I just want to toss this out there for those that might be looking for a new seat for their Softail.

I bought this seat and pillion from Dennis Kirk and the solo seat is designed to fit my bike but the pillion is marked as a 'possible fit'

Both arrived yesterday so i was stoked to install them. Using the HW kit that arrived with the seats I installed both onto my bike. There is a HUGE gap (huge to me anyway lol) between the body of the bike and the seats. You can literally see right through it and it looks terrible. I figured that the Pillion was the cause so i removed it and installed just the solo seat which looks much better but this had a major issue as well. The mounting bracket that ships with the solo seat has a slotted hole in it (most likely to allow for different mounting holes on the rear fenders for different bikes). When I lined everything up the bracket isn't quite long enough to reach and when the bracket is installed correctly to the fender the nose of the seat slips out of the tongue and slot that holds the seat down. So once you sit down the seat unhooks itself.

I might be able to get a different rear bracket that is longer and without the slotted hole and that would solve this issue but I think I'm going to just send both seats back and exchange for another seat.


My bike: 2008 Softail Custom

The seats:

Saddlemen 13 in. Wide SaddleHyde Renegade Deluxe Solo Seat w/o Studs
Saddlemen 11 in. Wide SaddleHyde Renegade Deluxe Touring Pillion Pad


As you can see the fit is not good at all. So maybe my thread will save someone making the same mistake as me.


Oh and I should add. Dennis Kirk will take the seats back but because I installed them they will have to go through an inspection first and at this point they can charge me a fee for the return. Now I understand that if they are marked up but these are in as new condition as I only installed and then removed. So I will see what they do. The kicker is that their website noted this seat as being an exact fit. but the solo seat isn't. when you mount a seat and sit on it; then it slides back slightly just enough for the nose tongue to slip out of the mount....that is not an exact fit nor a safe seat to use.

UPDATE: I will try the bracket that was on my original seat and see if that solves the solo seat issue. I think saddlemen's instructions might have been to use that bracket. The one included was for adding a pillion seat if bought. I will try this tonight and add my findings here later.


UPDATE #2: Using the bracket from my original seat allowed me to fit the solo seat properly. So the solo fits correctly though I will add that it takes way too much force to push the front metal tongue into the slot near the tank. My original seat just slides right in but this Saddlemen took a lot of force to get the tongue in. It was so hard to do that I didn't think it would fit but after much pushing and prodding it went in. This will eventually damage the seat after a handful of times of removing and installing to get to the battery or other electronics.

I honestly can't recommend either of these items but the solo seat atleast fits and does look good. But the quality of the seat isn't quite there. The Pillion on the other hand bolts on but with the gap looks terrible. Don't waste your money.