Mike]

No experience, but there's one for sale in Classifieds at the moment. If you're interested in saving a few bucks, I'd navigate over there.

[moshe_levy]

I have one for test. In about a month, BMW Magazine http://bmwmcmag.com/ will be posting my review of it. It's black leather one piece with navy blue stitching. Best looking seat on the market IMO.

 

-MKL

[Mike the Ghoul]

I've got one. I also think its beautiful. I've had corbins for the last four bikes and I like them. People say they are too hard, but I like the firmness. You don't settle in and sink into the seat. Nice support.

 

I have about 8000 miles on this one. At first I was disappointed it only came in one piece, but I've gotten over that. Previous corbins have been finicky to install but not this one. I'm not crazy that there is a separate key, which adds to the key collection: one for the bike, one for the trunk (Givi), and now this one.

 

I didn't want to cut into the wiring so I bought an extra set of connectors to plug it into the harness.

 

The passenger seat sits higher than the stock, so my SO is higher, which she doesn't like. It also placed her at a different angle in relation to the trunk so it now irritates her back a little. We don't have a back rest on it, because it would push her too far forward.

 

As far as comfort, I like it a lot. Its a definite improvement over the OEM. I was worried it would raise me too much, but that is not a problem. Sometimes, the edge feels like it is digging into my thigh. This usually only happens on the left leg, but I can shift my position and it doesn't do it all the time.

 

I wanted something different so I went with bomber brown jacket main seat with brown side panels and brown piping. It looks really good against the matte Calisto grey paint. I thought it was kind of a play on an army drab and leather saddle kind of thing.

 

All in all I like it a lot and haven't regretted getting the seat. I'll post a pic when I figure out how.

 

mike

[yellowledbetter]

I have always had Corbin as my "go to" seats. I still have one on my 2007 RT with 112,000 miles on it. It was with that particular one I initially and subtly felt Corbin had missed the mark a bit in its shape. It is much better than OEM and my biggest draw towards Corbin has been the very firm foam density, so I kept it. I later bought a 2014 FJR and Corbin really blew it with those seats, IMO. They made it lower than EOM (it should be classified as a low seat), losing OEM height adjustability, and requiring wiring splices, etc. to hook up the heat. My wife would not ride with me on it because they didn't even try with the pillion seat, taking a lot of her seating surface away from what was already a small OEM seating area. The rider seat was not shaped right and kept forcing me to sit forward because of the rear "lip". It was ridiculous, and I got rid of them and tried a Sargent instead, and never looked back.

 

Now I have a 2016 RT and looked online at the Corbin. Once again they require I sacrifice too many OEM features and have an overly complicated hook up to retain my heat. And I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the Pillion seat area is once again reduced significantly. So I once again went with Sargent, which still gives me OEM height(s), increases seat surface area for both rider and passenger, and simply plugs into existing OEM plugs for heat and uses OEM keys and heat controls. And is still a two piece seat. Once Corbin gets their act together and back to their roots I'll try another, but I think they have gone "corporate mentality" and are just pumping out widgets at this point, without really giving it any effort at all. Just my 2 cents. My Sargent arrives today and I'll circle back and let you know what I think about it.

[TJRL]

I'm not crazy that there is a separate key, which adds to the key collection: one for the bike, one for the trunk (Givi), and now this one.

 

I didn't want to cut into the wiring so I bought an extra set of connectors to plug it into the harness.

mike

 

This is what gets me about Corbins, they make a good/premium product at a high'ish price for a luxury marketplace and they cannot be bothered to fit OEM connectors or key barrels!

 

There is no excuse for not fitting the correct connectors and if they can engineer a better seat than BMW then working out how to use an OEM lockset cannot be beyond them. They just seem too lazy to bother, that puts me right off and stops me looking at their product.

[moshe_levy]

Here's the test: http://mklsportster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/bmwmc-corbin.pdf

 

>>>>There is no excuse for not fitting the correct connectors and if they can engineer a better seat than BMW then working out how to use an OEM lockset cannot be beyond them. <<<<<

 

Yeah, except you'll likely find that the connector used by BMW is proprietary. Just as I found out on the Hexhead headlight connector, which prevented manufacturers from offering plug and play modulators. Likely the same thing here. When something so basic is "overlooked" by a competent company, you shouldn't presume laziness - you should presume technical / economic issues. With proprietary connectors there's likely a minimum buy in the 5-6 figures, and Corbin knows they will never sell enough seats to make that worthwhile.

 

-MKL

[TJRL]

Here's the test: http://mklsportster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/bmwmc-corbin.pdf

 

>>>>There is no excuse for not fitting the correct connectors and if they can engineer a better seat than BMW then working out how to use an OEM lockset cannot be beyond them. <<<<<

 

Yeah, except you'll likely find that the connector used by BMW is proprietary. Just as I found out on the Hexhead headlight connector, which prevented manufacturers from offering plug and play modulators. Likely the same thing here. When something so basic is "overlooked" by a competent company, you shouldn't presume laziness - you should presume technical / economic issues. With proprietary connectors there's likely a minimum buy in the 5-6 figures, and Corbin knows they will never sell enough seats to make that worthwhile.

 

-MKL

 

As it happens I did not make a presumption (did you?), here is the actual wording from their website:-

 

"Important note about seat heater: It has been brought to our attention that tapping the Corbin wiring pigtail into your BMW wire harness may effect your warranty. If you prefer not to use this method, you can get the BMW connectors from you local dealer and splice those to the Corbin seat heater pigtail. These BMW connectors are not included with the Corbin saddle."

 

So if I can get the BMW connectors from my local dealer then so can Corbin! Either they are too lazy to so or they are being disingenuous when they advise I can get them from my local dealer.

 

They know at tapping into the BMW loom could invalidate the warranty and still they are happy not to include the correct connectors but expect their customers to start slicing into their new seat's wiring!! No Excuse for this in my book.

 

Regarding locksets, when I had my oil cooled R12000RT I loved the "Smugglers Trunk" they offered but enquired about purchasing one with a BMW lockset, they just said it was no big deal for the rider to carry a second key and they could not see the point of using a BMW barrel.

 

I stand by my original post.

[John in VA]

Other seat builders provide plug-and-play connectors. From (for example) Sargent's website:

 

"Available OEM compatible heat on front and rear seats with BMW compatible plugs that integrate seamlessly with your OEM on-board heat controls. No splicing required."

[moshe_levy]

IF the connectors aren't proprietary then that's on Corbin and I'd concede that's a fairly boneheaded move to make customers go through wiring for no good reason. In the past it has been an issue, as with the Hexhead headlight connector, for example.

 

Personally, I use a BMS seat. The Corbin is very pretty and comfy too, but for my butt I'm a BMS guy all the way. Stock seat pan, stock connectors, so it's basically a stock seat to install / uninstall. No drama with cutting or splicing.

 

-MKL

[TJRL]

IF the connectors aren't proprietary then that's on Corbin and I'd concede that's a fairly boneheaded move ...-MKL

No "IF" about it, the connectors are available (but could be proprietary for all I know) but I will accept the above as an apology for the earlier assumption that I had just been assuming things that in fact I had taken the trouble to research before posting. If only others would make this effort the forum would be even better!

[AndyS]

Calm down.

[TJRL]

Calm down.

 

It is the weekend, and I getting calmer by the minute.

[JWMcDonald]

With Corbin, I suspect the only fix for the perceived issue is for someone to buy the company, then they can put in place whatever quality they want...

[thataintworkin]

I have a '15 RT and have recently purchased the Corbin seat due to my dissatisfaction with the stock seat on longer trips. I thought I'd offer my observations to hopefully assist others in their decisions.

 

Overall:

 

I like the seat itself as far as the shape. It does provide a solution to the original problem I was attempting to address, discomfort on rides of anything more than one hour. It did however, bring into play some new problems.

 

I do not like the seat height. In my case, it is MUCH lower than my stock seat. This changes everything, ergonomically speaking.

 

The Good:

 

The shape of the seat is much better than the original for my taste. My most significant problem was my tailbone getting extremely sore. This has been significantly improved based upon the distance I can ride without needing to adjust my position.

 

It is also a very nice looking seat.

 

The Bad:

 

Seat height - I bought my bike with the BMW "Hi" seat option (maybe it was "Tall") and I also run it with the seat height adjustment in the "Hi" position. I lost both of these advantages with this Corbin seat. which significantly lowers the seat height. I suppose the new seat is just that standard seat height, my bad, however.....

 

It is also incompatible with the existing BMW Hi/Lo seat adjuster. This seat can only be used with the seat adjuster in the "Low" position as far as I can tell. If you try to use the BMW seat adjuster in the high position it pushes the locking mechanism on the base of the seat so far back that it will not engage the bike and there is no adjustment to accomodate for this. I suppose I will have to fabricate a new steel plate to be used with the seat position in the "Hi" setting. This then will create another new problem in that you can't simply raise the seat height without providing additional support at the existing bumper locations that support the seat. I believe this is a relatively simple task of adding additional rubber spacers or replacing those that are on the seat bottom with a thicker variety.

 

Incompatible with the existing wiring harness. Corbin is very clear about this on their website so I suppose the fault is all mine. What I did not know is that these two connectors are really a BMW wiring harness, not simply a connector, and from what I can tell so far, these two harnesses will cost me roughly $100 and an hour of my time. I thought when purchasing the seat, surely the connectors would only cost about $10 or less, wrong.

 

Requirement of a separate key for seat removal. I hate keys. Don't care about locking the seat down anyway. How about a button?

 

While Corbin seems to pride itself on the fit of their products, I am not totally satisfied on this front either. The front of this seat does engage very well with the tank area (whilst in this super low for me position) however the rear rubs against the plastic luggage rack as it turns down to flow under the seat. This is a minor thing but it does sound cheap with all the squeaking going on when sitting on the seat. I'm sure this is yet another simple fix, but the amount of my time for these fixes is quickly adding up.

 

I placed a call to Corbin to discuss the seat height issue. I spoke with a very nice gentleman who attempted to assist me but he was not an Engineer and could only provide limited assistance. He did invite me to attend the Corbin event coming up this fall in the Florida location where I could speak first hand with a Corbin saddle tech who could address my concerns. To bad I'm only 15 hours away. This is apparently the only way you can get in touch directly with the Corbin Engineers that can resolve any fitment concerns, or so I was led to believe. The consumer does not have access to these folks outside of these special events, or possibly if you live near Hollister, CA. (Even farther away in my case) Hmmm, not what I would call great customer service.

 

Just for clarification, I do like how this seat provides better support for me and appears to be of high quality. The seat height issues, while a large concern for me, may not be of any concern to others. You must judge for yourself but I have shared my experiences to allow you to think about certain aspects of seat design you may not otherwise have considered prior to purchase. I didn't.

 

[AnotherLee]

Thataintworkin wrote:

Requirement of a separate key for seat removal. I hate keys. Don't care about locking the seat down anyway. How about a button?

 

Take a copied seat key and cut it down to fit into a radio button. Epoxy it in. Then leave it in the key slot for the seat. Nobody will ever find it and if they do, it won't work for the ignition. Voila.

[acy540]

Had a Corbin on my 14Rt. Could not wait to get rid of it. Too hard. I actually had to purchase a gel pillow to finish a vacation ride. Its very firm and Corbin said to ride it for about 1500 miles. I did and more. I was never comfortable with it. I replaced it with a Sargent. Not saying they are not good just that my Butt was not happy sitting on it.

[yellowledbetter]

I have now put about 6,000 miles on the Sargent seat and like it very much. It seems to be breaking in a bit and fitting me better. Out of the box it was much better than OEM, but I wondered if I might have a reshaping project on my hands because some of the edges were noticeable and I was thinking of smoothing them down. Now I don't really notice them any longer. At about 300 miles I start to feel my bum, but if I get in the twisties and move around I am fine. I would personally opt for a slightly more firm foam density, but it is a nit, and I am quite happy with it. My wife loves (LOVES) the pillion seat, and said she never even thinks about her bum, she is so comfortable on it.

 

Versus the Corbin, all of the OEM features are retained with the Sargent without requiring any wire splicing, separate keys, etc., and is very light! Perhaps lighter than the OEM seats. The Corbin will add about 19 pounds to your bike!