March 30, 2011 Red Dog’s Saddle – One more time

In February of 2010 I made the long journey to Rich’s Custom Seats way up in Kingston, WA. The round- trip from Bandon clocks just under a thousand miles which makes it a bit of an adventure if you’re riding a scooter. I chose to trailer Red Dog behind the RV as you never know what you’ll encounter. Like Zombies maybe...



Beautiful Leather but too slippery for Red Dog

Besides, it was February and camping doesn’t appeal to me when it’s nippy out. When the new saddle was all done up in gorgeous leather & tri-color stitching I headed home to Bandon and it was still raining hard.

A couple of days later the sun finally popped out for a brief time and I was able to sneak in a short ride of 100 miles or so. The new saddle wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for although the back rest felt pretty good. The problem with the saddle was simple: That gorgeous leather surface was slick as a whistle and I found myself sliding forward about every 11 seconds unless I hit a bump and then it was immediate.

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This resulted with my being thrust into a laid-back slouching position, the kind I usually assume when I watch the tube. While that may enhance TV viewing it really doesn’t do much for piloting a motor scooter as I was continually having to push myself back to a more upright position. Remember your Mom yelling at you "Sit up or you'll get a crooked back!" Every 11 seconds kids, not good.

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Figuring this must have happened to others I queried the members of the MP3 forum I frequent and a number of suggestions were proffered, the most common one being to raise the front of the saddle by installing shims under the front hinge. I tried this method and it helped somewhat but it still needed something more. The bad part of this solution was the saddle now allowed water to enter along the raised part which flooded the under-seat storage area.

My next step was to contact Rich O’Connor the owner of Rich’s Custom Seats to explain the dilemma I was in. He suggested sending the seat back and they would make some adjustments to it and return it to me. That sounded like a better idea than driving back up so I packed it and shipped it off.


Rich looked it over and performed a few tweaks on it and shipped it back. It was a bit better but the sliding continued and on rides of any duration it was still pretty miserable.


Thinking maybe I needed to sit differently on a scooter I decided to live with it for awhile to see if I could adapt. Months went by and instead of taking Red Dog on my 2010 summer tour I left her in the barn and went with a different rig, a new Kawasaki Vulcan 900L.


When I returned in late summer I once again turned my attention to making Red Dog into the grand touring machine I felt she was capable of being. Over the course of the next few months I tweaked and fussed and messed with all sorts of ideas about where to ride her and how long I’d be on the road, etc. Still the moderately high level of discomfort of the saddle haunted me and I decided the only solution was to have the cover redone in a non-skid material. I again contacted Rich’s and after discussions they mailed two samples of material they thought might resolve the issue.


One sample was a bit heavier than the other which meant it would wear longer and the other had a much courser surface grain which would provide the most resistance to sliding.

Super non-skid vinyl

I chose the latter; I wanted the problem to go away for good. It was time for the return run to Kingston, WA. 

Ready for the return trip to Rich's Custom Seats

On Tuesday March 29th I loaded Red Dog onto the bike trailer and headed north, stopping in Portland for an overnight visit with friends.


As a side trip I'd also scheduled a meeting with the Aussie Rescue people in Molalla, OR. We’d recently lost Daisy, our 13-year old Australian Shepherd and it was time to start looking for another one. There are an amazing number of homeless dogs in the world and our place is perfect for a couple of them.


The Molalla agency turned out to be a good call; the dog I’d been scheduled to see was fine although way too jittery for my liking but while I was there they brought in another candidate, a one-year old male Aussie. He’d just arrived back at the shelter that day after spending 4 days on a trial period with a potential family. Evidently it didn't work out for them but I liked him right away and in less than two hours we were on our way to Portland.

What a happy face!

They say that traveling with someone is one of the best ways to find out how compatible you are. Toby and I spent the next few days bumping along in the motor home and we soon discovered we like each other.


* Update note at home: Contrary to what I'd been told he isn't house broken and his pretty wary of kids, especially 6-year olds like our granddaughter. The question of cats is still out there as we don't have one right now. None of the above items are deal-breakers, Toby's already worked his way into our hearts and he's found a home.


Back to the story about Red Dog's saddle redo. We camped that night on the parking lot of a small office building in Portland and in the morning we set out early for Kingston. The drive north was easy, barely 250 miles and we arrived at Rich’s right at lunch time.


They have a small RV area for out of town customers so after off-loading Red Dog I set up camp. Rich's facility is better than nearly any campground you’ll come across and he lets you stay there free while they work on your bike. Service like that is practically unheard of, isn’t it?

That afternoon they took the scooter right in and began work on redesigning the saddle. Rich’s goal was to reshape the underlying foam material into a new base with a higher rise to the front.


Tear it apart & start over



Checking the fit



He also wanted to see if we could save the leather cover but it was no use; for this particular application it was just too slippery.



Rich returning from one of several test rides



Cutting the pattern for the new cover

After shaping and reshaping and multiple test rides he decided to give it up and go with a totally new cover, this time using the vinyl with the super sticky surface. Both of us hated to see the leather go but sometimes even the best laid plans…


Antonio sewing the new cover

 Antonio, one of Rich’s key employees did a lot of the work with Rich doing the design changes and critical cutting of the foam. Antonio handled assembly and sewing of the cover which he made using patterns he created from the foam base.


The new saddle ready to ride

 The whole process took hours, all of the rest of Wednesday and with an early start on Thursday they finished mid-afternoon. It was raining when it came time for me to do the test ride, the same as it had been doing last year only this time I was determined to pay very close attention as to how well it fit me and whether or not there was any tendency to slide around.


I donned my one-piece Roadcrafter which is a super rain suit, added helmet and gloves and headed out. The rain was coming down fairly hard but it was easy for me to feel the difference; this time the saddle felt like everything it should be, comfortable fit and no sliding around whatsoever. I headed back to Rich’s shop and gave him the thumbs-up sign, we were finally done.


It was nearly 3:00pm by the time I got Red Dog reloaded and all strapped down for the run home. We were planning on another overnight stay in Portland and then would make the final 250 mile drive to Bandon. Everything went smoothly; we arrived in the late afternoon on Friday without mishap.


This has been one of the longest on-going projects I’ve encountered with Red Dog and certainly the most expensive. It was an essential one though and I’ve learned a lot during the process which will serve me well should I ever require another custom saddle. And I can truthfully say that any future saddle work I have done will be at Rich’s Custom Seats; their level of customer care is the best I’ve ever experienced. FYI - http://www.richscustomseats.com/

Overall this has been a great trip, I came home with a much improved saddle for Red Dog and a new Aussie Shepherd pal. What more could you ask for?


PS – This part is just for fun: Besides being a skilled saddle maker Rich’s interests range far and wide when it comes to military collectables. One of his many on-going fun projects has been the creation of a sidecar rig using a bomb shell for the sidecar. Sure, it’s an old kiddy car but isn’t it great?


Bombs Awaaaaay!