For 40 years now Le Pera has been making seats for Harleys from its North Hollywood warehouse. Starting with some crazy chopper saddlery, the company has grown to make some top-notch seats for baggers and beyond. The Silhouette seat is one of the benchmarks of Le Pera’s older designs that has been updated to fit on H-D touring bikes. The looks of the Silhouette are stylistic as well as simple and the tapered rear section works well if you have the occasional passenger. It also lowered me to the ground about an inch further than the bulky stock saddle, which I definitely liked.
The appearance of the seat is all well and good, but the coolest-looking seat in the world isn’t worth a dime if it’s uncomfortable. Luckily for my bootie, this seat is one of the most comfortable I have ever ridden on.
A nice and stiff pan is key for a great foundation for a seat and Le Pera has a nice steel one finished off in black powdercoat. Also, the proprietary Marathon foam padding is just firm enough to not feel like a sofa, but cushy enough for comfy all-day 500-plus-mile rides. Topping it all off was the optional real-deal dead cow leather cover that was so supple, it almost felt too good to sit my dirty butt on.
In short, I think that Le Pera has one of the top-quality seats that money can buy, and the Silhouette has the design goods for my particular rumpus, butt your results may very.