Ordering, Delivery, Unboxing & Fitting
What’s in the box? How well made is it? How easy is it to fit? Today you’ll find out.
Top Sellerie: https://topsellerie.fr
Top Sellerie Deluxe Comfort Seat for the Deauville NT700 on Amazon
Top Sellerie Range for the Deauville 650 & 700 on Amazon
Ordering
The Top Sellerie Deluxe Comfort Gel Seat was ordered online 14th January. I had a replacement Seat Pan so I sent that off the next day. I received a confirmation that the Seat Pan had arrived and was given a provisional shipping date of 19th February. On 6th February I received an email to tell me that the seat was being shipped and I received it on 12th, a whole week earlier than expected – Well done Top Sellerie!
Top Sellerie have 3 methods of “ordering”:
- Remanufacture: Send your original seat and receive your new seat about 4 weeks later. Pros: Cheapest and you keep your own seat pan. Cons: You can’t ride your bike for about a month! Finding a way to send your seat to them.
- Seat Exchange: Use their own seat pan and receive your new seat in about 1 week to 4 weeks depending on whether they need to build it or have one in stock. You then send your original seat back to them (you also need to pay a relatively hefty deposit which you get refunded when they receive your seat). Pros: Cheaper and you get to ride your bike while the seat is being made. Cons: Paying a hefty deposit and having to find a way to send your seat back to them
- Buy a New Seat: Buy a complete seat from them. Waiting times are similar to Seat Exchange. It’s also the most expensive. Pros: You get to ride your bike while the seat is being made and you’ve always got your old seat if you need it. You can also sell your old seat to recoup some of the cost if you want. Cons: Cost
Customer Service
Top Sellerie’s customer service is excellent. They informed of the receipt of the seat pan and of the shipping.
Delivery
Delivery is via a Courier Company. Mine was delivered by DHL. Top Sellerie seem to have a number of outlets, depots and facilities in different countries and mine was shipped from Portugal. DHL had initially given a delivery date of 14th February but, it arrived two days earlier. Luckily, someone was here to receive the delivery.
What’s in the Box?
The seat in clear plastic bag and bubble wrap, and a note, in various languages, asking to send a photo of the seat on the bike. The seat was well protected by the bubble wrap and the outer packaging had stood up well to the delivery. If you order the Seat Exchange, you can use the same packaging to send your old seat back to them. I’m using the packaging to store my original seat safely in the garage.
The Gel seat is heavy! It’s about twice the weight of the original seat. The piping on the edges, the embroidery and stitching look very good indeed to my untrained eye.
The gel is firm and the covering material feels very good. The cover is stapled to the seat pan and they’ve used a lot of staples. They’ve also used three “studs” to secure the “hump” behind the rider’s seat.
Fitting
The seat takes a lot of finagling to fit for the first time. This is due to the extra size of the front portion of the seat. I initially thought that there was a problem with the seat pan but, I checked the Honda part number and measured all the fasteners and holes and they were exactly the same except one of the holes which was about 0.25 mm smaller so I “dremelled” it to the same size.
The knack to fitting the seat the first time is to put the bike on the centre stand. Make sure it won’t rock forward so put something in front of the front and/or rear wheel and brace your leg against the passenger foot rest, you’ll see why in a moment. Slot the seat into place, it won’t lock down at this point. This is due to the head of the bolt which holds the seat locking mechanism in place not lining up with the corresponding hole in the seat pan. Firmly grasp the rear of the seat and forcefully pull it forward while pressing down, the seat will lock into place. You may need two or three goes at it. If you still have problems, remove the rubber heat guard from between the tank and the seat and try again.
Now you know why you need the bike stabilised!
Note: after the seat has been on for a while the gel at the front of the seat deforms by about the 1 mm required and it does become easier to fit the seat. If you’re still having problems, you could “dremel” the the hole the bolt head fits into on the bottom of the seat pan about 1 mm longer.
Unlocking the seat needs a bit more force on the lever until the seat “beds in”.
Thoughts
This seat feels nice to the touch and looks fantastic. This seat is lovely once you get the knack of putting it on and taking it off. The seat is a little taller than the original. I used to be able to “flat-foot” both feet with the original seat now, I can’t quite flat-foot both feet simultaneously, but I can very easily get the balls of both feet on the ground. For reference I’m just over 5’8″ or 174 cm with a 30″ inside leg.
I’m very impressed with the seat so far and will go out and give it a thorough test and report back. So, in the next post I’ll give my thoughts on comfort, riding on it and using it on a regular basis. Until next time…
Top Sellerie Deluxe Comfort Seat for the Deauville NT700
Top Sellerie Range for the Deauville 650 & 700
Top Sellerie: https://topsellerie.fr
I’m not associated with this company in any way other than having bought and fully paid for one or more of their products. They are unaware that I am writing this review.