Thumper Club Forum
Club House => Chatter => Topic started by: JOOLZ on March 08, 2017, 10:20:39 AM
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I dont know if anyone is following my post about obtaining a camshaft, but its got me thinking. Unlike old British bikes where manufacturers are making reproductions of parts, and the huge old stock inventorys of various speciality motorcycle shops can keep most old bikes on the road. (our local shop Britbits has enough parts to build a few Triumps Nortons and BSA from parts)
What will become of our old Japanese motorcycles, there will be some old stock for a while, and gasket kits will no doubt be available, but some things will get scarce very quickly, will there be a day when we will finally have to put our bikes to bed for the last time
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I'm not so sure JOOLZ. If there's a market, people will make parts to satisfy it. I'm in my mid fifties, and have no experience of old British bikes. I'm in no way anti Brit bike, but if I was looking for an older bike to actually use then I would be looking at a Japanese bike :- the T140 / XS650 comparison is still the same today as it always was. Ie, unless you have a huge amount of time and money, a good nick XS is always going to be more reliable than a T140, IMHO.
What I'm trying to say, is that once the rapidly aging owners of classic British bikes begin to pass away, then the majority of classics on the road will probably be Japanese, and the parts industry will kick into gear to support them. You can already see it happening with some bikes like kettles and Kawa triples.....
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will there be a day when we will finally have to put our bikes to bed for the last time
I was nervous about possibly taking my camshaft out, then I was cheering when Michael came up with one and now this - nobody warned me this site was going to be an emotional rollercoaster! :'(
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With both classic cars and bikes it tends to be owners clubs who keep things going. The stronger and more healthy the owners club, the more chance of having batches of parts remanufactured. Then you've the one make specialists like Hitchcock's for REs and AMC spares for Matchless and AJS.
So, we need to keep our wee forum going for that very reason, even as a knowledge base, especially for the XBR and SRX. Ideally we would have every owner of these two bikes on this forum, or at least lurking on it. Of course owners or anyone with an interest in any thumpers are welcome on here, but many already have their own forums such as XTs etc. But the club originally started mainly for XBRs and SRXs.
And then of course, there's the great engineers who can make one offs of practically anything :)
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What I'm trying to say, is that once the rapidly aging owners of classic British bikes begin to pass away....
Oi!
I'm not ageing (note correct spelling) any faster than anyone else. I may however have the advantage of having started earlier......
Interestingly, my brother who is a mere stripling in his early 50s has just bought a Matchless G80s (despite my sage advice) and is loving it. He does however keep asking me questions......
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WRT your original question, surely camshafts etc can be built up by metal spraying etc just as can bits of old Brits?
I bet it's harder getting parts for my Sunbeam than for an XBR.
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What I'm trying to say, is that once the rapidly aging owners of classic British bikes begin to pass away....
Oi!
I'm not ageing (note correct spelling) any faster than anyone else. I may however have the advantage of having started earlier......
Interestingly, my brother who is a mere stripling in his early 50s has just bought a Matchless G80s (despite my sage advice) and is loving it. He does however keep asking me questions......
Sorry Ian, no offense intended :-[.
If I can afford a hydraulic bench when I have retired, I may be tempted by something old and British (no, I'm not talking about me, and stop sniggering at the back!). That being the case, I would proceed on the basis that the spannering is all part of the enjoyment. However, I'm afraid it's probably more likely that I'd end up with a Japanese (or German) classic, because I enjoy riding more than spannering....
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I have restored about 16 bikes (all Japanese) including 6 SRXs. I have never really found parts hard to come by for any of the bikes that I have (re)built but I went onto Fowler`s website over the weekend to see the availability of a couple of small parts (for the latest SRX) and noticed that they have deleted ALL of the SRX parts lists. This isn't the end of the line for me as I have the relevant parts lists at home but it did make things just a tad quicker to use their online parts lists. However it does make you think and its quite coincidental that this topic was brought up at very nearly the same time. Time will tell.
Ian :)
PS I will get in touch with Fowlers this week and find out their angle on it!
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nothing is beyond restoration, ive got a couple of dr650s in the shed, both have had cam failures in the past, a common dr ailment caused by insufficient hardening of the cam followers, the hardening wears through and then the cam eats its way through the follower also destroying the cam. this would normally be time for a new one, but you cant get them without spending a lot of cash, so specialists will reapir the cams for a reasonable price. phil joy did both the cams on the bikes i have, he builds up the cam and its follower with stellite, then he machines it back to original specification and hardens it. he also rebuilds cams with altered timing adding lift or duration. so, if you really cant find an xbr cam, but you have one thats not xbr spec but fits the engine, then perhaps you could get it ground and rewelded to original xbr spec. i suppose that the scarcity of spares is dependent on the number of bikes sold originally. so, you should be ok trying to get xbr bits in future, but might struggle with more niche stuff.
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Aye Ian,
I too have contacted Fowlers about their withdrawal of some of their SRX parts lists. The SRX600 (1XL) lists are still in place this morning, but the SRX400 and mono remain unavailable. :(
However, at 10:06 this morning Mark, from Fowlers called me and re-assured me that the SRX600 parts lists were back up on the Fowlers website and that the SRX400 parts lists will be re-instated from their "Test" server within the next 2 - 3 days. It appears that a quiet, but polite message/conversation from quite a few people has been sufficient for Fowlers to take note that we are interested and likely be buying spare parts for these machines. ;D ;D ;D
The old adage of "Use it or loose it!" seems very applicable in the current constrained climate.
A few messages of 'Thanks!' from SRX owners to Fowlers might not go amiss! ;)
My regards, Bill
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The only 'unobtanium' srx parts I have come across (so far) .. is the kickstart lever, and petrol tank .. probably a few more by now
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Aye SteveL,
Fuel tanks for SRX600 1XL 1986-87 appear, at present, to be available on "Back Order" from Fowlers for £628.93 ex VAT or £511.52 ex VAT.
My regards, Bill
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Aye SteveL,
Fuel tanks for SRX600 1XL 1986-87 appear, at present, to be available on "Back Order" from Fowlers for £628.93 ex VAT or £511.52 ex VAT.
My regards, Bill
Whew, It probably wouldn't cost much more that that to get one hand made in alloy would it?
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XBR tanks seem to be pretty rare as well now-well good ones.I found a NOS one for my last XBR but then foolishly sold the bike.The one on my acquired this week bike looks ok ish but the metal is so thin on them.........
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If you think you guys have it tough, try getting hold of a tank for an MZ SilverStar. You won't, anywhere. (Unless you manage to persuade me to sell my spare one ;))
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Here's a thread from 2011;
http://www.thumperclub.com/smf/index.php?topic=5343.msg35240#msg35240
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Haha thats interesting, there are a few posts that point out that Brit bike parts were more interchangable between models and years and even manufacturers, and I think that maybe the differance between keeping an old Brit bike running and keeping our older Jap thumpers running
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Thanks for posting that Matt. I know all the fellas who posted on that thread, though I didn't bother with the forum back then. There must be so much interesting stuff archived on this forum, if we could only be bothered to dig some of it up. I've only recently caught on to how useful the 'search' function is on here :-\
I think a lot of peeps who used to be on here are probably on Facebook now instead, or maybe they had talked every topic through until they couldn't take it any more!
Though somebody posted on here a while back, that they were on a classic car forum, and were asking about the old chestnut of oil. They were very abruptly told to clear off and look back through previous posts from years ago, whereas, on here, he was helped out straight away, and everyone gave friendly advice :)
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Thanks for posting that Matt. I know all the fellas who posted on that thread, though I didn't bother with the forum back then. There must be so much interesting stuff archived on this forum, if we could only be bothered to dig some of it up. I've only recently caught on to how useful the 'search' function is on here :-\
I think a lot of peeps who used to be on here are probably on Facebook now instead, or maybe they had talked every topic through until they couldn't take it any more!
Though somebody posted on here a while back, that they were on a classic car forum, and were asking about the old chestnut of oil. They were very abruptly told to clear off and look back through previous posts from years ago, whereas, on here, he was helped out straight away, and everyone gave friendly advice :)
Yes i think that may have been me regarding the oil.It's always a problem accessing old info on a forum but on here you tend to get a straight and friendly response which is refreshing.In the last 8 or so years i've been into XBR500s the spares situation seems to have changed :you can now get things like pattern exhausts and front brake masters but supply of lots of other reasonably priced spares seem to have almost dried up : petrol tanks and taps,forks,plastics etc..I'm sure they are out there but people are holding on to them either to keep their hobby going or hoping to cash in maybe one day?Ebay Germany was a good source until recently but now it seems not to be so.
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Forgot to say above that RS250 spares are still mostly plentiful and cheapish-and Dickscratcher was kind enough to donate to me FOC the good majority of an RS a couple of years ago-well it might be three now!
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I just picked up a pile of old Classic Bike mags to further my stinking 2-stroke research. In one of them was an article about a company who reckoned they could make a camshaft for anything, and I'm sure they're not alone.
I think the same would apply to most parts - it may not be cheap but as Robert Pirsig (more or less) said, a motorcycle with an essential component missing, even if said component is only a quid, is worth precisely nothing.
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I just picked up a pile of old Classic Bike mags to further my stinking 2-stroke research. In one of them was an article about a company who reckoned they could make a camshaft for anything, and I'm sure they're not alone.
I think the same would apply to most parts - it may not be cheap but as Robert Pirsig (more or less) said, a motorcycle with an essential component missing, even if said component is only a quid, is worth precisely nothing.
He was a bit philosophical wasn't he.
And meandering!
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And knew naff all useful about maintenance :(
Andy
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I can't agree Andy - I'd be interested in which particular things he said that you would disagree with.
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I have to say it was all a bit "Inter galactic" for me! I have tried at least half a dozen times to read (wade) through the old Zen thing and I can only suppose that either the mans wiring is different from mine or else he was intoxicated! :-\ I just don't have the same synapse wiring!
Regards to all, Bill
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I have to say it was all a bit "Inter galactic" for me! I have tried at least half a dozen times to read (wade) through the old Zen thing and I can only suppose that either the mans wiring is different from mine or else he was intoxicated! :-\ I just don't have the same synapse wiring!
Regards to all, Bill
Have to say this was my experience too! :(
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I can't agree Andy - I'd be interested in which particular things he said that you would disagree with.
It is that long since I dragged my way through the dreary hippies self indulgent tome I honestly can't remember much except how at the end I thought of how I could have better used the time.
Andy