Seth Laam FJR custom seat

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FJR1300ES

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Decided via the recommendations on this forum to have Seth Laam custom build a new seat for my 2015 FJR-ES. Went to his website and submitted a build date request. Waited almost 3 weeks until the date and shipped my seat pans -sans the foam as the website indicated he uses better foam. Received a call personally from Seth asking me to send the foam as he uses it as an attach point for his custom foam. Sent the foam and waited. 3 weeks later after several calls/texts to his personal cell, and multiple messages to his business phone, I haven't heard a thing. Is he still in business? I save over 40 minutes per trip to work commuting on the bike each day. New bike collecting dust, no rain in Seattle, and driving to work in bumper-to-bumper traffic in my gas hog. Anyone have any info or experience with Seth? Help!

Tracey

 
There are a multitude of Laam experiences on the web and on this forum in particular. He's a 1-man shop, you chose to send your seat during the busiest season of the year, you (inexplicably) removed the OEM foam and shipped him a bare seat pan which caused an unnecessary delay in him even starting your seat. His quality is exceptional, his price is extremely reasonable, and his communication and turn around time are slow, especially this time of year.

Have you not looked for a used Gen 2/3 set of seats that you can ride on while you wait? There is a set up for sale on the forum right now and I will probably have a set for sale in a week or two. When you get your Laam set, sell the spares for what you paid for them, less shipping.

 
+1 to Tiger's comments. Seth's product is excellent (he has made my buddy and I four x seats). The only issue is slow turn around time, which has been commented upon numerous times on this forum. For me, the wait was worth it. My buddy and I have been through 10 different seats and have settled on Seth's seats as the best for our four FJRs.

 
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You live in Seattle, why not ride the 600 miles to redding CA to have Seth do your seat? I did that with my Super Tenere. Rode down, used points for a hotel room, drank some beers by the pool, met Seth at his shop in the morning, few hours later I was headed back to Seattle, where I rode 500 of the 600 miles in rain.

Half the experience was connecting with Seth, he is a stand up dude, but he is a one man show, he builds a very quality product at near china prices.

I consider Rich's but my Laam seats where less than half the cost with the travel included.

With my FJR I am seriously considering Seat Concepts and a self install because I have too many kids now.

 
I went through the extended wait this spring, was also told that seat build was scheduled, and would be returned soon after they received mine. however it ended up being closer to 9 weeks after it was received in Redding...and it took countless e-mails and phone calls.

What I received is better than stock, BUT it will be need to have an adjustment.

If you can set it up for a ride in I would strongly suggest it! I know I would have in hindsight....even though I am ~2000 miles away.

 
I experienced issues with Seth when working through seat logistics. In short, he wanted to tell me what was appropriate and didn't want to hear my input. Maybe he was having a bad day but it put me off from giving him my hard-earned dollars.

As far as a stock seat then I will have one available in ~1 week.

 
I did a ride in a couple of weeks ago (@ bigjohnsd's recommendation).

Decided to make a long weekend of it, taking the PCH back home for a total of about 1500 miles. I've never ridden NorCal and never even thought about riding through a redwood before. Seemed like a good idea.

It took about two weeks to schedule the appointment which was about two weeks out. Seth was almost an hour late despite that his shop is in the garage behind his house. In the end, I was out in about 3 hours. He gave me a good recommendation for lunch and a killer route (A16 and CA-36) to the coast. I'd save the freight and make a trip out of it. He really does great work and It's kinda cool to watch the process and ask questions as he goes about his thing. I made a couple of changes to my seat that I wouldn't have done without Seth explaining them in detail. Granted his TCB skills aren't super, but he is a craftsman and does serve up a pretty good cup of coffee.

 
Follow up from author of post:

Received a call from Seth several days after posting. He apologized for the delay and spent about 15 minutes with the specifics regarding my seat build. He built it the following day and I had it on the bike 3 days later. Wonderful seat. Very comfortable. The central spinal pressure issue is now remedied while allowing me to sit back and not have to continually fight being pushed into the tank like the OEM. I also had the passenger seat done -my wife likes it a lot better. Enjoying the daily commute to work now in comfort.

Thanks for all the posts and guidance,

Tracey

 
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So, to summarize:

Seth makes a good seat...but you may wait for it longer than you think.

Best plan, have backup seats handy so you can still ride during the delay.

 
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Here's what I did:

Got my ski boots fitted & customized in August.

Got my Laam seat built in January.

See, living up north has it's advantages - if one just does things the opposite of everyone else
smile.png
.

No stress!

 
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