The Parlous State of the Aftermarket Replacement Motorcycle Parts Industry.

[Tinkicker]

Having my hands full with restoring a not very popular model in the UK, 46 year old bike and on a tight budget, I have had to dip into the murky world of the aftermarket parts market.

Mainly because original parts are unobtainable, or in the hands of scalpers wanting a ridiculous amount for NOS parts.

 

Take one guy on ebay.  Wants £35 for a NOS DT100, 1977 onwards air filter cage because it is listed as unavailable.  Original price when it was sold separately was £6.

Idiot does not realise that it is unavailable because Yamaha now include a new cage with every new airfilter.  Cost of airfilter with cage is £33.  Derrr!

 

Anyway.  Aftermarket parts.  Just about every aftermarket part ordered has either not fitted or was unsuitable.

 

All advertised and bought as fitting a 1977 Yamaha DT100D.  Bear in mind, the 100 is basically a moped sized bike with a larger engine, rather than a full size bike with a sleeved down engine.

 

Throttle cable.  Label on it when it arrived said it fitted DT100, 125, 175, 250 and 400.

Thread on handlebar end was wrong pitch, the upper cable was around 3 inches too long, the oil pump and carb cables were around 2 inches too long and the oil pump cable had the wrong adjuster fitting on the end.

 

Front Brake Cable.  Again arrived as a "multifit".  About three inches too short.  It would not even reach the lower brake adjuster.  

 

Speedo cable.  Laughably long.  I could have tied a knot in the slack.  It came over the fork cable guide and round in a large loop before heading towards the speedo.

 

Clutch cable.  " exact copy of the original with all original type fittings".  It arrived... My heart sank.  " fits DT100, 125, 175, 250.

Of course it is way too long and even with all adjusters screwed fully out, still had an inch of freeplay.

Then we have the oil seals.

Fork seals were wrong, too big.  Second set did not turn up.  Ended up buying genuine.

Bought a full Raymax seal kit for the motor.  Crank seals did not fit and were the wrong type.  Ended up buying genuine.

Handlebar levers. Another lesson in frustration.  Sent full size DT125,175, 250, 400 levers when the 100 has 3/4 size like RD50s, Fizzies, TY80s ect.

 

A few years ago, you could buy an aftermarket part and be sure it was visually and mechanically identical.  It fitted perfectly.  Now it is a lottery and one which has failed me at least 70% of the time.

This is absolutely not acceptable, but is a sign of the times.  Maximum profit for minimal input or effort.

 

To this end, the elephant in the room is that once upon a time, an aftermarket part for a japanese bike was made in Japan, probably on the same production line as the original.

These days it is made in a chinese sweatshop with no quality control and no feeling of responsibility towards the end user.

 

The problem being that the UK aftermarket vendors are too lazy to do their due dilligence and check the bikes that the parts would actually fit.

 

Rant over.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Tinkicker

[geofferz]

I suspect it's also down to ebay and amazon just trying to shoehorn everything to fit your requirements, even if they're not fit for purpose, and sellers 'having to' spam the descriptions of items or risk being on page 6.

 

I dunno, annoying either way. Hopefully you can return the easily enough? 

[bud]

Seen this quite often. It's very annoying as some parts were shared between models. But these people selling them have no clue.

Yamaha Europe do a great part number catalogue. It allows you to search for the original number. But also look at other vehicles in the range. To see if it's a compatible part. https://www.yamaha-motor.eu/gb/en/service-support/parts-catalogue/

[fredc]

I have found several sprocket and chain sets  on ebay for my shaft drive bike

 

[mealexme]

I've found the same thing. A lot of the time it's on cheap listings from China, so I've always presumed it was just some guy in China trying to push products and get views on his items, and someone who just makes the products and doesn't ride bikes (obviously not the same guy for every listing). 

[RideWithStyles]

Yeah got a engine case clutch actuator rod for the thundercat from a uk scrapper Birmingham way once when the chain broke at 60+ and made abit of a mess , nope a good bit shorter than it should of been, sure it came from a fazer of about the same era they obviously thought it would fit....

[Guest]

Arthur told me never to buy parts off ebay because most of the time they come from China and will either be wrong or will break.

 

JJ

[S-Westerly]

Arthur would be right. Bought some stuff of ebay which has been okay but more that's been total shite.

[RideWithStyles]

Yup hes right not worth the risk, time or effort.

Plenty of proper traders about like SBD, wemoto, smaller dealer franchises, aftermarket, hell even small fabrication firms...

[onesea]

Depends what your looking for when it comes to China.  Done stuff is ok, very much pay your money and take your chance.

 

I bought some heated grips for my trophy 6 years ago.  Fresh from China, because they where a better fit than Oxfords or other brands.

They gave up at some point this summer.

 

So 6 years on I have bought some more the same.  £12.50 every 6 years I can deal with.  Phone holders not so much 18 months to 2 years from China.

 

Then other stuff I avoid China. Much depends on availability, price, intended use and effect of failure.

[megaross]

The DID chain I got for my tiger was 2 links too long but is the correct one for the bike. Had all manner of stuff that didn't fit bikes and cars over the years - sometimes modifiable, sometimes not.

 

Even buying OEM/ quality makers is no guarantee, my tiger is in a weird year (one of the first bikes off the line) that the clutch cable needs to be shorter than triumph provides. OEM stretched out of limits in under a year, venhill I had to get it shortened, and that one snapped 6 months in (they fixed it but still). I've had genuine brake discs warp in 12 months too.

 

I'm guessing triumph used any old shit left from the 955i on the early bikes. Which if you read about the kind of thing triumph did back in the black and white days is very "them"

 

I vaguely recall reluctance to change their frame tooling to release a new T100 with suspension so they designed a sprung hub to soak up bumps and reused all the other tooling. Nice.

Edited November 15, 2023 by megaross

[RideWithStyles]

955i black and white days?? is still with the same owners now and saw it in colour on the big screen....

sure its the same tac as other manufacturers use to recycle components even if its well known for failure, like honda for their very long saga of rectifiers for nearly 20years.

And the weird swap over years with different components manufacturers we have on the wifes bike and some of the previous cars (german and Italian).

 

anyway most disc warp due to the bobbins left to fester.

 

the spring hub isnt that what customs, cruisers and hd normally have?

[Tinkicker]

And the useless bunch of aftermarket "Richards" have struck again.  

 

Ordered a chain to specifically fit my DT100.  102 links.  I came to fit it and of course it was too long.  They had sent 110 link.  Said 110 link right there on the box.  No excuse.

 

No problem for me, I still have both my sets of professional whale chain cutters from back in the days when I was a motorcycle techie.  Literally a two minute job.

 

But 90% of their customers will not have access to chain cutters...  

The aftermarket boys should be ashamed of themselves.  Customer disservice is the name of their game. Out of maybe 10 aftermarket parts ordered, I can only think of the ignition switch that actually fitted as it should.

 

Luckily I come equipped for any chain cutting / rivetting requirement.  Most others do not.

 

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by Tinkicker

[Yorky]

Now't a grinder and a couple of hammers can't sort out