Royal Enfield Continental GT650 – TG's Custom Bike Build

This month we’re diving into the artisan side of custom bike building with the help of Scottish-based former sushi chef turned seat guru, Tom Hurley.

Growing up near Peterborough, Tom went from the world of sashimi to stitching when he moved to Scotland and worked in a trim shop. Realising he had quite a knack for making bespoke motorbike seats, he started doing it more and more. With each seat produced and posted on Instagram, his following and customers grew, then it went international, and now he’s broken off and is completing all kind of projects (including a seat unit with whiskey cups in it, complete with Alcantara magnets so you don’t spill your Ribena on the tank) full time to fulfil demand.

When you see the time, passion and artistry he puts into each seat, you can see why everyone’s derriere wants one for Christmas. Like a California Roll, Tom believes bike seats should blend art with engineering. And given we want to do many miles on our BMW Art Car-inspired Royal Enfield Continental GT, we need a seat that doesn’t give us a numb backside after 15 minutes. The Continental GT comes with a single seat as standard, but you can upgrade it to a dual touring seat designed to give more comfort on longer journeys. But it doesn’t look particularly stylish. So we tasked Tom with making a super supportive yet supple single seat that’ll blend into the bike.

To kick things off, Tom stripped back the thin, standard heat-pressed vinyl seat. He then filled it with a cocktail of memory foam and a unique gel to improve comfort, relieve pressure and increase that all-important ‘feel’. The squidgy gel isn’t your normal seat goo others use, though. It’s a specialist product developed specifically for hospital beds and wheelchairs. Designed to provide support, comfort and reduce pressure on 'sit bones' and other – ahem – 'contact areas', it’s the stuff that normally stops bed sores. In bike world, it does that, but also enhances the feeling of being 'connected' to the bike. So a win-win.

The gel implant doesn’t change the seat height, but Tom can give you more or less height if you want your feet closer or further away from the ground. The gel is paired with memory foam that adds increased plushness, extra comfort and helps eliminate the gel getting too hot in the sun. A waterproof membrane (so the thing doesn’t turn into a wet sponge in the rain) is then added before getting on with the bit you actually see – the cover.

Tom can finish your seat in pretty much anything you want. We could’ve gone for everything from tweed, to hand-punched leather, broguing and laser-etched photos of our loved ones: The Stig. But, to blend in with the rest of the bike, we went for a Water Buffalo leather hide combined with a hard-wearing red quilted Alcantara. Over time the thick natural grain leather should wear nicely, and produce a genuine patina but not deteriorate. The Alcantara adds sportiness to match the racer vibe but was finished with square diamond quilting to add a slice of luxury. 

To add some personalisation, Tom fired up the embroidery machine (something that causes him to swear rather a lot) and embroidered the same Royal Enfield Continental logo that’s on the fairing at the top of the seat. Looks rather smart, doesn’t it? “If these were shoes,” Tom says, “the standard seat is a Wellington boot, this is now a brogue.” Now we just need to spend 200 miles sitting on it to break it in... once the bike is finished. Which we're getting closer to.