Alaskan Leather Sheepskin Universal

Bought the Alaskan Leather Universal seat cover in natural. I liked that it was smaller than the others and only really covered the part of the seat where most of your rear makes contact. Never really liked the big ol' shaggy black wool skin on the seat, but that's just personal preference.

They were also running a promotion on them so it was a little cheaper too. Took a chance and just selected "natural" for the color, and ended up with something that is mostly a dark brown, with darker and lighter markings too. I have to say, I really like the natural look. Might have preferred a black and white look, but am happy with what I got.

The problem is that the "universal" covers have a velcro strap which requires taking your seat off to install. When I want to take the cover off for rain, etc. I'll have to take the seat bolts out to remove it each time. So I contacted them and they sent me a regular buckle strap that I would have sewn on. Took it to a couple different places and couldn't find a place that would sew the leather... even a shoe repair place. The last shop suggest just cutting the velcro straps down to enough elastic to sew on the buckle strap, but even with the buckles cinched all the way up to the sew points on the cover, there's still too much slack.

At the moment, I'm back where I started with the buckles having to be under the seat too and having to take the seat bolts out if I want to take the cover off for rain.

Frustrating.

Has anyone discovered a clever way to approach this problem?

Buy some nylon buckles and webbing. Take it to a local tailor and have them place one on each corner. The straps can remain in place under the seat when the cover is removed.



I'll look for some place that will sew it.

I took all straps and buckles off my Alaskan dead sheep. Then using spray adhesive I attached a piece of that mesh sticky nonslip drawer liner material to the under side. Justs sits on top of my seat and does not slide around. If you ever stand on your pegs though that could be an issue at high speeds.
http://www.dollargeneral.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11787042&CAWELAID=1000263871&cagpspn=pla

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Leather Menders or Champion Sewing and Leather look like they should be able to do it or at least recommend someone.

Kinda like that mesh sticky nonslip drawer liner material to the under side idea.

The problem is that just using the two buckles they sent me, the strap sew points have to be moved further up underneath and because I got a small one, I'm thinking where they'd need to be would likely rub my inner thigh.

It wasn't that expensive since I got the small universal and on promo, so I'm thinking I might give that sticky thing a try. Does that start getting all melty in the hardcore Texas Summer heat?

The four buckles might be a decent option, but with the estimates some of these people are quoting me to sew leather (provided their machine needle didn't slip) would end up costing more than the freakin' pad did.

Or, maybe I'll just toss a plastic bag in my front compartment to slip over it if it looks like rain instead of pulling it off altogether.

Since it's smaller with less area to catch wind, I'm thinking I might just be able to get away with the adhesive sticky stuff idea since I only tend to stand on the pegs briefly at low speed to stretch my legs. Thanks for the suggestions

skiphunt said:

It wasn't that expensive since I got the small universal and on promo, so I'm thinking I might give that sticky thing a try. Does that start getting all melty in the hardcore Texas Summer heat?

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I never had an issue with heat but this is on my cruiser and honestly I haven't ridden it at all in a couple years. I used 3M industrial spray adhesive that we had on hand at work. When I parked I would sometimes pull off the dead sheep and bring it inside with me to the A/C. Then would be nice and cool when I got back on the saddle.

I also like this attachment method as no sewn pieces of strap on the underside to rub you wrong. lays perfectly flat.

Also I mentioned before "deadsheep", that is the promotion code to use on their website. Can't remember exactly what it gives you, 10%, 20% or free shipping?

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SilverBullet said:

I never had an issue with heat but this is on my cruiser and honestly I haven't ridden it at all in a couple years. I used 3M industrial spray adhesive that we had on hand at work. When I parked I would sometimes pull off the dead sheep and bring it inside with me to the A/C. Then would be nice and cool when I got back on the saddle.

I also like this attachment method as no sewn pieces of strap on the underside to rub you wrong. lays perfectly flat.

Also I mentioned before "deadsheep", that is the promotion code to use on their website. Can't remember exactly what it gives you, 10%, 20% or free shipping?

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Yes, I used that code too. Forgot how much discount it was, but seems it was 10% off.

My last two pads I pretty much left them on the bike all the time. Sometimes if I knew it was going to rain, I'd take it off and put it in the topbox. More often than not, I'd forget to take it off and it'd get wet.

I've already cut the velcro straps off but left enough to attach/sew the new strap with the buckles. Trouble is, where they stitched the velcro isn't a good place if you're using the buckle method.

Thinking I'd likely just rather get used to taking it off and not leaving it on the bike all the time. If it sticks enough for an occasional footpeg stand and low speed and will not blow off the seat sitting still on windy days while I'm at the gas station... I might like that better.

Had a ghetto-fabulous idea. Why not get a large shower cap to cover it when it looks like rain? Problem solved.

Since my seat cushion is a piece of foam rubber, I can get into the shower cap idea. But I was going to suggest, since a cobbler shop can't do it (which surprises me), try an alteration shop. When I had to have a zipper replaced in a leather jacket, the shoe shop nearby couldn't help me, but they sent me to an alteration shop. Took 1 day, and money well spent.

All I needed was an easy way to take off the sheepskin if I was camping or going into a restaurant, etc. and it looked like rain.

With this, instead of removing it every time it looks like rain, I'll just keep the plastic shower cap in the front nc700x compartment, leave the sheepskin on all the time, and simply cover it up if I'm leaving it and it looks like rain. Accomplishes the same goal, and might be better because I don't have to leave room to store the sheepskin anywhere when it rains.

ps. I went to an alteration shop first. They said their needles would skip when they tried to sew the sheep skin. They sent me to the cobbler, and he said the same thing. He was going to ask another outsourced person who sews trampolines if she could do it.

I decided it was all getting far more complicated than it should, so I set out to skin the cat another way. Might not be the best long term, but I wanted something to get me by now because I'm taking off motorcycle camping next week.