The Other Side to Corbin Motorcycle Seats
I ran a post on Examiner.com awhile back about Mike Corbin, the well-known custom motorcycle seat builder, retiring and putting the business up for sale. Just the other day now there was a comment posted on that article from someone identifying herself as the sister of the Gentry in the name of the company, Corbin-Gentry.
The surprising thing for me was that the company I had written about was Corbin-Pacific. It seems, as Gentry’s sister explains, that Mike Corbin started out in 1968 in the Corbin-Gentry company and then, “In the mid ’80s Corbin split, taking 1/2 of the business with him to California leaving Gentry with the other 1/2.” Thus Corbin-Gentry and Corbin-Pacific. I didn’t know this.
Gentry’s sister writes with what seems to be a bit of anger, though it’s not clear at what. Possibly she still harbors resentment toward Mike, or perhaps she just gets annoyed when her sister is ignored and forgotten. Just to air her concerns, here is the full text of her comment.
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 ’60s to the ’80s. My husband worked for them as a salesman for years working the East Coast.
In the mid ’80s 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.
So now, what was it that Paul Harvey used to say about “That’s the rest of the story” or something like that?
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Tags: Corbin motorcycle seats
June 15th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Why does this story come as no surprise??? Mike Corbin ripped off everyone he ever started a business with.
Under the illusion he was going to partner with Mike, a friend of mine who designed weight lifting equipment in the late 70’s & early 80’s from Springfield, Mass. gave his designs to Corbin. (Think about it, wt. training equipment are frames & seats, just add the wt. stacks, pulley’s and cables)
Within 6 months Corbin stole all the designs and marketed the equipment for several years. Completely ripping this 24 year old kid off.
Mike Corbin is garbage.
February 24th, 2019 at 7:13 pm
bought a 68 Triumph Bonneville chopper. the owner kept saying it had the original seat. Turned out to be Corbin Gentry inspected by Elaine.The Neighbor? Weird thing is it’s near mint and good quality but looks like an original pan. If this means something to you call me like to get this to someone who would appreciate it. Wayne 262-689-4330 call or text. 02-24-2019