Honda-SOHC
Other Stuff => Misc / Open => Topic started by: kent400 on February 20, 2024, 09:48:36 PM
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[attachimg=2]Well it certainly appears that they do looking at these four speedometers.
They are never fitted CB360P ones that have a whack right in the centre of the glass that's bent the needles. On further investigation the 'whack' was pushed the needle pin into the mechanism. The owner's original instructions were to fit new glasses and straighten the needles, maybe it wasn't noticed that the needles were touching the dial faces and on one of them the distance counter was partly obscured by the face.
Dismantling gauges with broken glasses is a pain in the arse and managing to do that with some loss of blood is a challenge. Dyson on duty but there's usually tiny shard with my name on it!
These speedometers are nothing like I've seen before, must have cost Nippon Seiki a fortune to tool up to manufacture these and I understand there were on a couple of thousand produced.
Will I get any of these to function is unclear at the moment, a challenge for sure and I'll update on progress.[attachimg=1]
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That’s criminal on these that’s never been fitted! Why would they do that?
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I didnt think they did, but a lot of stock was held in regional warehouses, the uk one was in netherlands, so perhaps they did
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Could they be from a faulty batch so were made unusable?
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Some time ago, a friend working within a landfill management company had very regular consignment from them as the site he worked on then was near to significant UK warehouse of theirs. Usually accompanied by a company representative to ensure it was buried on arrival, not damaged though as alot of it got pulled out after observation went away.
Common then was a site "totter" and believe me no metal ever went into the ground, cash changed hands for totting rights as it were, pretty lucrative too.
Many of these consignment were straight off the shelf and still packaged with all identification intact.
It's not often realised, but effective accounting practice has stock held rising in price the longer it stays, inventory logged, availability ensured, etc etc....it eventually costs just too much to keep it at all from a properly operated system with warehousing etc. Dumping it is cost effective.
Companies we see now (particularly with Internet searches to find it) are different businesses in specialised "long tail" trading, with low cost warehouse facilities and maximising availability channels, DS being an example of this. The "bay" being another with virtual warehousing when people find this stuff in lofts/sheds etc.
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Alf Briggs was Honda UK main technical man in the 1960's and early 1970's (ex racer and Raleigh employee) and ran the Honda Service Centre at Wollaton Road in Nottingham.
He was given all of the CR spares by Mr Honda himself, when Honda pulled out of racing, to concentrate on cars. When Alf passed away all of the parts that Alf had left from Wollaton Rd were sold to his friend Jeff Dale. However, when Honda moved the service operations to London, all of the parts left over were thrown into a large onsite pit and buried. On strict orders from Japan nothing was to be taken or sold. . Jeff told me that Allf said there was a really early 750 there that mysteriously disapeared the night before the pit was to be filled in with concrete.
So yes I do believe that Honda destroyed redundant stock. Then Mr. Silver came on the scene :D
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That’s an interesting story Ash. Wonder where that 750 went? Anybody on here want to own up?😂
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These days most manufacturers operate a 'just in time' parts system which relies on an efficient, reliable delivery.
They don't keep large stocks of spares in warehouses anymore, which is bad news for the future long term maintenance of vehicles.
It's also bad news if your parts are stuck on a cargo vessel jammed across the Suez canal! Or delayed by Houthi rebels trying to sink your ship. 🚢
I guess discoveries of boxes of surplus old parts will be a thing of the past. ☹
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JIT is a Japanese management philosophy which has been applied in practice since the early 1970s in many Japanese manufacturing organisations. It was first developed and perfected within the Toyota manufacturing plants by Taiichi Ohno as a means of meeting consumer demands with minimum delays.
This method of manufacture is now applied worldwide and unfortunately the knock-on effect is lack of spares further down the line. If you have a Jaguar car that is over 10 years old (or even younger in some cases) the lack of spares held on the shelf is now a real issue and you can be waiting months for spare parts.
Freddie Dobbs who has a YouTube channel had nothing but problems trying to obtain a base gasket for a 10 year old Triumph Bonneville. He ended up scouring the world for a simple gasket, Triumph didn't want to know, just told him they couldn't give him a date for when one might become available.
Manufacturers don't want us to keep a vehicle for more than 7-8 years; we now live in a throwaway society, so much for being environmentally friendly!
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JIT is a Japanese management philosophy which has been applied in practice since the early 1970s in many Japanese manufacturing organisations. It was first developed and perfected within the Toyota manufacturing plants by Taiichi Ohno as a means of meeting consumer demands with minimum delays.
This method of manufacture is now applied worldwide and unfortunately the knock-on effect is lack of spares further down the line. If you have a Jaguar car that is over 10 years old (or even younger in some cases) the lack of spares held on the shelf is now a real issue and you can be waiting months for spare parts.
Freddie Dobbs who has a YouTube channel had nothing but problems trying to obtain a base gasket for a 10 year old Triumph Bonneville. He ended up scouring the world for a simple gasket, Triumph didn't want to know, just told him they couldn't give him a date for when one might become available.
Manufacturers don't want us to keep a vehicle for more than 7-8 years; we now live in a throwaway society, so much for being environmentally friendly!
By now surely it is carte blanc for the after market industry!
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I worked for an American manufacturer of Compressors in the 70's and 80's in Manchester. We got a new 'Whizz Kid' looking after our large Stores. He had a major clear out of stuff that had been sitting on the shelves for years - OSMI it was called - Obsolete and Slow Moving Inventory. First he advertised it throughout our Corporate Business, with limited success....then the remainder went into the scrap bin....as it was costing us money to keep it !
We had five Rolls Royce Avon Gas Generators in stock at the time.......they had been paid for up front to power our Turbo Compressors but the contract was cancelled so we had them in our Stores for a couple of years.....every 6 months a RR Engineer used to come and check them - making sure their Silica Gel Bags and protection etc was still functioning - as part of the RR Warranty. Obviously the fact that we had these in stock got back to RR sales Department and they asked if we wanted to sell them back to RR. There was an 18 month waiting list to have new Avon Jet Engines made and the price since we'd bought them had gone through the roof.
Said Whizz kid cut a very advantageous deal for both parties and he came out of it smelling of roses !
I also worked for a Company in Canada that made large overhead Cranes....and after the Crane left the Factory, anything that was left on the shop floor went in the skip....as it cost more to catalogue and store than than it was worth....plus the Customer had paid for it !
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When I worked at Mercedes Benz Derby they regularly threw away slow moving parts especially for obsolete models - hence why I have a few spares for our R129 that I will probably never use that are sat in my loft!
The stock would be written off on the accounting side & moved into an outside shipping container where everything was scrapped once the container was full to make room for the next lot. Most PLC dealerships not interested in Autojumbles or e-bay sales.
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That’s an interesting story Ash. Wonder where that 750 went? Anybody on here want to own up?😂
The Brighton gold prototype was prepped there for sale and the green prototype disappeared without trace. So who knows.
Personally, I believe the green bike went to Europe somewhere and disappeared there.
DS and James May went to the BBC to try to get them to fund a TV programme about the fate of the missing green Brighton show bike but it was never commissioned.
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That’s a pity Ash that would have made a great story.
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Don't think there's any interest in motorcycling within BBC programming at all.
Additionally, anyone that's worked for a Japanese company will recognise an extreme aversion to public scrutiny of something that has gone wrong. A very serious view and not to be underestimated how powerfully avoided if possible. To keep that trust, even as employee from a different nation is a valuable attribute in their eyes. Probably low chance of co-operation all round.
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Don't think there's any interest in motorcycling within BBC programming at all.
Additionally, anyone that's worked for a Japanese company will recognise an extreme aversion to public scrutiny of something that has gone wrong. A very serious view and not to be underestimated how powerfully avoided if possible. To keep that trust, even as employee from a different nation is a valuable attribute in their eyes. Probably low chance of co-operation all round.
The reason I know about it was that DS asked me if I knew anything about the green p.p bike (which I didn't as this was pre- the Wollaton Road story anyway). He also asked me for any other ideas on features to include, to improve the programmes general appeal. So I sent him an article on Lord Lichfield (who also had a Ken Ives special Bomber 450 and an early CB750 as Lord Denbigh .. who owned the Brighton Gold bike). Lichfield had a fleet of Honda monkey bikes and during a postal strike ... 1971? .. he had a bevvy of girls evidently clad in hot pants, plus his mate delivering mail for a company he had set up called 'Rickshaw Ltd.'. After dinner parties he evidently had races around his grounds on the monkey bikes at Shugborough Hall, in Staffs. and whenever Princess Anne attended she always won.
I just noticed that one of the Monkey bikes Lord L had was one number down from Dick Emery's CB750 i.e BYU761H (Emery's was 762H) so must have come from Tippets in Surbiton.
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When I worked as a freelancer in the TV business I would get to demonstrate post production kit for a Japanese manufacturer at trade shows.
This company developed a really useful solid state disc recorder/player that was revolutionary at the time.
I demoed it at a couple of shows and around London.
Then they let us have to use at the place I worked at most of the time to beta test it.
Sadly they decided they couldn't sell it for the price they wanted to and cancelled the product.
We wanted to keep the one on beta test as it was so useful and offered to buy it.
Nope, it went back to them and was crushed.
When I questioned this I was told the following story.
When this manufacturer imported kit into the UK, it went into a bonded warehouse so they only paid import duties and vat when it left the warehouse to go to the retail wholesaler.
If there was left over stock in the bonded warehouse when a new model came out the old stock was crushed under the watchful eye of a HMCR official so no vat or import duties were liable on the old stock.
ie perfectly good brand new kit is crushed to avoid competing with new models and paying the import duties.
I'm sure it still happens today.
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To supplement his income (as a rookie pharmacist in the 70's) my mate used to assemble crated Suzuki's for a main dealer but not at the shop itself. He told me that the Heron Suzuki delivery bloke dropped of the crates of bikes to be assembled and asked him if he wanted a dodgy deal on a crated RE5 as Suzuki had instructed remaining stock to be destroyed. He always regrets not taking up the offer.
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That's a blast from the past. Heron had a Petrol Station in Burton onTrent. Founder Gerald Ronson managed to recover from his imprisonment after the Guinness Trial to become a very rich man as well as earning a Knighthood.