Reputable suppliers

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AN has quite a few yamaha spares that fit late 80's and 90's models like the XJ, FJ, FZR. Mostly electrical parts, control switches etc. The radiators for the LC models were snapped up recently.
The spreadsheet we have is in yamaha part number order.
 
Sorry guys UK term for a Yamaha RD350LC from 1982 bike before I was alive. Iconic bike over here was responding to Road Scholar's and MadNorton's comment about us having better support for our Norton's than the Japanese modern bikes and even classics, which to be honest are totally a nightmare as per my original post took 10 years to get the parts together new old stock for a RD250LC elsie engine rebuild that I'm finally just finishing. Compared to my Commando bits which I got next day can't beat that really can't we are truly lucky to be able to get what we can get so readily available having experience of other brands of classics I don't know anything that's so good as the Norton Twins, I have a mate who has Enfields an he seems to be able to get bits for his quite readily.

In fact my Triumph T100 from 2010 I just got already has accessories NLA even the centre stand got lucky getting one of those crazy to think that's on a bike that's only 10 years old.

Regarding Norton suppliers I've used everyone up to now all good yep occasionally a problem can arise but in life that can happen with everything just gotta go with the flow an let them respond an sort it. As reference the printing press manufacturer I used to deal with had sales last year of € 2.35 billion an we had a million quid press come with a huge fault which had to be fixed. So even with the engineering resources they had things still went wrong.

The WW2 Norton can be a bit tricky to get bit's for more a case of just waiting for stuff to come up on that although there's quite a good amount of small cottage industry suppliers for that which is really awesome.
 
B+Bogus said:
Cad plating quite literally a 'dying art' these days!
Beadblasted stainless actually looks quite close to cad plate but without the lingering toxicity.
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Still easy to find Cad plating here mostly due to the aircraft industry. Zinc looks out of place on a vintage brit bike, IMO.
Cad offers better corrosion protection and lubricity on threads, and that nice white silvery glow.

It's safe as long as you don't lick the parts. :p
 
Cad plated high tensile steel is susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement which can cause bits to break after they have been tensioned-up for a while. However if you have aircraft platers, they would do the correct heat treatments after plating. Zinc plating on classic bikes does not look as bad as stainless steel, until the plated bits corrode. I am not a purist, bit if I was restoring a Commando,I would 'do it right first time'.
Be very careful if you ever cadmium plate plate allen-headed cap screws. The required plating process is quite complex.
 
Speaking of reputable... A question for US Norton owners that have dealt with Andover-Norton.

Does AN communicate with customers regarding when the order ships to the USA after the payment clears?

So far no luck for me. I got a thanks for the order email and a newsletter, and that's it.

I understand everyone is milking the Covid excuse for shipping delays (and now costs) as much as possible, but what is typical in the way of communication from AN with regard to customers?
 
I thought that Elsie is a short for the Honda CR250M Elsinore.
Usually buy from AN and RGM.
Funny thing, bought some parts from RGM at a lower price than AN. Came in AN plastic bags. :)
But for pre Commando parts, AN has a more limited stock.
Norton parts supply is fairly good. Especially for the short stroke Manx, if you can afford them.
Best supply I know of is for post war Vincents. And decent pricing too.
Luckily had not needed any parts for my RD250LC racer yet.
 
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@Mike40M Andover are setup as a distributor whereas RGM are a reseller.

It’s pretty common practice for a distributor that also have a direct sales arm to set their prices very slightly higher in order to give their network of resellers a fair chance at successfully being able to trade competitively.

If Andover undercut all their resellers, it wouldn’t be very good for anyone.
 
Schwany said:
Speaking of reputable... A question for US Norton owners that have dealt with Andover-Norton.

Does AN communicate with customers regarding when the order ships to the USA after the payment clears?

So far no luck for me. I got a thanks for the order email and a newsletter, and that's it.

I understand everyone is milking the Covid excuse for shipping delays (and now costs) as much as possible, but what is typical in the way of communication from AN with regard to customers?
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I've had four orders with them over the past three months. Two of them I received an email from A.N. saying the order had shipped, but the email did not include a tracking number or carrier information. Another order I received an email from Royal Mail with tracking info. The last order was from this past weekend, so it remains to be seen.
 
Thanks Bart

Agree remains to be seen.

I've recently had the US Postal service lose a package with some parts in it. It disappeared off the face of the earth day one, and has been in transit for 15 days on a 2 day overnight flight to Seattle. They must have missed Seattle and flown off into the Pacific ocean. First time for me getting a total loss on shipped parts. Wasn't much money fortunately. 2020 has been a real stinker.
 
I recently had a similar experience with the US postal service. Tracking showed "In Transit, Arriving Late". That started the day before the estimated arrival date. It remained like that for 11 days. After that it started moving again and took another 2 or 3 days to get delivered. I had started the process of filing a claim. That was looking like a long road. You have to wait 15 days to make a claim. It has to be done on-line. You have to provide a proof of value in a specific file format which I did not have. All I had was Ebay sale info which proved useless. That's as far as I got. Now I use Fedex.
 
Does AN communicate with customers regarding when the order ships to the USA after the payment clears?

Dunno, frankly. As a trade customer for my German shop I get contacted by the shipper when the goods are despatched and before they are delivered.

Our new software in Andover that is now working may change procedures, but frankly I'll have to enquire with Karl and Phil what information the customer gets from us.
 
Schwany said:
Does AN communicate with customers regarding when the order ships to the USA after the payment clears?
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Generally not. Depending on who they ship through and if they have your contact info, the shipper will provide tracking. DHL and UPS will. My orders are big so I don't know if it's the same for small orders. My orders take up to a week to get processed and are generally shipped via DHL. Once in DHL's hands, the order will take two days to reach me in VA if customs is done in NY and there are no customs delays. If through Cleveland, there are always customs delays and even without them, there is at least and extra day.

They are in the mist of changing their system so this may all change. If you pay by credit card or PayPal, the day charged appears to be the day the order is packed (don't quote me - just appears to be so).
 
marshg246 said:
Generally not. Depending on who they ship through and if they have your contact info, the shipper will provide tracking. DHL and UPS will. My orders are big so I don't know if it's the same for small orders. My orders take up to a week to get processed and are generally shipped via DHL. Once in DHL's hands, the order will take two days to reach me in VA if customs is done in NY and there are no customs delays. If through Cleveland, there are always customs delays and even without them, there is at least and extra day.

They are in the mist of changing their system so this may all change. If you pay by credit card or PayPal, the day charged appears to be the day the order is packed (don't quote me - just appears to be so).
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Marshall,
I got an email reply from AN regarding communication this morning. That is a good sign to me. AN basically told me what you told me. The carrier will provide info if any is going to be provided. It's taking a little longer to package things up. My friggin bank slowed things down, which didn't help at all. I may have made a mistake using Royal Mail, so I doubt I'll see anything for a week or 2. If the US Postal service gets involved, I may never see the order.
 
I was really off target regarding how long it would take to get the parts from AN. The package of parts from AN was delivered to my house in Seattle USA in 4 days from the time the order was placed. That is faster service than ordering from any of the Norton parts dealers I've dealt with here in the USA. Top notch service.
 
RoadScholar said:
I think you'd be amazed at how hard Honda/Suzuki/Kawasaki/Yamaha parts from the 70s are to find. I worked at a Honda dealership while at university from '71 to '73 and was surprised, until recently, to see that, virtually, all new models had a number of unique parts. Not-to-say the parts can't be found, but Commando parts are much easier to find; not as easy to fit in many cases.
You will also know that Honda do new part numbers of items every new model, even if it is a duplicate. IMO I think they are crazy!
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I had a GPz750 in the 80s. Was quite friendly with the local dealer I bought it from. That helped when I broke a mirror. Popped in and asked him to order a new GPz750 mirror. He told me I didn't want a GPz mirror. Thinking he was taking the %&£# I said I do, it's broken. After a bit of banter he told me I needed a mirror for a Kawasaki 125 (I think). Same thing in same box with different part number. About a third of the price!
 
Gadge said:
I had a GPz750 in the 80s. Was quite friendly with the local dealer I bought it from. That helped when I broke a mirror. Popped in and asked him to order a new GPz750 mirror. He told me I didn't want a GPz mirror. Thinking he was taking the %&£# I said I do, it's broken. After a bit of banter he told me I needed a mirror for a Kawasaki 125 (I think). Same thing in same box with different part number. About a third of the price!
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This happened a lot of the time !!!!
With all the big four from the land of Nippon.
 
Schwany said:
Speaking of reputable... A question for US Norton owners that have dealt with Andover-Norton.

Does AN communicate with customers regarding when the order ships to the USA after the payment clears?

So far no luck for me. I got a thanks for the order email and a newsletter, and that's it.

I understand everyone is milking the Covid excuse for shipping delays (and now costs) as much as possible, but what is typical in the way of communication from AN with regard to customers?
Click to expand...
Sorry if the commination's for shipping are not getting delivered via email, we have had some issues with certain Junk Mail filters blocking the email delivery. We are currently working on a solution to stop this in the future. Thanks Karl MD - ANIL
 
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