Corbin's classic Gunfighter and Lady seat
A motorcycling icon is preparing to retire. Mike Corbin has been building custom saddles since 1965, and that's long enough.
I was flipping through Inc. magazine recently and what do you know, the company in their regular "Business for Sale" section was Corbin-Pacific, Inc. Corbin was asking $11.5 million for the company, which sold in excess of $14 million in seats and other gear.
According to the Inc. article, the primary value Corbin-Pacific has to offer is its seat molds, which are considered to be worth $9 million. The company also holds 82 patents.
Mike Corbin was also involved in creation of the Corbin Sparrow, a three-wheeled single-passenger electric car. That venture ran into financial difficulties and was taken over by Myers Motors, which produces the Myers Motors NmG.
In addition to saddles, Corbin-Pacific sells a variety of other goods, including fairings, backrests, and furniture based on auto and motorcycle designs. Check out the slide show for photos of these unique products.
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Comments
Sad to see an icon shut it down, but he's been around forever. Hopefully someone with the same passion takes over.
Corbin seats have always been a selling feature on used bikes. Sad.
Wow. Great find, Ken! At least it's for sale as opposed to closing. I hope he find a buyer, although 80% of annual sales sounds aggressive in this economy.
I read Corbin's auto-biography and it is a decent read. From his humble MA start (Corbin-Gentry chopper seats) on to the West Coast and his various projects. Alot of the stuff he did never panned out but he tried. The seats always kept him in the money. I suspect that newer cycle seats are so much better that he knows it is time to get out both from a market and retirement standpoint.
Quite interesting there is a book out about Mike CORBIN, King of motorcycle seats. It fails to mention that there was a Queen of seats, being GENTRY, CORBIN/GENTRY. This neighbor he talks about sewing his 1st seat for him was my sister. she was not a neighbor but his partner who was called Gentry. TOGETHER they formed and built the business into what would be known world wide. Without Gentry there would have been no Corbin. Gentry was by his side at every turn in the road. Corbin/Gentry was based in Connecticut and thrived from the 60's to the 80's. My husband worked for them as a salesman for years working the east coast.
In the mid 80's Corbin split,taking 1/2 of the business with him to California leaving Gentry with the other 1/2. So before Corbin rides off into the sunset saying he's king of the seats let it be known that without Gentry he could not be saying this.
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