Try our new info resource - "Aladdin's Cave" (Main menu)Just added a separate link to Ash's Dropbox thread (shortcut)
Care to do the same?
I don't think any effort I make to get a better deal for the members is a LOT of effort, yes it's some effort and TBH I doubt I'd have bothered except for a recent experience when I went to fix another members bike, FOC I might add, he paid for petrol and parts, all my labour was free and it was considerable I may add. His problem was his carbs, the bike was hard to start, ran poorly and was generally a bitch to get running. A lot caused no doubt by the fact he had the wrong carbs on, he had the carbs used on the continent, with smaller jets and a snorkel needed etc. He had a spare bank of 627B carbs and I offered to completely strip and restore them for him, free. That's a LOT of labour. However I'm not in this game to make money, if I do it's a bonus but I don't let the pursuit of money rule my life, I saw a member struggling and offered to help, on the proviso that he didn't say anything on the forum, I didn't want everybody and his dog taking advantage of my good nature. So we met and the carbs were handed over, I had the lifter rod hard chromed as it was pretty rusty, the carbs were painted, the jets were all wrong, a real mixture of sizes, the needle clips were in different places, the mixture screws weren't set right, all in all the bank was a mess and someone had clearly been fiddling without knowing what they were doing. I heli-coiled all the stripped threads in the float bowls, sourced new genuine jets, cleaned everything up, polished the float bowls and carb tops to within an inch of their lives (and we all know what that means with me), had all the bracketry and everything unique zinc plated by another member on here as my kit is still in storage, in short when they were done they were as good as perfect, better than Gerbens if I'm honest. I fitted all new Viton orings, which he provided, I compared them to a set I still have for mine off Gerben and noticed differences, not knowing which was correct I fitted them as the job needed to be completed. I then travelled 125 miles to fit them and service his bike at the same time, this proved to be a very wise move as the bike was pretty bad TBH, it ran like a slug, wouldn't rev, wouldn't go, flat as hell, hard to start, hard to rev. Horrible. We did the tappets, checked the timing even though it was electronic, it was out, so that was fixed. Did the camchain tension. Then went to fit the carbs, I'd asked him to buy some new inlet orings as I wanted to be sure they were sealing, he had them in a small bag. However when we went to fit them we found they were such an appalling fit I didn't think they would seal, not wanting to chance that as it means removing the carbs again to change them I decided to use an old tappet cover oring instead, that's how badly they fitted, so we fitted the new orings in the tappet covers instead as they are easy to change afterwards.Now clearly that shows that suppliers of these parts are not supplying the correct sizes, this concerned me as I know how critical the inlet manifold seal is to the good running of the engine, anyone finding the engine racing etc after fitting these would probably discount them as the cause as they were new. So I decided I'd do something about that, enquired about having some made the correct size, not close, not within spec, the EXACT size as stipulated by Honda, that's 30.8 x 3.2mm not 30 x 3mm or 31 x 3mm or any other variation of those numbers, any member can search for those sizes and they'll find they aren't made, if you want that size it's a special order with a 500 minimum order. Now that gets expensive, especially when you factor in what the closest oring to it costs in comparison, double the price in fact. Same goes for quite a few other orings that Honda list, they used odd sizes and they just ain't available off the shelf, you can get close but not exact. So whilst I was talking with the UK largest manufacturer of orings I got some other quotes at the same time, I thought lets see if I can source all the hard to find ones. So all the carb Viton rings, got quotes for all of those, the oil pump, got quotes for those. Now I know what they cost and I checked to see what they were selling for on Ebay. And then I realise how much they are overcharging, over 500% on most of them, a ring that costs 13p is marked up to 90p in some cases and that's one of the cheaper ones and it's the wrong size which makes it really poor value.So, a lot of effort, not really , few emails, a little searching and the desire to see people get value for money. I did notice BTW that all your Ebay links are now significantly cheaper than they were yesterday, competition, it's a bitch isn't it. I can in fact go much lower with my prices, I don't mind not making any profit, I can also significantly expand my range, I have hundreds of orings lying around, I tend to buy them in 20s or 50s when I buy them so I've got loads spare. Dipstick, 550 clutch adjuster, petrol tap ones, starter motor ones, camshaft end cap ones. I may even start doing some carb overall kits in Viton, perfect sizes. I should also point out an error in your post, Julie joined Aug 2014. That's not even 9 years ago never mind 10 and she didn't start selling anything until she joined up with you. Maybe 5-6 years I'll give you that. Now please don't post on my threads, you're not welcome.
You Can not ask other member not to post on your threads, this is a open members forum and i will post and comment were i want Ken.
Quote from: Oddjob on June 22, 2023, 06:42:01 PMCare to do the same?Nope, I can't think of one good business reason why I would do that Ken.
Here we go again! Chill out people 🙂
