B&H Specialties (seatcovers)

[chuckycheese]

I recently bought a new seat cover for my 80 GS750L and here is how it all went. I received the new seat cover in several weeks, which was absolutely fine, (I was in no hurry). It looked good and seemed quite similar to the original seat cover..as advertised.

When I went to install it, I discovered that one of the side seams was crooked...not by much, but quite noticeable. I figured, once it was installed, it wouldn't be prominent so onward I went.

As I prepared to put it on my seat pan, I noticed that the securing skirt at the bottom had started to unravel....not good. At that point, I called in my wife. She's not a professional seamstress but she's really good and has a good sewing machine. She took one look and judged the skirt juncture as 'temporary, at best'. She over sewed the entire thing. There was nothing she could do about the crooked seam but she felt that it was sloppy and could have easily been done correctly.

Together, we installed it on my seat pan and it went on quite well. It looks nice and the crooked seam isn't very noticeable...except to me. Next time, I'll probably do something different.

By the way, their 'after the sale' customer service is non-existent...they simply don't care. If you've had 'glowing' service, good for you; chime in an give them a plug. I think their work is 'so-so' and their customer service is foul. Just my opinion!!

[seuadr]

thanks for the review. i've noticed this alot in the parts industry, both for cars and motorcycles... most companies that aren't actually a retail brick and mortar just don't give a damn anymore about customer service.

the other day i called autozone looking for some replacement LED peanuts for my cluster arriving monday (thanks TCK!) and after being put on hold 4 times,the same guy picked up and treated me like a new customer and said he'd go look. finally, the 4th time someone else picked up, and instead of even being willing to go look or check in the computer said " i don't know, why don't you just come down and check " .. mind you this store is a good 30 mins away for me.

now i don't mind being on hold, and if they are busy, that is fine. But proper customer service would be asking me to call back, offering to call me back or at least saying i'm sorry, but i'm swamped with customers right now, i can't go check. ><

[Joe Nardy]

I've never used B&H before but I'll put in a good word here for Sargent. I wanted to order a cover for my '83 1100 a few years ago. I called them to ask about color options. They sent me a bunch of color swatches so I could best match the color I wanted. They then mad and sent a cover for an earlier GS which did not fit correctly. I called them, got a live person who took about two minutes to figure out what went wrong, then told me a new correct cover would be sent out in the next day or two. I asked about sending the incorrect one back and he told me to keep it for my trouble. There were no additional charges, not even shipping. I installed the cover myself and it looks great (in my opinion at least!).




They'll get my business again..............

Thanks,
Joe

[chuckycheese]

Beautiful!

That's a beautiful seat cover, Joe. So's the rest of the bike!!!

[80GS750]

i put a saddlemans cover on my 80gs750 and it came out really good, no complaints.

good quality and it held up great for a year until I sold the bike anyway

[Joe Nardy]

That's a beautiful seat cover, Joe. So's the rest of the bike!!!

Thank you very much!

Joe

[bwringer]

My experience with B&H was likewise not 100% -- they still don't warn you that the "textured" material is full of holes, and thus not suitable for a motorcycle that ever goes outside.

I asked repeatedly verbally and via emails for a replacement seat cover made from a suitable material, but this request was completely ignored and they only responded with more and more hare-brained ideas for waterproofing the seat cover.

In the end, I coated the inside with a camping seam sealer (not at all ideal -- it's much stiffer than it should be), installed it, and got on with my life.

B&H is an actual brick and mortar business located in Texas, and when you call, you're talking to the owners. It just goes to show you that faceless corporations don't have a monopoly on crappy service.


With all the above said, B&H does have one thing going for it -- they have the stock seat cover patterns for virtually every bike ever made. Sargent only has a few of the most popular vintage bikes (such as the 82-83 1100E).

If what you want is the stock shape, and you're careful to order only the smooth vinyl, you'll probably be happy. However, maybe their quality control is slipping, as shown by the OP's experience. The hidden seams on my seat cover were very sloppy, but this didn't compromise strength. Everything that showed was straight and strong, and it's holding up well.

If my seat cover pattern had been available from Sargent, I would have ordered from there. If I had a couple hundred bucks and a few weeks to spare, I could have also sent my seat to Sargent for a completely custom cover.

[J_C]

I have the same material as Brian, and I knew in advance thanks to his advice that there were holes. In California I didn't care much. I like the look of it. The only thing I didnt like is that it didn't come with any mini layer of foam like the stockers did. I believe saddlemans come with it, dont know who does or doesn't. But it did leave the pillion portion with an outline of the hard foam underneath so it didn't come out completely smooth. If you click on my pic in my sig you'll see what I'm talking about.

I should have added my own foam on the back like I did for the front, but didnt think this would be the result. Oh well.