I took a bunch of pictures when I was at Corbin that covered how they manufactured both their seats and body accessories. I finally have a little spare time to go through how the entire process works, so today I'll start at the beginning.
For each Corbin seat, a prototype is developed and refined until Mike Corbin is happy with every aspects of the seat. The primary items of concern are comfort and style. Numerous iterations of prototypes are made until Mike signs off and a go is given to make the seat bases mold.
This is what the seat base mold looks like for the Spyder.
The mold is a two piece "Clam Shell" mold which includes locations that all the attachment hardware are installed, and then hand laid fiberglass is placed in the mold to form the seat base.
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After the mounting hardware is installed into the mold, an operator hand installs the dyed fiberglass to form the seat base. The fiberglass is not sprayed into the mold. The glass fibers and resin are hand mixed and hand laid. Each seat base requires a level of craftsmanship to ensure the mix, thickness and orientation of fibers are going to be correct and meet the requirements of the customer.
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OK, once the fiberglass seat base in done, the foam process begins. This is what a mold looks like before it is closed. You can see the shape the foam will take in the red area of the mold.
Next, a test shot is done to look at the foam to verify the chemical mixture is correct. This is done regularly for quality control purposes.
The foam starts as a multi-part liquid fed individually into a mixing nozzle, when combined through the mixing nozzle the resultant chemical mix foams (and grows) like mad! You can see the before and after in the following photos.
Each seat receives a specific foam "shot size". When the mold is opened, this is what a seat looks like:
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I am picking up my new RTS tomorrow, on Saturday I will drop it off at Corbin on Saturday where they will use it to develope the first seat for RTs. RT seats should be availabel from Cobin in 3-4 weeks. The Corbin seat is heated, and supports the use of a riders back rest. I currently have a riders back rest on my Electroglide, once you get used to the back rest you will never ride without one.
I droped my RTS off at Corbin today. I met Mike Corbin, he said that heated seats for the RTS should be availabel on their website Corbin Motorcycle Seats & Accessories | Can-Am Spyder | 800-538-7035 in 4-5 weeks, the seats will accomidate a riders backrest, I will post pictures when the seat is finished.
I dropped my RTS off at Corbin today. I met Mike Corbin, he said that heated seats for the RTS should be available on their website Corbin Motorcycle Seats & Accessories | Can-Am Spyder | 800-538-7035 in 4-5 weeks, the seats will accommodate a riders backrest, I will post pictures when the seat is finished.
Fantastic news! Did you get a chance to tour the facility while you were there?
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I guess I got ahead of myself on how the seat is made...I should have started at the beginning of the process, how the seat is ordered and the order process is executed.
It starts with a visit to Corbin's web site: www.corbin.com/can-am/, or you can call to Corbin and talk to a sales rep, (Corbin Motorcycle Seats & Accessories | Can-Am Spyder | 800-538-7035) the sales people are right on the other side of the wall from the production shop.... pretty cool!
Every seat is custom made to an individuals order, no stock seats come out of Corbin! The entire operation is the picture of lean one piece flow, and it all starts with the order process.
Once on the site, you click on the order tab, and select the item you want, when you get to the seats you'll notice they have heated and unheated front and rear Spyder seats, and a back rest. You can select from eight standard color combination. But if you do not see a color you like.... hit the phone and Corbin will do a custom combo for you.... your imagination is the only limitation. They can even do custom textures too, I saw a gorgeous snake-skin pattern as an example.
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While the seat base is being manufactured per the previous posts, all the remaining soft pieces are cut and sewed. This is what the leather and foam look like after begin cut and kitted for assembly:
You can see a piece of the neat snake-skin leather I was talking about.
Corbin gets all their leather from a single tanner in the San Francisco bay area. Mike Corbin said that the leather is the best quality they can find.
He likes to be able to call up and talk to, or easily visit, his suppliers...... so if at all possible, he works with people close to the facility, and smaller in size.
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OK, next up is the leather getting sewn. This is what a sewing pattern looks like it tells how each joint is to be sewn and if piping is to be installed.
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The making of a Corbin Seat
Linear Mode
