Corbin Saddle Install

ADVICE I ride with a group of Gold Wing and Harley cruiser riders on day and two week long trips. I quickly found that my 6 foot 3 inch frame is not happy with the OEM saddle. I had previously put a Corbin saddle on my Yamaha Majesty scooter, which was a very easy install and improved ride, thus I went for another Corbin. I did not know how different the switch was to be on the install part! :-(

The new saddle was ordered with their heavy leather top and vinyl sides plus the metallic looking piping for trim. Removal of the OEM saddle requires a ratchet wrench with extension and universal joint to extract the four nuts. Otherwise, you must remove the dust cover over the engine (several Phillips screws and a little twisting of the cover. This cover is too close to the seat support arm to remove it without some bending with a screw driver or removal of the dust cover. Finally, the scooter is ready for your new Corbin saddle. My new saddle came with a bag of hex wrenches, bolts for the backrest and instructions. None of the supplied wrenches were the correct size for the supplied hex screws. You will quickly find that the new seat is heavy and awkward to hold in place near the scooter hinge plate where the old seat was mounted. Also, the process is reversed with the captive nuts in your new seat, not loose and applied to the seat bolts extending through the hinge holes. I lost two screws into the bowels of the SW through "handy" openings under the hinge. I finally got smart and put packing tape over the openings in the cover below. Suggestion: Carefully examine the hinge area to see what you can do to make it as easy as possible (not very) to hold the saddle in place while installing a round head screw (8-8 metric) with washer into the nuts of the new saddle. Initially my wife was the saddle holder until I decided she could not keep it aligned long enough for me to fumble around and get the screw threaded. We finally devised a spacer under the saddle that provided a steady vertical spacing. Next issue was the new saddle support arm install. The new saddle seems heavier and has a different support with a thicker attachment eye on the scooter side than its original. Thus, the dust plate space is too small to get the arm attached to the post, without removing two Phillips screws and disengaging the edge nearby from the scooter side frame. Plan to reuse the original wire clips on the seat support connections.

Now if you have installed the new weather stripping, around the storage bin perimeter, you will find the seat is pretty hard to close and get the latch to connect (close). A shim under the top U hook mounting will make the latch work much better and without sitting on the saddle to close it. I have read in another SW forum writer's notes that the seat will eventually close OK after a few months of wear, but I decided to help by adding the shim.

Lessons learned - The Corbin instructions and hardware supplied now are pretty useless since a lot of it has changed since they first designed it. None of the hex wrenches fit the supplied screws. Some screws supplied had no use in the install. Although there was a Quality Control measurement sticker under the saddle suggesting the hinge to d ring cover lock distance was OK, it really was off by half an inch.

First day of riding: All of the frustration was well worth it! I feel more secure and at home in the saddle than before. Also I gained about an inch of leg room!! Time will tell if it or I adapt better than now, but I am happy either way. As you might expect, the Honda saddle construction detail is better that the Corbin, but it seems solid and works exactly like the OEM saddle. As a measure of insurance, I took out the storage area light bulb to be sure my battery is not run down by the light switch not opening as it did with the original saddle. Did I mention that I love my SW! I am contemplating a 25 day ride with the club to all of the western national parks in the US and Canada next summer.  

Thanks for sharing your experience with installing a Corbin Seat.

I bought one used and I swore that I didn't get the whole deal.... as I struggled like you did.  By tour description, not getting the hardware and tools that was supplied didn't matter anyways.

Boy was I happy to have made the switch.  The Corbin Seat has made the bike very comfortable.  With the backrest, I can put 500 on the Swing and still be able to walk afterwards.  

I am going to put a throttle lock on soon, as the cramp buster is not good enough.