Suprisingly poor show from Leighton’s
I bought a seat from R K Leighton for my 1966 BSA A65 Lightning, which I was in the process of restoring. I ordered it just before I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and when I received it I only took a quick look before putting it in storage. Fortunately the cancer was curable, although it took around 18 months of very aggressive chemo and radiotherapy treatment to treat it, plus a few months of recovery afterwards. Consequently it was over two years before I got back on to the restoration of my bike. When I came to fitting the seat I had a problem with it fouling the oil tank filler cap, so I contacted Leighton’s and asked them if they could do something to help me with the problem. They admitted to me that they had had this problem before with some seat bases and told me to send the seat back to them with some rough dimensions of the clearance required and they would sort it out. I did say that because of the time that had passed I didn’t expect it to be covered by any warranty and was happy to pay. I just wanted a seat that fitted properly. They charged me over £100 (I had originally paid about £240 for the seat) and when I got it back I was very unhappy with it. It was poorly finished, the side trims were bent and distorted and the leather covering had a very small hole in one side. It now cleared the oil tank filler cap but would not sit correctly on the frame. It appeared that the seats steel base was distorted. I tried to fit the original seat on the bike and it was a perfect fit, but the seat itself was in a very worn and poor state. I emailed Leighton’s and told them I was not happy with it and had no confidence in them anymore. I told them that I would put it down to experience and find an alternative. So for a total cost of around £340 I had ended up with a poorly finished seat that did not fit. I bought another new seat from a Dutch supplier for under £200 including shipping to the UK and it went straight on and fitted perfectly with adequate clearance to the oil filler cap. I chose to use RK Leighton’s because they have a good reputation, but have been let down badly by them and feel like I have been well and truly ripped off.