Rain covers for leather seats.

[John Schmidt]

I have a fair amount invested in the leatherwork done to the seats & backrests on my trike. When we travel on these bikes, it's inevitable that we'll get caught in some liquid sunshine. Such was the case following Inzane last year, after visiting some friends in various places and finally my daughter in Illinois, I headed home to Wisconsin. About 20 miles out from her place I could see a wall of rain in my path so pulled off and got out my rain gear, but for the seat all I had was a couple small plastic trash bags. I used one on the seat and one down over the backrest...the rear seat wasn't finished so not installed at the time. I was in/out of rain all day for the last 450 miles so felt fortunate I had grabbed a couple of those bags. I now have both front & rear done in leather and would prefer something more effective for protection so wondering what others use. I'm looking for suggestions on what/how to cover it all in case of wet weather, I found riding in rain is less stressful due to being more stable on the trike than it ever was on my two-wheeler. I have many thousands of miles in rain on both my Wings in the past and the Valk for the last 20 years.

[ridingron]

Russell Daylong Seats sells cover for their seats. I'm not familiar with your set-up but they sell seats with backrest. Give them a call. They were pretty proud of them if I remember right. It was made of a wind breaker type nylon with elastic around the bottom. When it rained, you put the cover on the seat and sat on the cover. I didn't worry much as my seat was vinyl and just about waterproof.

[Jess from VA]

I think Ultimate sells rain covers (or did) for their leather seats.  Measure yours and call them.

I never had any, but imagine they are like big plastic shower caps with elastic around the edges.

You could yank the seats off the bike, stick them in heavy duty lawn and leaf bags, tuck in the edges and snap them back down, but that is no way to run a railroad.  Especially while being rained on.

Until I got purpose built dry-bag luggage, that's exactly what I did with my big traveling duffel bag if it rained.  And no matter how tight I packed and bungeed it, edges got loose and I had to listen to it flapping away in the wind from my seat.  In the rain.   

[Jersey mike]

You probably know this already but there are some “waterproofing” ways to protect good leather.

One is the sprays for leather coats and boots and another item is bees wax I believe, a nice paste wipes on and wipes off. The down side of that is I noticed a small or very slight color change on my work boots but not on leather items that were already colored.

Maybe a call to the craftsman who did all that nice work on your seat can help out with a custom product.

[h13man]

I use "Cool Ass" reflective cover for UV protection and also kept the dew off late night. Fits very well and stores really compact.''

http://www.genuinecoolass.com/