material source for teal seat cover

Last year I was stupid (yet again!) and wound up ripping the rear seat cover on my '94 R1100RS. I always bring this origami-like charcoal stove to an Airhead campout in Rhinebeck, NY every year and make danishes or something to share on Sat. morning. I foolishly strapped it on the seat and tore a hole in the seat cover.

I've been having a hard time finding a place that sells that teal-colored material so I can recover both seats. Does anybody have a lead on that?

TIA,
phil (the phoolish)

What type of material is it?

If leather, I know from experience that Rick Mayer has a large selection and will send you swatches. You may also want to try a specialty decorator store like Calico Corner. They have thousands of swatches of every type of material and they are national.

Seat cover

I bought a seat cover already fitted for my 1974 R75/6 off of ebay.

Had a local shop install the cover for me but can be a do it yourself job.

here is an example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-F800-S-...Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f095bc149&vxp=mtr

or here is the guy I used:

http://stores.ebay.com/NW-Classic-Motorcycle-Seat-Covers/_i.html?_fsub=1609891015

Any decent upholstery shop

Any good auto upholstery shop should have the stuff laying around and seeing how you are going to do front and rear it will match. Thats what I did with mine and it cost $50 for the entire job.

If you live in a larger city look for an upholstry wholesaler, the guy that supplies the auto & marine shops. Some of the marine vinyls are likely to come in that shade. The marine vinyls will hold up better than the automotive vinyls.

Thanks, all. Will check this out and let everyone know what I find out.

apparently the is a really good seat guy

in Southern CT. My local wrench had my R1150GSA seat recovered for me with a blue vinyl that was for snowmobiles. It was perfect!

Update.
I didn't do an exhaustive search locally her in NJ because I found a supplier in Tampa with a great website (http://www.garysupholstery.com/) with tons of material. In fact, I'm thinking of getting an entire leather hide from them and recovering a rocking chair, but that's another thread. At first I thought the shipping was a little expensive but that was until the package arrived. They wrapped my measly one yard (minimum) around a sturdy tube about five feet long. Nice care, there.

I spent a fair amount of time going through all their marine vinyl samples online and picked out six ones that I thought would match my seat. They offered to send up to four samples but when I emailed them, I was comfortable with them just telling me what they thought was closest. Turns out only one of the ones I picked was even close to my seat after they looked at the sample I wound up sending them, and they sent me four samples. I picked one, it arrived promptly, was great, and I took my first cut at recovering the seats. I would recommend this place highly if there isn't a local place where you can go to. I like seeing it in person but that was not an issue this time.

Interestingly enough, I am flying to Orlando to pick up a bike I bought and have asked Gary's if I could drive by so they could match the two colors of the bike to their vinyl materials. I want to recover the seat, especially if I modify it a bit, as well as recover the sidecar seat that I'm getting for the rig I'm trying to put together. Different forum.

Going into this seat recovering job, I had a suspicion that I would have a problem, having recovered a number of seats before. Most vinyl only has a little give to it when trying to stretch around more complex shapes or angles. The front seat on this R1100RS has too many things going on in different planes for the material I got to work successfully. The stock material is really cool and very stretchy. Not sure if something like that is available in the States.

After I cut out the basic shape, I could tell it was not gonna lay flat. The solution I suspected I would have to use would be to have to sew two pieces together so I could cut the two edges that would line up on a bias. By doing that, I could get the smaller front piece to "stand up" to lay flat on the front part of the seat that rises to meet the gas tank. Harder to describe than conceptualize. If I had a pic...

One thing I knew I had to be aware of was not to put a seam directly under where I would be sitting. That turns out to be deadly after a few hours in the saddle. Kind of a princess and the pea syndrome. Luckily the part of the seat that rises up to the tank is pretty well forward of where my butt exerts its pressure.

Now that I have some time for the next project, since I work near the Jersey Shore, one next step is to find a local place where I might be able to find some vinyl. You'd think there'd be some boating places around. One thing I never asked is what's the difference between regular automotive vinyl and marine tested stuff. Fading? Dunno. Just seemed like a good idea.

Marine vinyl is heavier tougher stuff; auto vinyl won't stand up as well to weather, ultraviolet, and being bounced upon.

Leather feels great and gives more friction to your riding pants; it just requires an occasional Lexol treatment. But it also costs a lot more, and do you want to risk damaging it...

I have Bill Mayer seats on my 1150RT and every note I ever read about leather is "keep it out of direct sunlight" Doesnt sound like a good choice for a bike seat!

And I'd never consider it. But for the rocking chair I was thinking of doing...

Lexol is a great cleaner/conditioner for leather but use doesn't escape the fact that UV & water are enemies of leather. It is nice stuff but not a outdoors friendly material.

Lexol is not a universal cure-all, but it is great stuff.

My favorite riding jacket was purchased in 1987 (FirstGear by Hein Gericke [Intersport Fashions West] "Scout"; they've changed the design a few times since then and I don't care for the newer versions) from Marty's BMW. It gets a Lexol rubdown about once every two years (every year if I've been out doing nasty things with it).

Aside from a few minor stitch and zipper repairs, it's still holding up great and has saved me from road rash a few times (it's got a few heavy scuffs on it).

Don't use the Lexol in the spray bottles - that's totally crap. Use the creamy stuff, apply liberally, let it soak in for a day, and buff it out.