Spike's Blog New Creations, Product Reviews, Rants, and other useless thoughts

27Nov/100

Carbon Fiber & Tooling Softail Skull Seat

Okay Folks,

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



2May/105

“Deadman’s Hand” .44 Caliber Bullet Custom Softail Seat

“Deadman's Hand” .44 Caliber Bullet Custom Softail Seat
I made this seat up for a guy on the east coast back in March '09. This seat came out absolutely beautiful. This is the kind of work that a customer gets when they tell me an idea that they have and say something like, "i'll leave everything else up to your judgement." When you set me loose, you get a beautiful work of art.
Yes, those are REAL bullets. i went bullet shopping for this seat and found these beautiful babies. it makes me want to buy a 44 just so i can use them. They're chrome plated split top hollowpoints. I didn't even know you could buy hollow-points in this state!

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

28Apr/102

Custom Metallic Flame & Pinstripe Seat for a Softail

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

24Apr/100

“DRONES” Custom Softail Seat

This is a seat i made for a customer back in June 2008.
He had changed his custom softail's rear fender out for a custom one, and his stock style seat did not fit anymore.
He needed a new seat that would fit correctly, and it had to be stretched about 3" I had him take pictures of the seat area in every which direction with a tape measure in the picture so that i could get the exact measurements needed to stretch his seatpan the correct distance and make it follow the fender correctly. The foam also had to be redone, as he would not be able to reach his controls if he were set the 3" back in the seat.

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