This is a seat set that i made for a customer who was building a bike themed around a tribute for the

WWII P-40 Flying Tiger Pilots. The whole project was a lot of fun, and i used some new ideas to make the seats come out as great as possible. Ostrich paneling on the seats, and a panel of black alligator on the spade backrest, the the brushed stainless steel trim-ring and stainless hardware, a custom shaped X-bones seat pan, and all the custom color-work to match the P-40 and symbols to the actual WWII colors made this seat set come out absolutely great. This is one of my favorite seat sets that I've done.

Enjoy the pictures.

-Spike

This is a bobber style front seat, made on one of my OE replacement harley crossbones seat pans, and an OE fit back seat, as well as an OE mounting sissy bar and pad. I made all this stuff to bolt directly to my customer's crossbones.

I never thought it would be as hard as it was to tool guns. I figured all straight angles and geometric shapes would make it easy... wrong. Hours of tooling in details in the grips and rails later, I realized how much more painstaking it was to get all the little geometric details just right so that the gun had symmetry. Making something look like a machine in a material that really wants to make organic shapes and design is much more difficult than I first imagined. The side panels are brought to life with black ostrich panels and black lacing around the edges.

There were a few hiccups, and the seat took much longer than I anticipated to make as well as I ended up making the front seat and rear seat TWICE, because FedEx destroyed the first set in shipping.

All well worth it for a man willing to give his all for freedom.

Enjoy.

-Spike

Here it is... my secret weapon... well, one of them, anyway...

CARBON FIBER.

Now you may think, "but Spike, i see carbon fiber all the time."

Not like this, you havn't.

This isn't a carbon fiber seatpan, or headlight, or accent piece... this is woven carbon fiber used like material and actually used in the seat.

It is incredibly strong and durable, beautiful... and expensive (yikes!). My trick is how i prep and make the carbon fiber material ready to be used in a seat. It is not the hard plastic looking material you're used to seeing in motorcycle and automotive parts... its still a cloth like material, and is soft and flexible.

Combine that with some kick-ass leather tooling, elegant lacing, and an exotic hide like alligator and you've got one AMAZING seat!

Enjoy the pics of this seat i made back in August 2009.
Later,
SPiKE

This was made on a stock style softail seatpan that was fitted to a custom softail bike. The pan was re-foamed with high density memory foam for much more comfort and sleeker style.
The tooling is skulls on flame backgrounds, and then the “DEADMAN'S HAND” banner that wraps around the deadman hand (Ace's and Eights) all accented in a deep gunmetal metallic silver. If you don't know the story, it comes from the wild west. This is the hand that Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was shot and murdered, the last card is face down because he was shot before the last card was dealt... dead mans hand.
I picked the alligator side panels because they just look so frickin' nice on an all black tooled seat. The black lacing with chrome eyelets just accents perfect with the bright chrome bullets.

Enjoy,
SPiKE

“JackAss” Custom Bobber Seat and Solo Sidebag

This was a fun project i just finished up in October of '08. It's a seat and solo sidebag for a custom chopper that was done in a "Jack Daniel's" theme. It all came out very nice.

This seat was a bit of a departure for me, because there was no black material on it. It was a quick change of pace, as i get a lot of "all black" tooling seats, or seats with a lot of black in them because all black seats are something that not many seat builders can make look good. Like in paint, black shows every mistake.

It also challenged my design ability... how to make a donkey look cool.

The matching bag came out very well.

I ran aluminum bar around the inside to give the bag support and keep it from loosing shape when it was empty, and keep it from sagging or flopping when it was full.

Heavy duty straps tie everything together (1/4" thick leather) so they won't wear out, tear, or break no matter what. I made it so that it will fit most all softails and custom hardtails.

Enjoy,

SPiKE

Hey folks.

You know, sometimes i just want to be a better photographer. Taking pictures of this seat is one of those times. I just couldn't figure out the lighting/camera settings to make the metallic colors pop out... instead they just look lighter or like they're reflecting light...

This is a seat a made for a custom softail. I matched the colors and design to the paint job itself, which happened to be a metallic flake paint. The really cool part of this seat is that when i color matched the paints, i also matched the metallic. Since i end up mixing almost all of my own colors, i can mix in stuff like metallics and pearl.

I asked for a paint swatch or painted test panel with the colors of his bike on them, so that I could colormatch... Instead he sent me his whole finished and painted fender, so that I could not only color match the seat, but also match the flame design and bright blue pinstripe from his paint job.

After tooling and dying, the super shiny tooled leather got paired with alligator panels, and lacing to make one very nice custom seat. The blue pinstripes were no easy trick to pull off, either. Since leather is already browish color, non-opaque colors like blonde, yellows, and blues are very tricky to mix and color correctly so that they come out how you want them too on the seat.

Enjoy the Pics,

SPiKE

not everything i do has to be completely insane. This is a perfect example of how simple, clean lines and make a top-notch seat.

The honey colored alligator material laced with the black material with chrome eyelets gives this seat a subtle, yet amazing look.

This is a bobber seat that i built up for a customer on his CFL seatpan and CFL frame.

His bike was being painted a metallic pewter color and black, so i mixed my own metallic dyes and painted the letters with a silver and pewter metallic colors.

It's hard to get a good picture of shiny dyes like that, and they end up looking like they're gray in the photos. lol... maybe if i actually knew about lighting and cameras and crap i could do it.

Enjoy the pics.

SPiKE

he told me that he wanted crossed pistons and maybe some fire coming off the top of them, and he wanted it to say DRONES on the seat. all in black.

This is what i came up with. His very own, very custom 'reach' seat. when he got it the seat fit like a glove. All his buddies swore that i had the bike here to make it fit... but i made it work from across the country without ever laying a hand on the bike. :nice:

Enjoy,
SPiKE

Here's a seat i did around March '09 ago for a guy and his '82 Sportster. It was a little bit of a new trick in my bag, combining the tooling and embossed stitching like this. Usually the tooling is the centerpiece, not the stitching, but it works out pretty good like this, too.

From this seat I got set up for ready made sportster seats for sale. You don't need to have an existing seat to re-cover, you can get the whole thing from me ready to bolt in place of the stock seat!

Enjoy the Pics!

Later,

SPiKE

Alright, here's an new old-school trick from me. This was an FXD solo seat that I did a custom re-cover on. It also got a custom foam treatment. It's a 3” reach seat, and I shaved down the nose foam to make it more comfortable and keep the seat from pushing against the insides of the customers legs. (a prevalent problem for stock Harley seats, they are too 'pillowy' in the nose.)

It's old school done in a new way. Vintage pleats and piping. This seat came out better than i thought it would. I had my doubts about the "cool factor" of pleats and piping when i started the project, but in the end i was quite happy with the result. It's a charcoal gray pleated area, and black sides.

Enjoy the pics!

Here's a little pillion pad that a customer ordered from me a long while back. He sent me a picture of a wailing banshee, and said that he wanted that on his seat. He sent me some pictures of his custom front seat and it had flame stitching and braiding.

So, this little pillion pad has a ton of tricks in it's bag. leather braiding, embossed flame stitching/overlay, memory foam padding that tapers from 2 inches in front to 3/4" or so in the back, and the incredibly detailed tooling on the face. I had to invent a new way to tool so that i could get all the detail into the face in such a small space. i especially like the way the eyes turned out.

Enjoy,

SPiKE

Here's a seat i made for a customer who had a "drop in" style seat that sat inside of the bodywork of his frame. hence... it's small.

It's all black on black for a nice subtle look that isn't too flashy. this keeps the seat from detracting from the rest of the bike. so from a distance it's a nice clean black seat... and as you get closer you see more and more detail in the tooling and design.

Enjoy,

SPiKE

This is an alligator bobber seat that i made for a customer back in 2008. he was a bigger kind of guy, and wanted a bobber seat... but it needed to be bigger. so this one is about 4 inches longer and 4 inches wider than my standard bobber seats. Like all my seatpans, it's handformed sheetmetal, not pressed or stamped. I hammer out, english wheel, & planninsh every pan by hand.

I just like this seat because it was so big, and the three alligator panels have a nice look to them. Maybe I should make one of these seats in a normal size to sell in my store.

What do you think?

Enjoy,

SPiKE

This is a beautiful seat that i did around September '08 for a custom softail. The pictures really speak for themselves, this seat came out beautiful.

The symbol in the middle of the seat is a pendant that everyone in his family wears. Originally it was going to be an all black seat, but at the last minute i decided to throw some very dark metallic silver onto the design work to really set it off. I added the very clean custom lacing and black alligator around the edges to really polish it off.

I was very happy with the results... as was my customer.

Enjoy,

SPiKE

"DEVIL GIRL" Custom Softail Seat

Hey,

Here's another seat I finished up back in October '08.

It's tooled inserts on the top and in the seat area with black alligator panels.

This seat took a lot longer than i originally thought it would because of family issues, and this customer was a great guy and understood that i needed to be around my family and be there for them during this time.

As a result, his seat was delayed, but he never gripped once. and for that i put extra tooling and alligator in there as a small token of appreciation. He never said anything negative, only that the seat was awesome.

When a customer can appreciate that I am a person too, with my own aggravations and setbacks like everyone else, I will go the extra mile for them.

Good mannered, and appreciative customers are what make this job worth doing sometimes.

Enjoy the pics,

SPiKE

It for a 300 series tire rigid frame build with a HUGE drop seat. The seat was very large, and allowed me to really really work on the detail.

The top is all tooled leather, with black alligator tear-out overlays stitched in and black sides.

he's a big guy, and his drop seat kind of squished him a bit, so he wanted to be raised up a few inches to get out of the pocket a little.
So it's all foamed up with high density memory foam, and there's a layer of gel-impregnated foam on top for a little bit of initial 'squish' when you plop down.

Hope you enjoy the pics!
Later,
SPiKE