Hitchcocks Forum

Have any of you crafty types ever tried to recover a bullet seat? Mine has gone a bit brittle, and is torn here and there, making Tinker look a bit tatty! There are a couple of clips on you tube showing how to recover seats of Jap bikes, which look easy enough as the material is stapled to the underside of the seat pan, presumably made of plastic or fibreglass? However the Bullet seat base is metal and has the material stuck to it. All comments most graciously welcome.

I believe Hitchcocks sell replacement seat covers. And I should think any contact adhesive would work, though I think spray upholstery adhesive is available, but I think it is just another contact adhesive.

I did mine...yr 2000 Bullet 500.... quite a long time ago and it's still looking good. I can't remember all the steps, but would say: =1= Do it when you have lots of time and patience. =2= KEEP checking it is even. =3= Watch any clips are put on very carefully so they don't cut into the new material. =4= BEFORE starting, take pictures, and see really how stretched or otherwise it is. =5= Is your new cover IDENTICAL or similar? Good luck, -Chris

hi wilf,im with chris with the hitchcocks covers very good, mine is a 500 1991 bullet bit of tlc and they come out well good luck cheers phil

It is so cheap to get a motorcycle seat reupholstered I would not even bother to try to do it myself.

I find the trick is to get the long axis centreline (front to back,) right first then work round the edges. With metal pans you often have a strategically placed pop rivet as well, so prepare for this by having the rivets, tool and a drill to hand. You may also need some small washers as spreaders to stop the rivet pulling through the cloth. REgards, Mark

Thanks lads, I was going to use vinyl fabric from my local hardware shop. It claims to be suitable for outdoor use and seems pretty substantial. I'm aware of our hosts option, and am sure it would be of excellent quality, however, I have to run the bullet on a pretty tight budget and the hitchcocks cover is forty-five quid plus vat and postage. Not much change out of sixty quid I'm thinking. Might just do a dummy run without removing original cover. One last thing, my seat doesn't have any clips holding the material, it's just glued. Is this normal?

Wilf, glued construction is quite common. I usually use a few rivets for security as glue isn't quite enough for me, maybe they use something better than I've got at home in the Factory! REgards, Mark

There's a chap here in cross street, barnstaple that recovers bike seats for £30. He did a superb job on mine and also put in new foam to take out the huge step in the saddle too. When you actually look closely there is only a couple of inches of foam, so another couple of inches made the seat armchair comfy! Of course longer legs are useful.

I think I only meant clips if there are any. Don't worry if there aren't! ATB Chris