Repop rating

[bobdo]

I have a thought... similar to vendor rating. How 'bout using this forum to rate reproduction parts in terms of quality & most importantly accuracy & interchangeability to OEM? I am a product designer by trade, ( not related to motorcycles). So I have an understanding of rushing a product to market. I recently found out in this forum that my very good reproduction front fender lamp had a different mounting hole pattern than OEM. Luckily I found out before drilling holes in my good factory fender. We need a place to go in this forum to find out these ridiculous misfits, & maybe create a little heat on the manufacturers to do the right thing & make their parts accurately interchangeable, saving good factory parts from being modified to work.
Let's continue to use the power of this forum for good rather than just a vent.
My opinion & my vent, Bob

[Chris Haynes]

I have a thought... similar to vendor rating. How 'bout using this forum to rate reproduction parts in terms of quality & most importantly accuracy & interchangeability to OEM? I am a product designer by trade, ( not related to motorcycles). So I have an understanding of rushing a product to market. I recently found out in this forum that my very good reproduction front fender lamp had a different mounting hole pattern than OEM. Luckily I found out before drilling holes in my good factory fender. We need a place to go in this forum to find out these ridiculous misfits, & maybe create a little heat on the manufacturers to do the right thing & make their parts accurately interchangeable, saving good factory parts from being modified to work.
Let's continue to use the power of this forum for good rather than just a vent.
My opinion & my vent, Bob

Actually there were two different OEM hole patterns. Different locations of the wire.

[exeric]

I think that's a great idea Bob. Instead of the 'Vendor Rated' catagory, perhaps that could be changed to 'Reproduction Parts Rated'. Like Tom Cotten stated, it's not fair to rate vendors without rating customers too. Plus, that catagory is more like advertising for individual vendors. It' seems that more people would be served by some honest critique of the good stuff and the junk that's out there. In most cases, the members will be fair and if there is some hidden agenda, the members should be able to figure it out. On the plus side, this catagory could have a real effect on the quality of parts that the big time part guys like J&P and Vtwin have made.* This is a "not for profit" club (whatever the hell that means) so there is no reason to expect a hidden adgenda. Club members and people who restore old motorcycles would greatly benefit from some solid, no B.S. part critique.

[Glenn]

even though I'm new here I agree. I'm doing my 50 pan over now and sometimes not sure which way to go on some of the parts that I can't find original

moose

[Paps]

Problem with this is......Say one buys a part. The part turns out be be a piece of crap. It doesn't matter which vendor sold it. It matters where it was produced. How will you know where it was produced ? Parts made in China, Tiawan, and India, pretty much use only a sticker if any at all. Most of the time, stickers fall of, or are taken off, before the consumer receives them. All the parts look simuliar but one may be quality and the other not. Bottom line....we won't know whom the manufacturer is. we only know whom the supplier is. Like most of you, I am fed up with junk reproduction parts. On the other hand, I am fed up with junk nos parts as well. "Did he say junk nos parts" ????? I sure did ! In the past month alone, I have come across eccentric shifter clutches, unmatched bores in shifter drums, threadless tranny case studs, and wrong radius shifter fork set. Some came from civilian unopened factory packaging. Others came from unopened military packaging. We need to locate the original source of the market. This will be the folks who solicit the factories for parts production. It is up to them to insure quailty control. Paps

[T. Cotten]

Everyone will have their own criteria, but I think most available hard parts can be easily generalized as:

Chopper grade

Service grade

Restoration grade

Conservation grade

....Cotten

[bobdo]

Paps, you make a good point. Maybe its not as simplistic as I stated. But, I still think it would be helpful to some to at least know where some of the problems are. And your right, NOS can be a problem also. I bought a NOS brake cam that was so bad it couldn't be used.
The way I see it, if we can help keep original parts from being modified to work with repop, its a good thing. Maybe if someone has purchased a part from a retailer & it has mounting holes that don't match factory hole patterns, then they state what the part is, part #, & where they bought it. I'll bet the retailer would either stop selling it or pressure the manufacturer to get it right. I would think the retailer would appreciate the free research. Also, if someone has modified the repop part to work, they might post the modification. Maybe its more complicated than all that. The repop market seems to be growing, maybe too fast.
Bob

[Paps]

Bob, today I tryed to fit a repop sprocket cover to a 45 tranny. None of the bolt pattern was on. I figured the part was scrap, if I couldn't fix it, so I opened one hole up and dremeled the others. After obtaining a decent enough over the stud fit, I found another problem with it. The material on the filler spout side needs to be ground off to clear the filler neck. Looks to be darn near 3/16' to come off of it. For what I can see, I may even have to machine tool sweep the inner side of the cover for the sprocket gear and chain to clear after I get the cover to clear the filler spout. I don't recall where the cover originated from. After all the mickey mousin I will have had to do on it to make it fit, I don't think I am gonna use it on the bike. Guess the cover will give me a good reason to go Flathead Catfishin. It will be my sinker for the 100 pounders. Paps

[bobdo]

Hey Paps,
That's what I'm talking about. This kinda talk with as much info we can provide on the part to help other guys like us avoid this kind of wasted time, money & frustration. Sounds like a good day to go fishing. Kick the part once for me, hope you catch that 100 pounder.
Bob