Tamara and I went to Seattle and had a 2-up seat built at Rich's Custom Upholstery. Rich is a brilliant guy and really has the operation down to a science.

The day starts at 8:30am, when Rich opens the garage door so the customers can ride down into the shop. Rich seems to do 5-6 bikes per day. That's nice, because you get to chat with other (generally experienced) riders during the day. Rich and his employees take your seat and immediately uncover it. Ours had to be "cooked" for a while, since it was wet from being in the pouring rain overnight.

Next, the basic seat is mounted on the bike. The two of us climb onto the seat, and Rich marks some basic lines. Foam is added to the top and sides, then a basic dish shape is added, and the fitting really begins.

Most of the next few hours is a repeat of this process: sit on the seat, mark the pressure points, then the seat is reshaped until it is perfect. The foam buildup work is done by the employees, but Rich personally does the fitting analysis.

Once the seat was close to being dialed in, we are given the seat to take on a test ride. It's a lot easier to sit in your riding position on the street than it is while the bike is on the centerstand. We did a test ride before lunch, and I asked Rich if he could raise the seat, move my position forward, and such- in other words, nearly completely start over on the fitting. They changed it while we were out at lunch.

After lunch, the tuning was completed, then they put a liner over the seat (beige in the pictures), added a little bit of lightweight foam to smooth the seat out (white), then cut the pattern for the leather cover (clear). The two types of leather were sewn together, then glued and fitted to the seat pan.

It was a long day at Rich's shop, but certainly worthwhile. Thanks Rich!