I sewed a seat for my Sur-Ron

[voodoojar]

I picked up a industrial sewing machine at an estate sale and I've sewing leather motorcycle seats for about 6 months. I decided to make one for my Sur-Ron as practice. I added some dye to the edges to give it a patinaed look and a ton of wax to make it water resistant.

 

[MJSfoto1956]

A+

P.S. you could easily start a business with those skills...

 

[voodoojar]

A+

P.S. you could easily start a business with those skills...

Thanks. I've made a few for my motorcycle and for a couple friends and probably messed up like 30 seats just practicing. I do want to start a side business doing it at some point, it's better than driving Uber. I just want to get really good at it first. I've been watching a bunch of youtube videos and learning how to make patterns and do different stitches and stuff.

 

[spinningmagnets]

The large central panel of a leather seat is a perfect canvas to create art, and there us a small percentage of owners who will gladly pay big bucks for a custom seat.

When I retire, that will be one of the hobbies I planned on taking up. The tools for leather work are affordable for starting out.

 

[Liu]

I picked up a industrial sewing machine at an estate sale and I've sewing leather motorcycle seats for about 6 months. I decided to make one for my Sur-Ron as practice. I added some dye to the edges to give it a patinaed look and a ton of wax to make it water resistant.

Looks great, feels very comfortable style

 

[macribs]

Nice work. I do wonder if you changed the layering around a bit maybe the seat would be even more resistant to water?
In my mind I think of the how the pay singel on roof tops, so water drains down ward. I don't even know if that is at all possible, never done anything close to designing and sewing things. But it just seems to me the top seam could be a place where water could collect.

 

[voodoojar]

Nice work. I do wonder if you changed the layering around a bit maybe the seat would be even more resistant to water?
In my mind I think of the how the pay singel on roof tops, so water drains down ward. I don't even know if that is at all possible, never done anything close to designing and sewing things. But it just seems to me the top seam could be a place where water could collect.

Honestly if I cared too much about water I'd use a different material. Leather basically sucks when it gets wet. The waxing is good to keep it from getting stained by the water but it wouldn't stand up to riding in a down pour. I'd probably use some alcantra or other synthetic for a truly waterproof seat.

 

[macribs]

Makes sense. Btw your blacked out Sur Ron with that nice contrasting brown leather seat is really great looking.

 

[voodoojar]

I sewed another seat this afternoon.

 

[macribs]

Could you take another pic? A little further away? Maybe like the very first pick you posted? Easier to get a better understanding when not up close.

Impressive to make two seats in such a short time. Maybe this sewing thing is your superpower?

 

[SlowCo]

Beautiful work!
Are they seat covers that go over the existing saddle? If so, you could sell them easily and have a side bussiness. If you offer it with extra foam padding underneath it would add a lot of comfort.

 

[voodoojar]

I already took the seat off but here is one a little further out. I sew in a peice of 1/2 neoprene to make them softer. You can see it on this seat because I made it slightly too wide.

 

[macribs]

Nice work. Looks stunning. Make this a side business. Take pre orders and sew only to orders that way you keep the investments to a minimum and keep the risk low.

 

[voodoojar]

Nice work. Looks stunning. Make this a side business. Take pre orders and sew only to orders that way you keep the investments to a minimum and keep the risk low.

Im planning to. Im working on a portfolio of sorts. Then ill build the website. I got the url sewmoto.com

 

[macribs]

Cool. I wish you the best. Start ups can be tough and capital intensive. But I think you can get this off the ground without big spending if you keep inventory low and start with a sew-to-order policy. Be sure to post in the forums for sale thread when you get things up and running.

 

[brando]

-Keep records to help you "learn" places to sell and customers. Where they come from etc. spreadsheet? help identify best place to sell (certain patterns may have (may) sell better in place vs another
- simple, simple referral program that rewards referral person and new customer?

Craigslist
e-bay or online moto parts/tire sellers ??
Have people send you seats and do a custom seat for most any motor cycle?
work a deal with Lunacycle.com ? They did a special run of Sur-Ron (20?) and a fellow in Santa Rosa made special seats.
https://sur-ron.markkitaoka.com/
sur-ron facebook page

many places you can sell and perhaps NOT have the extra expense of a web-page
webpage vs wordpress vs selling sites - may options now days
IF you can avoid your own web site (monthly expense/overhead) - you have the flexibility to take a long vacation.
and you may find certain times of the year are just slow.

hope this inspires some new thoughts - you may well have thought of these things already. You'll come up with more ideas.
Seems like some people appreciate quality made and unique products - finding them the problem.

I'd consider looking for longer rear fender and offering that along with the custom seat
- honda crf70/80 fender seems popular - just the rear fender (can't believe Sur-Ron or Luna doesn't use as a standard)

 

[macribs]

*good tips
*good tips...

I agree with most, when it comes to webpage I would say a webpage is bare minimum to be counted as serious today. A webpage can be close to nothing if you put some heart into it. Anyone that can put text and pictures into a text documents like word can make their own web. Think of it as a place or marketing, where people can go to read up on your products etc. The site can be static html, or a dynamic webpage where content is drawn from a database, for this cms is well proven, easy to use and free, as in open source and find the one you like with a free as in free beer license. Then all you need is a host, a server. You can even host it yourself for free.

For hybrid pages where the e-commerce part is hold on sites like ebay, amazon etc you don't need to overthink security and can safely depend on the stock cms you find, just swap out the standard admin password. And as always keep a local copy/backup.