Well all of the sudden I got a tiny tear in the passenger area of the seat. Bummer. About a day later, I get off the bike and theres a gigantic tear all the way across the seat underneath my butt. Dang. Its not really that big of a deal. Cosmetic really. But

What would be the cheapest?

Recover the seat?
Buy a used seat from someone here?
Try to find somewhere to repair the seat?

What have you all done? For those of you that had work done, can I see some pictures? Thanks!

Patrick

I've been looking for a replacement seat myself for my '04.  I only have a small cut right near the grab bar, so it's not noticable, but still...  I know it's there...

I haven't had luck finding a good condition seat anywhere so far, including Ebay

Rewrapping the seat is probably the cheapest and fastest method.  Used seats are probably hard to find, and are, well, used.  The seat are really pretty robust in the sense that even really old seats (at least for my 34K miles 89 GS) are in very good shape in both the plastic and the cushion--just the vinyls need replacing.

I rewrapped my seat for the cost of new vinyl and a staple gun.  It wasn't hard to do at all.  I think it took me three hours, and I took my time.  Sorry I don't have pictures.  Well, actually I took pictures but am having problems downloading from my camera.  I had planned to do a little write up of the process.

Got the vinyl from Jewell City Upholstery.  The guy's screen name was jcupholstery, so it was like I was buying from god.  Nevertheless, I strongly recommend jc, the guy was friendly, fair and very honorable.[1]  Marine grade vinyl, which turned out to be more plush than my old vinyl.  $8.50 per yard (I paid more for USPS postage to Hawaii).  These fabrics normally come in 54" widths.  One yard is plenty for two GS seats.  I also discovered that my old vinyl could not have been the original, since there was repair work on the cushion itself.

Also, please fix the tear as soon as possible.  It might look only cosmetic, but not really for two reasons. (1) The cushion absorbs water and you probably don't want a moldy/yucky looking cushion after a while, not to mention a wet butt everytime you ride . (2) Without the vinyl, the cushion will start to tear (very soon) even if you just sit on it.  Really.  I had a tear similar to yours: 1 inch rip today, 4 inch tear a few days later, and when I finally rewrapped it a month later, there was already a tear on the cushion that shows through a little even after the new vinyl is on.

HTH.

Cheers,
e.

[1] He left me a positive feedback on ebay right after I paid, which is the right thing to do since I have already fulfilled my part of the deal.  All my other experiences with sellers were that they waited to for me to give them a feedback before they returned in kind.  Sort of cowardly.

89-00 seat is one flat sheet of vinyl. heated and stapled to the plastic. easy. 20 mins with a hair dryer.
Cool.
Srinath.