Beware: Rick Mayer Cycle (www.DontBuyRickMayerCycle.com)

caveat emptor: let the buyer beware.

Following is my experience with Rick Mayer Cycle, maker of custom motorcycle saddles. Draw your own conclusions and buy from him only after knowing the potential outcome.

The story is quite long and involved, but I'll try to give the major points here:

• Purchased a seat from RMC last year and it was uncomfortable, so I arranged a ride-in visit some 300 miles from home to have it "adjusted". The adjustment failed.
  
• I requested a refund by email, but got no response. Emailed a second time, again no response. So I decided to give up on RMC and order a Russell saddle.
  
• I sent the RMC saddle to Russell when my production date arrived. The day the seat got to Russell, they called me and told me that both the front and rear seatpan were cracked and useless. It turns out that in Rick Mayer's haste or desire to save money, he didn't make a new cover to match the adjustment and ended up stapling over the same area the stock staples and his first staples were. Russell was right, both seatpans were cracked and coming apart all along the rear perimeters, about 1/2" from the lip.
  
• So I scrounged around and ended up buying a second seat of seats...one from the dealer and one off the net, and sent those to Russell for the custom seat. I took the RMC seats and threw them out in the sideyard on top of the green waste cans.
  
• For the next four months, emails went back and forth between Rick Mayer and me. After initially pushing back several times, he finally agreed to a refund. I sent him the front seat (the rear had been totally destroyed, so I threw it in the garbage).
  
• Finally...FINALLY yesterday I get a refund check after months of promises. The check was for $200...half my purchase price. His response in email was that he gave me half because I didn't send him both seats.

RMC's guarantee is stated on his website:

Guarantee:
Simple. Unconditional,
Unlimited, and no fine print.
If I don't make you more comfortable...
I will buy it back!

But in reality, there is fine print on another webpage on his site:

If a refund is requested after the customer has waited 30 days or longer to bring a problem to my attention, I will charge $2.00/day for the rental of my saddle beginning the 31rst day. Exceptions will be made at my discretion for weather/winter deliveries.

While his saddle may work perfectly well for you, be aware that he drags his feet when a refund is requested, and may only pay you $0.50 on the dollar. I recommend you check out the numerous other custom saddle makers before giving business to RMC.

Just my opinion...YMMV...caveat emptor.

Hi Fish, how do you like the springs of the Russell, thinking of ordering one for the Adventure. Did you order by mail or ride up for a fit.

Regards Steve

Steve, I've owned five Russells, and all but one worked extremely well. I ordered by mail, but a couple of them required adjustments. I recommend riding-in, if you can swing it.

Too bad, fish. I wasn't completely thrilled with my encounter with Rick, either.

1) I paid for a rain cover when I ordered the seat. It was advertised on his site as costing an extra few bucks, so I sent the money and never received the cover ... even when I asked him about it a couple of times. Eventually I just gave up.

2) The saddles weren't aesthetically perfect. There was some slightly crooked stitching, the piece of leather used for the front seat had some blemishes and the leather seat cover wasn't mounted on the pan perfectly straight, that is, the seams didn't line up with the corners/edges in some places. He responded to my enquiry that this is just the way top-grain cowhide and handcrafted work is. For the price, I expected more.

3) Ergonomically the seats aren't ideal. They made both my wife and I slide forward. Both seats are more comfortable than stock, but my wife has to continually hike herself up and back on the seat. Rick offered to fix this if I would ride to his shop several hours away, which didn't have a chance to do. My seat has broken in well enough that I find it comfortable and haven't been motivated to make the drive.

I did the 'ride-in' w/Russell and think a lot of those guys...and even of babe on the front desk too...

I was taken in by the guarantee also. How could I go wrong. The seat was promised to be as good as a Russell and cheaper or my money back. An absolute no hassle promise. I cancelled my Russell order and started my descent into RMS hell. Once I declared the seat totally unsuitable (and it was truly awful) I was relegated to "ignore" status. I was phone blocked, E-mails ignored and pretty much the same experience as Fish. But then the rally season was upon us and the opportunity to see Rick in person made it possible to attempt a resolution. He declared the seat to be improperly built and he wanted to "adjust" it. Well, he did the original measurements, took pictures and built a piece of crap. I didn't want an adjustment, I wanted my money back. I was accused of everything from being a drunk to a person who had some kind of need to defame Rick. It was a full on attack. What a guy. I have since replaced the seat with, drum roll please, a Bill Mayer Saddle. And yes I am happy with this build. I was pleased to meet Bill long after this ordeal started. I wish I had met him first.

It's to bad you guys didn't go to Rich's custom seats up here in Seattle... Every seat is a masterpiece and I've never heard of ANY complaints. He even re-made a seat for a guy that wanted it to look good, but not fit well (the exact opposite of what he is all about) for FREE... A true artisan and craftsman and fun guy to hang with while your seat is being created....

JJ

Funnily, I called him from a diner on WA2, during the choopalooza and got his answering machine. poor planning on my part. next time.

Well next time we do a shindig like that maybe we ought to hit his shop and see what the skinny is.

http://www.billmayersaddles.com/motoguzziphotos.html

that is Jon. Friend of mine. He digs his Bill Mayer seat made by Rocky. I guess the deal is go see Rocky, not Rick.

I was gonna call you from the road and see if we could do that, but I knew you had your hands full with the honeybucket, and frankly, we didn't get around to it until we were in yer backyard :):

And once you was in the backyard..it was beer time.

Another Rich story. I've got a Russell and I love it. The only thing I wish I could get with it is a heated insert (like the Corbin and Rich's have...yeah yeah, I'm a wuss). Unfortunately, when I asked the good folk at Russell (before I bought my saddle), they told me that they'd had some requests for this, but hadn't gotten around to figuring out how to do it. The other day, I came out of work and sat on my freezing-ass cold Russell saddle and started thinking..."I wonder if Rich could do something?"

I called and spoke to Rich (in person) and found out that they would modify my Russell to add a heating pad, and could re-cover the Russell in any material I wanted! Of course, purple suede was the first thing that came to mind. The cost was (I think) $175. That's what I call service. I've seen their products on several friends bikes and was really impressed. The fit and finish seem to be top-notch.

Add Rich's to the list of MPM approved vendors.

Marc

I had ordered a saddle rain cover, for one of my previous bikes with a leather saddle, from RMS after seeing his web site and the rain covers advertised for his custom saddles. Well, long story short, 3 months later my CC company had to credit me after I never received the goods as promised many, many times (in fact he at one point claimed it had shipped... ) Fortunately, I paid with a CC and had them involved early enough in the process to document the situation as it unfolded. Apparently they could get nowhere with RMS either. Also, he billed my CC immediately when I placed the order, not when the product was supposedly shipped. Caveat Emptor.

I got a heat insert installed by Russell. All you have to do is buy one from Travelcade and sent it with your seat to Russell. You mark a place on the bottom for the hole to extend a wire and they build the pad into your seat.


R-dubb

about Rick's saddles, but I am a happy camper with his work on my LT saddle. In fact, mine was the first new style LT he had done and while it took a bit longer than expected (about 3 weeks) the end result is perfect for my ass.

The wife's ass was in fact a different story and we rode on up to his place for a final adjustment. Nice suroundings and fast service.

The wife "thought for sure" it was perfect when we left and felt the same way when we got back home (130 or so miles). however on our first long ride with the new saddles, but the time we hit Arkansas (1500 or so) she had the most painful looking red ass cherries on each cute cheek. Now I understood her bitching the last 500 miles or so.............

Not wanting to subject her to the same ride home, I found someone willing to trade out for a stock rear seat and she's in heaven again.

As someone else mentioned here, she tended to slide down and forward on the RMC seat even after he scooped a bunch more foam out. I think he may be used to building for big assed babes as the padding was too thinck to compress even after time. Thw wife weighs in at about 110 and there's not much natural pading on that butt, but I like it all the better.......er.......nevermind.

Fish- I am suprised that you had such a difficult time getting a refund, BUT did you really expect to receive full credit for front and rear when you returned only front? Hell I could have done that and kept my rider seat (which I love) for free, eh?

Don't quite understand spending good money for RM seat then before asking for a refund, spending the bigger bucks and sending what you had paid for and were unhappy with, to Russell....

Hell that RMC might've fit me and 'd have traded you even up.
You'd have had a like new stocker and I'd have had the RMC i'm planning on getting........... but now you guys got me thinking.....Rich's, Russell and maybe even Rocky mayer...... hmmmmmmm

Understand that he only made a cover for the rear...no foam work. That's certainly not half the cost. Quite frankly, I'm surprised I got ANY money back. Too, perhaps you missed the part where I tried to contact him for a refund and got no responses.

I'm glad you had such a great experience with him. Certainly, I must be in the minority, or he wouldn't still be in business.

I want my R1200RT seat modified. Sent Rick M. emails and called twice. Left him my Cell number. NO RETURN CALLS or answered emails. Too busy for new new business? I was inquiring about lead time to start job - bought used saddle to modify.

However, he will not answer/return my phone calls or email. Maybe this is sign? If he does not have time to talk to me (promising $$), how anxious will he be to talk to me after he receives my money? This and your stories have me worried.

I don't recall whether I read "issues with RMS" on this board or on another, but a few things I always recall reading:

1) I believe that the custom saddle business is only a sideline for Rick;
2) His communication skills are not the best; and
3) The majority of folks who have been most pleased with his work are those who have done a ride-in fitting/seat fab.

Seems like those who can't do a ride-in have the most issues, so you have to choose if you want to go somewhere else instead.

Tom