I couldn't say how many used Corbin seats I've come across, selling for a great deal, that I've walked away from because of the goofy colored piping. Chances are my bike is not the same color as the silly piping, and even if it is, colored piping just looks out of place. This is a real shame because Corbin makes such a great seat. However, when I came across a used Corbin for the Triumph, the price was so good (and the stock seat so bad) that I figured I'd buy it and at the very least have it recovered.
I told a fellow rider of my plans with the seat and he informed me that there are several products available to dye vinyl. So I started doing some looking and asking and found out there are hundreds of products available to dye everything from leather to vinyl to plastics. Many of them are simple paints and some of them claim to work on a molecular level.
I found this product at my Local Wal-Mart. I chose it because of the cool name, the impressive photo on the label and the fact that it cost twice what all the other available products cost, assuming that a higher cost would equate to a better product. Even paying twice what others cost, I still only had to shell out about $7.00 including the governors share.
The next step was to prep my seat for the work. The Corbin seat I found had hideous yellow piping that not only was glaringly out of place -- but it was yellow!
I began by masking off the high quality leather to leave the nasty yellow exposed. I was very careful to try to slide the tape underneath the piping as far as possible to ensure all the yellow was exposed. Where the stitching was tight, I would err on the side of caution by leaving slivers of leather exposed. As the product claimed to work on leather as well, I assumed this would be the better option to prevent yellow from being exposed.
Here's the seat after all the tape work was done, but the leather is still exposed. I decided it would be a good idea to cover all the leather, just to be sure. If the product was a dog, I didn't' want to destroy the very nice, carbon fiber looking leather that corbin uses.
So I did what any middle-class american would do; I used one of the hundreds of Wal-Mart bags my wife mysteriously stuffs underneath the kitchen sink for those occasions when you really need a plastic bag. After all the prep work was done, it was time to scour the yellow piping as clean as possible. The Molecubond suggested some BMI cleaner of which I could not find, nor could I find anyone who had a clue as to what BMI cleaner was (although, I'm sure someone reading this will know). I found a 3M Vinyl and plastic cleaner and used that. It was interesting that while cleansing the piping, the 3M cleaner was not only removing lots of dirty stuff, it was also removing yellow.
So, here is the seat being painted. Several light coats, about 10 minutes apart with extra careful care to spray the Molecubond into all the nooks and cranny's to cover the nasty yellow.
And finally, after removing the masking. Look how much better the seat looks already! Even close examination looks great and very natural! Despite my efforts there were a few small slivers of yellow that could still be seen. This is where the infallible Sharpy came to the rescue once again. I was advised against using the Sharpy on the whole thing, but it did a great job dabbing over missed spots. So far it looks great! However, the true test will be how the seat fairs over time. With winter already accosting us, It'll be a while before the seat sees regular service, but I'll leave it in the house for a few weeks to give the Molecubond plenty of time to cure.
UPDATE: After over a year and 12,000 miles, the piping still looks exactly the same as it did the day these photos were taken. Based on the success, I have now gone through this process on several more seats with the same positive experience.