Seat stitching crusty white after washing bike

[HDUSA1]

Have a 2020 HD Ultra Limited we bought used at a dealer in Wisconsin 3 years ago, then converted with a Roadsmith last year.

After we got it home and washed it, discovered the paint was heavily encrusted with hard water stains. I don’t know what previous owner did with the bike, but it was the worst I’ve ever seen on a vehicle.

Fortunately, it came off after using my softened water, some Panel Brite (acidic car wash), clay bar, and a few good coats of Meguire’s wax.

Now, every time I wash it, several days later the stitching on the drivers portion of the seat grows white crusty’s. Evidently it’s wicking the previous hard water deposits back out of the seat even though I thoroughly dry it. A toothbrush will knock most of it off, but it still leaves a white powdery residue on the stitching.

Would like to use some sort of cleaner and protectant on the seat, but not sure what to use. Made the mistake years ago using Armor All on a motorcycle seat and that was an interesting ride that I won’t do again.

What’s everyone else using on their seat?

 

[Gorilla]

Definitely a deposit. Brushing it out helps. Have you tried an outdoor leather treatment product? It might help seal up the stitching. Good luck

 

[Pegasus1300]

No help here with the seat problem but what stunningly beautiful trike. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Zammy]

Many years ago when I did a lot of hunting this was my go to stuff for leather boots.

 

[HDUSA1]

No help here with the seat problem but what stunningly beautiful trike. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the compliment. I’m extremely colorblind, but that is one color I can actually see!!!!

After we sold our last Victory bike and we were looking for our next bike, I had been scouring Cycle Trader and HD dealership websites in a 500 mile radius for a few weeks looking for a 2020 or newer Ultra Limited with a 114 M8. Nothing seemed to appeal to me.

Then one night laying in bed before going to sleep, I was searching HD inventories and up popped a new listing at Suburban Motors in Wisconsin. Woke the wife up excited and she said call first thing in the morning. I did 15 minutes before they opened and they already had 4 other people calling them on it. I put a deposit down with a credit card on the phone, threw the trailer on the truck, picked up a cashiers check at the bank, and drove 6 hours to go get it.

When I got there, they had it sitting outside the front door. There were 2 other guys standing there with money in hand ready to buy it if I backed out.

It’s Scorched Orange with a large metallic flake. They only offered that color in 2019 and 2020. I sent a side cover panel to Roadsmith and they had a really hard time matching the paint, but I thought they did a good job!

 

[pwhoever]

.....
It’s Scorched Orange with a large metallic flake. They only offered that color in 2019 and 2020. I sent a side cover panel to Roadsmith and they had a really hard time matching the paint, but I thought they did a good job!

It's funny you mention this. My GL1800 was called Crucible Orange metallic and I ran into same problem with installer color matching for my CSC Viper conversion. He would get the conversion kits in primer color and used a local painter to paint the bodies. He claims that the painter told him that orange was one of the hardest to color match. The painter ended up having to use a black primer over the grey before the final color got sprayed.