Corbin or Sargent?

[ginkof]

I am looking to buy a good quality seat for my cbr1000rr very soon... which do you guys prefer? corbin? Sargent? Anyone know of a place where i can get either below retail? thanks!

[DucDave]

I have had, and liked, two corbin seats...blackbird and ST2. Gunfighter on both. The seat pan of the corbin fit me better than the sargent but the sargent fit and finish is better, it's lighter, and it has that cool storage tube built in. If my ass or balls were a little smaller I would have picked the sargent.

[keeena]

I have a Corbin GF w/ Lady on my VFR and Corbin GF on my TL. I agree w/ what DucDave said as far as sizing. I'm 5'10 and 165...my impression is that the Corbin is made for an ass bigger than mine. I like the Corbin more than the factory seats. Don't have any experience w/ Sargent. I have the Corbin backrest for the VFR and its comfy according to my girlie.

[benVFR]

I tried a Corbin very temporarily on my VFR.

I thought it sucked royally. It was quite comfy. (Hard like a bicycle seat.. very good design.)

However the leather covering was like riding right on plastic.. it made it very hard to stabilize your body position on the bike. Basically every time you made significant throttle/brake/handlebar inputs, you could not keep your body from sliding around on the bike.

Maybe they have another covering.. just don't get smooth leather. Smooth hard leather is almost unarguably the best for actually keeping your butt comfortable.. but something about their design just didn't work.

[Currently]

I tried both on the SV.

My experience won't mean crap to you as I am finding out that some bike models have good ergos for each respective company's seat.

On the SV, the sargent was the most comfortable and flexible as for different seating positions. The corbin was like a tractor seat, only comfortable with my butt far out to the back which is conducive to the naked SV where one sits upright. The S version has clipons and the riding posture is a bit more aggressive.

There has been some complaints with fit and finish regarding the Corbins lately, I will not get into this, do your own research on other forums.

The Corbin is a very heavy seat.

The Sargent is very light, well constructed and offers many comfortable seating positions.

Take each opinion FWIW ... personally I would find people with the same bike you have and just speak to them or try it out.

Just because a seat model sucks for one bike model does not mean that it cannot be the best seat for another bike model.
Don't swallow the brand name hype ... it is a lot of money ... research, speak to people with the SAME BIKE you have and if possible, try it out.

[elwood206]

maybe a plan C?

I was looking into both corbin and sergeant for my 954, then a buddy suggested taking it to a local upholsterer are telling them what I wanted, for 50$ I got a pretty much stock looking seat thats slightly bigger and alot more comfortable.

[keeena]

The corbin was like a tractor seat, only comfortable with my butt far out to the back ...

More or less agree...the butt cup is more towards the rear (which is why it seems like its made for larger folks?). This is the case on both my VFR and TL.

I have the 'carbon fiber' leather. Haven't noticed unusual sliding about.

[benVFR]

Yah.. actually mine was at least 2x as heavy as the stock honda seat and the fit and finish was not as good either, at least on the seat pan. The leather on the top looked quite nicely finished. It was bad enough there were gaps between the seat & plastic and it was hard to get the lock to engage.

Definitely depends on each bike though. I don't know who the "butt cup" was designed for on the VFR seat. You'd have to be huge.. if I stuck my butt back in the "cup" my crotch would be 6" from the tank, not ideal riding position, and not a good choice with the VFR as the reach to the bars is pretty far on the VFR, most people probably ride the bike while sitting pretty far forward on the seat. I would say it seemed like a cruiser seat... that design is common on cruisers and it seems to work when your upper body is straight up or leaned back.

I bought mine 2nd hand.. to me there is no way it would have been a good buy at $375.

[keeena]

+1 on all points. My VFR had the Corbin from previous owner. At this point I also would've been disappointed if I paid $650 (I have the backrest on VFR). I've just heard so much hype that I feel a bit let down. Yes, def. better than stock. Worth it...?

[Currently]

So there is a trend on Corbins being designed for cruiser type motorcycles ...

I know that a lot of people that have the nude SV and don't hang off like the Corbin.

When I had mine on, I rode and could not figure out what was wrong until I put my stock seat back on. Then it hit me that the Corbin does not allow you to sit next to the tank, it has a ridge there that slides your butt backwards into the cup. That made me put too much weight on my hands and a ride that was over a hundred miles killed my wrists.

The Sargent on the other hand allows me to sit comfortably next to the tank and further back with no bias ... you move just an inch and it changes the pressure points on your butt to keep that circulation flowing.