Corbin Dual Touring Seat Review

I currently have an 07 FXSTB that is slammed, piped, bored and is just simply a plain mean and fast Harley Davidson. It is everything that I built it to be with the exception of comfortable. It is a great around the town, barhopper kind of bike but if I want to head out on longer rides, then it's a bear.

My Butt Hurts

As such I have been seriously contemplating a move to a touring style of bike. I don't see giving up completely on the slammed and badass Harley Davidsons but maybe something in the middle like a Streetglide with a nasty disposition, we'll see. As I have been considering a change in bikes, I have been soliciting many of my riding buddies to let me spend some time in the saddle of their bikes and I recently was able to ride a buddies RK for a few hundred miles and wanted to share what I thought of his seat.

My bike has a LePera Bare Bones Solo and let me tell you, it is named right. It is a Bare Bones saddle which for that bike is fine but after riding this RK with the plush suspension and the Corbin Dual Touring Saddle, all I can say is man what a difference in ride comfort. I know part of it is the bike but most of it seemed to be the saddle. Seeing as I run this site I thought I would share my thoughts on the saddle with you.

Corbin Dual Touring Saddle Facts

I did some research on the Corbin Dual Touring Saddle and this is what I found. The Corbin's Dual Touring Saddle provides you and a passenger with a very comfortable ride by using sculpted foam seating and even has an option for an electric heater in their seats. The seats are designed to better distribute the weight of your body across the seat pan and is contoured in a way to relieve pressure from the normal pressure points that a bad seat quickly makes you aware of. I can say in my experience of a 300 mile ride, this is certainly true. The seat was a joy to ride.

The Corbin Dual Touring saddle is very comfortable out of the box but can accept removeable backrests if you so choose to give your back even more support. This is a great option and I have ridden bikes with a back support and the difference is amazing, especially if your prone to lower backaches. The backrests are adjustable and you can either use a single backrest or a double, your pick. My buddies Roadking did not have the backrests installed so I missed out there but from past experience, this is a nice option.

If you run a backrest in the front position of the seat then you will be happy to know that the Corbin Dual Touring seat is built with special hardware that will allow the backrest to be adjusted either forwards and backwards in order to accomodate riders of different stature and this same hardware also allows you to fold the backrest down out of the way so you can mount the bike easier. It is spring loaded to pop the backrest back into position once you put some weight on the saddle. That is a very cool option right there and I wish I could have tried it.

Genuine Leather Seating

Another feature I liked was that Corbin uses genuine leather when building their seats which in my experience breathes much better than vinyl. My LePera is all vinyl and it is certainly functionable, I think I would prefer a leather seat in the future, more maintenance but not as hot and sticky. If you are unfamiliar with leather seating then you will find that leather seating will "break in" to your own shape (along with the seat foam) and give a more comfortable ride with age. You just need to make sure you use a leather conditioner on your seat to aid the process.

I was reading on a seat website and found that the Corbin Dual Touring Saddle also accepts the option of a nostalgic looking chrome rail that harkens back to the bikes of yesteryear. This is a Corbin rail and is only available through them. I did read that the rail attaches directly to the seat and is said to be a simple process with no drilling or seat modification required. It will interfere with HD luggage racks, sissy bares and/or tour packs so be careful.

Corbin Dual Tour Installation

Corbin's Dual Tour has been tested to fit with the following Harley-Davidson Accessories:

• Tour Pak models: #53147-98B, #53018-04A, #53092-05 & #53690-06
  

Like most Harley Davidson seats, the installation would be a snap. The Corbing Dual Touring saddle uses a tongue in the front and a single screw in the rear fender, just like a lot of HD seats so no surprises there.

Conclusion

I did a little research in some HD forums on this seat before writing this review. 300 miles gave me a great first impression but I wanted to solicit some opinions from riders that had put t housands of miles on their Corbin Harley Davidson seat. It was easy to spot a trend after reading a few threads.

The Corbin Dual Touring saddle will give you a firm ride and should by no means be considered a "pillowy" type of ride. Almost every rider reported that the seat would get even better with time, that many of them weren't so sure at first but once the leather and the foam wore in, they were hooked.

Another important function that is sometimes overlooked is how comfortable is your passenger. In most cases of someone reporting an opinion, the passengers absolutely loved this seat. Momma will be happy to hear that bit of good news.

From my own experience and from the opinions of the masses I think it's safe to say the Corbin Dual Touring saddle is definitely a high quality seat from a high quality company. Seat reviews are difficult because everyone has a different comfort level and some prefer firm, some prefer soft and no one seat will be right for everyone.

If you are of the firm, leather clad variety then I would suggest giving the Corbin Dual Touring Saddle a good hard look.