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Brief The visual difference that the Second Look Seat Skin made on my bike is nothing short of phenomenal. It is the best money I have spent to improve the appearance of my bike. Overview Second Look has been around for years designing and manufacturing replacement seat covers for nearly every bike on the market. There name has become synonymous with seat covers and they are really the only leader in this field. In addition to the seat and tanks skins their site has an online store which carries vast selection of accessories to modify bikes. Apparently, they have also moved into the automotive market as well, making seat skins for cars. Their selection seems to have grown exponentially over the years and they now offer leather, embroidery and custom options. There stock selection is extraordinary with covers for nearly every bike in every color. The graphics are designed to integrate with the individual bikes paint schemes and graphics. The vinyl used on their standard skins is significantly thicker than the vinyl on the stock seats. They are cut with and exact fit for each seat and sewn up in a fashion that leaves me no doubt about the quality of the product. Anyone who is familiar with the Ninja 250 knows that the styling has not changed at all since the model was introduced in the late 1980's. It is a fabulous little bike, but it leaves a lot to be desired in the world of modern styling. The seat is a long banana seat that has slight molding to accommodate both driver an passenger. The seat runs most of the length of the bike and is covered in black vinyl which loves to absorb the heat from the sun when parked outdoors. As a result the Seat Skin was one of the first mods that I had planned for my bike. For my bike there is only one cover option, yellow with a black inset at the driver's seat position. According to the information provided with the product they are concerned that denim and dark clothing might discolor lighter vinyl, so I suspect that that is why there is black in that specific location.
While at the World Superbike Races this year I happened across the Second Look booth and decided to pick up the Seat Skin for my bike. The staff was extremely helpful, but when I got home I realized that the cover was manufactured differently from the design on the website. It had a whole lot more black on it than the one that I had seen. I sent an email to their customer service department to ask about it and see if the design with more yellow was still available. Their customer service department bent over backwards to help me out, apologizing for the inconvenience, sending a pic to confirm what I was looking for and that very day sending out a replacement cover and a postage paid envelope for the return of the other. This level of service is something that I have never encountered before and I can tell you that it made all of the difference. They took a potentially negative situation and turned me into a true believer in their product. I think the main question that everyone will have is how the installation works. Although they tell you that the installation will work easily with a staple gun, I found it to be more complicated than I had hoped. My staple gun is a heavy duty variety (even says so on the package) and uses a thicker staple than most. It, however, did not have the force required to staple into the rigid plastic base of the seat. Perhaps a "super" heavy duty staple gun or an air powered one would have worked better, but your garden variety one is just not going to do it for this job. With an industrial strength staple gun in hand you can pry out the thousands of staples that hold the stock cover in place, place the Second Look Seat Skin in an oven on low to warm and soften a bit, then stretch it into place while stapling a thousand times around the edge. Or you can do like I did and take it to your local upholstery shop and pay them $30 to stretch it and professionally install it with no frustration on your part. The color match on my skin is very, very close to my paint color. The yellow is a slight shade lighter upon close inspection but the overall look is fantastic. The Seat Skin minimizes the maximum sized seat and improves the look of the bike tremendously.
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