Corbin ordeal

[quixotic]

Do these photos look right?  Rear cowl is squarish and the seat rear is round.  And front of seat looks to be higher than it should be.  

That's all for now.  In the next few days, I'll post details about the 8 hour ordeal that it took me to install the thing.  

[Bob_Roller]

No, it doesn't look right to me .

[NC Steve]

Hmm, looks like you have a seat made for the '81 thru '84 rear seat cowl, that's being installed on a '79 or '80 bike. There are definite differences there. Corbin's fault, hopefully?

[Bob_Roller]

Went out and looked at my '81 R65 and that seat would not work on it either .

[quixotic]

Wow.  After a closer look at their website, I see that although they list seats for R65 in their online catalogue, hidden away in the "notes" is a note stating that they don't make seats for the R65.  And obviously, they didn't pick up on the fact that in the required fields for make and model of bike, I put R65.  

(Makes me wonder what they'd do if I put 50 furlongs for inseam, and 20 parsecs for height in those required fields.)  

Anyways, too late now.  I did way too much hammering and chopping and grinding to make the thing fit.  

[disco51]

I like the brown…
Perhaps a pic from a bit of a distance?
Definitely doesn't fit, though.

[Bob_Roller]

from what little bit I know about other BMW bikes, i would say it's made for an R100 series bike, I think the tail piece on an r100 is curved like the seat is .

[k_enn]

Yep, it doesn't look right.  

A couple of years ago I looked into getting a seat from Corbin.  A close examnation of their website, and correspondence with them, confirmed that they no longer make seats for the R65 (and have not for a good number of years).  They would not even custom make one if I sent them the pan.   Back when they did make them for the R65, the seats did vary depending on the model year of the bike.  

k_enn

[quixotic]

I like the brown…
Perhaps a pic from a bit of a distance?

It really looks fairly nice.  When I first took it out of the box, I was awestruck at the workmanship and styling.  And from what I've discovered in the adaptation process, Corbin wouldn't need to do a huge amount of retooling if they wanted to sell these things to R65 owners.  They could shave off that front lip.  As for the rear cowl issue, it wouldn't take much to fill in that space.  Underneath, 5 of the 6 bump stops (for transmitting the load to the frame) are right in line with the frame.  The curved brackets need to be moved slightly so that the locking prong goes where it's supposed to.  And the bottom of the seat is at least a 1/4" too low (where it bumps into the fender).  Other than that, it fits like a glove.

[quixotic]

I took it out for a spin yesterday.  Just around the block so far, since the snow melt is making the main roads a mess.

I found that my butt is now further rearward on this seat.  So my posture is a bit more prone, and the sport bars now feel like clip-ons.  But I like it.  I guess I'll have a better idea once the roads dry up and I'm able to take it on longer trips (ie, maybe my triceps will complain).  

And I had to cut off the top 1/2" to 3/4" of the plastic tool tray (I didn't have the battery in before, so that was another surprise).  

I'm not sure if I'll do anything else to the seat.  I don't really notice the rear cowl issue at all.  And I'm afraid that if I try to reduce the size of that front tip, I'll botch the job and make it look worse.  But then again, I may get bored one day.

[Justin B.]

You could send it to me and I'll try it on my '81 RT to verify what it's for!