Dispelling the japanese dealer network myth

[bigpoppa]

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For decades the myth of the omnipresent Japanese dealer presence and parts availability has been touted as some sort of great advantage or decisive deciding factor when it comes to purchasing decisions, but in real life (not internet echo chambers) this plays out very differently, so its time to finally dispel this myth:

I've been hearing from guys in far away lands (not US/canada or europe) on adventures on their klrs being unable to find parts for their bikes.

Another guy was doing a RTW trip on his cb500x when his rear suspension failed(mexico) he couldnt find anything in the country that also didnt include a multiple week wait in jalisco, so finally some guy in canada had to ship him his old rear shock that was laying around(he had replaced it with quality aftermarket stuff)

I also finally relented and started watching itchyboots, watching her struggle to find sprockets and other parts for her little crf300 honda in mexico was also interesting.

I myself have experienced this, needed some parts for the africa twin, went to a honda dealer(milton honda) and was told parts are a week away, since the brake lever is in Vancouver, and the handguards are in Montreal etc)

Based on the actual experience of people in real life(not internet fairy tales) its obvious to me this is just an old wives tale, parts and dealers are always a crapshoot regardless of which bike you buy, so you might as well buy what you really like and enjoy.

 

[TK4]

The knife cuts both ways. There are Japanese bikes out there that are 20, 30, 40 years old that you can still find parts for IF you don't mind hunting and waiting. A dealer cannot be expected to stock every service part for every model and a lot depends on whether the machine was imported into a specific market.
Honda Canada imported Brazilian CG125s and 150s, never intended to be put on the road here. Good luck finding parts unless you're prepared to order from another country.
Parts being a week away is not the same as 'not available'.
Brand new no-name Chinesium stuff has NO support - don't break it or wear it out.
Try finding stuff for 80s and 90s European stuff - good luck.
Let the naysayers pipe up, but the best support in both OEM and aftermarket is H-D.

 

[sburns]

So I should keep my Harley since they have a large dealer network, and parts galore

You give interesting examples but would your typical rider experience they same level of inconvience as the more extreme riders who are pushing the bike closer to the limits? Your personal example not included since I don't think you are broken down.

 

[bitzz]

I ordered a crankshaft from Yamaha. It was cheapest from boats.net (partzilla). When I ordered it there was stock, according to their website. I had a buddy that works for Yamaha check stock and there was some in the US parts stream.
A couple of weeks later I got an email from boats.net pushing back the delivery date... then another... then another... then another... eventually I was getting emails from Yamaha USA pushing back the delivery date.
I got the crank 17 months after the order date

Try finding stuff for 80s and 90s European stuff - good luck.

Ducati refuses to admit they made motorcycles in the late 80s and early 90s. They have decent factory support for the bevels (up till mid '80s) and pick up again sometime around the 996... in between all is black and empty. No manuals, no parts lists... NOTHIN'.

Honda Canada imported Brazilian CG125s and 150s, never intended to be put on the road here. Good luck finding parts unless you're prepared to order from another country.

Honda only sells parts in the market where the bike was sold, so Honda Canada has no access to Honda Brazil parts. Honda has always been like that. It is a ROYAL PIA for racer parts. You want parts for an RS? Japan HRC is the ONLY place you'll get them. Got a CBR250RR? or a VFR400RR? Learn to speak Japanese.

My vote for best "support" goes to Norton-Villiers. When Norton went under, Norvil bought their parts inventory and all the tooling they could get their hands on.
The Norvil group can supply almost any part for almost any Norton.
I find it funny that it easier to get parts for a '56 Domi than a '02 Honda.
Cheaper too. The Brit economy is in the toilet and exchange rate is good to us.

 

[Klaatu]

Things have changed because of Covid in the last 3 years for parts for anything, bikes, cars, stoves....
Come out to Oshawa and drive down Park road south and have a look at 2 million trucks waiting on parts and chips.
Rows and rows of trucks. Getting a little better, but still.

 

[Matt Rain]

A dealer cannot be expected to stock every service part for every model

As a vintage-bike rider, and having now worked as the parts guy in a dealership for 9+ months now, I understand both sides of this pickle.

I routinely take mild verbal abuse from people who can't fathom that a dealer has to special-order the sprockets/levers/clutch plates for their bike that's been out of production for 15 years. And I get it. But carrying all this stuff as a multiline dealership would mean becoming a ginormous museum of parts with dozens of million $ in mostly-dead inventory.

Your specific bike is made up of thousands of parts, and there have likely been multiple revisions of it. Every variation of a bike is sold in relatively small numbers in a market like Canada.

One example - I special-ordered a fuel tank for a 2020 M109R the other day, in white/black with copper stickers. The odds I'll get another call for the same part # by the time I retire in ~25 years are effectively zero.

Honda's Toronto warehouse looks to be about 100,000 square feet based on Google Street View. That's one of three major warehouses in Canada.

Parts take up a massive amount of space and money. We can get them in fairly quickly in most cases, unless your idea of "fairly quickly" means same day. I doubt there ever existed a world in which you could walk into a motorcycle dealership and instantly walk out with whatever bit broke on your bike, beyond near-universal-fit consumables like chains. Even brake pads are tricky - EBC's catalogue is a 645-page brick.

 

[TK4]

So I should keep my Harley since they have a large dealer network, and parts galore

You give interesting examples but would your typical rider experience they same level of inconvience as the more extreme riders who are pushing the bike closer to the limits? Your personal example not included since I don't think you are broken down.

GENERALLY SPEAKING - regular maintenance parts for anything built in the last 15 years are (I estimate) 90% available from the Canadian distributors of the 4 Japanese within 2 weeks (even if they have to be shipped from Japan). Suzuki seems to be the worst, Canadian warehouse is slow to process orders. Breakdowns (major crash damage or mechanical failures) are a crap shoot no matter what label is on the gas tank. Your experience may vary.
Re: the old Brit stuff - there's been nothing new since 1975 (?), it's easy to build a sales history, keep an inventory, and build pattern parts.
How far back do you want to go ? When I started riding in 1968, there were very few 20 year old machines of any description. You wanted parts for your 1948 BMW ? Go fish.
Try getting parts for your Rotax era BMW now, I dare ya.

 

[Lightcycle]

If you're stuck, the answer is to expand your search for parts globally.

More so for aftermarket parts, but even for OEM, the Canadian and North American distributor warehouses are sorely lacking for motorcycle parts compared to Rest Of World stock. I've waited for weeks for an OE part to be stocked at the NA distributor, then discovered I could go on eBay and get the same part from a dealer in Germany.

The kicker: it was even cheaper from eBay because CRA didn't apply any duty when it was delivered...

Economies of scale mean we get the real sh!t end of the stick up here in Canuckistan.

 

[TK4]

If you're stuck, the answer is to expand your search for parts globally.

More so for aftermarket parts, but even for OEM, the Canadian and North American distributor warehouses are sorely lacking for motorcycle parts compared to Rest Of World stock. I've waited for weeks for an OE part to be stocked at the NA distributor, then discovered I could go on eBay and get the same part from a dealer in Germany.

The kicker: it was even cheaper from eBay because CRA didn't apply any duty when it was delivered...

Economies of scale mean we get the real sh!t end of the stick up here in Canuckistan.

That works sometimes, mostly.
Factor in dollar exchange, shipping costs, possible duties and 'brokerage fees' it can often be a wash.
Timelines can vary considerably too, I waited 4 weeks for a gasket set for my very common Briggs & Stratton lawnmower motor that I could have got locally for about the same price, but I'm in no rush.
What brand specifically are you dealing with ?

 

[Lightcycle]

Factor in dollar exchange, shipping costs, possible duties and 'brokerage fees' it can often be a wash.

eBay lists the courier that the shipper uses. If it's FedEx, I stay the hell away. DHL not too bad, but if it's the local post office, Royal Mail, USPS, then no brokerage fee and there's a good chance CRA will give the parcel a pass without charging duty.

As for exchange rates, with the forward contracts and economies of scale negotiated by the Canadian distributors, you will 9 times out of 10 get a better FX if you go direct to the country of manufacture or a country that has a higher run-rate than Canada. You don't need to look further than Revzilla and any other online US retailer for a good example.

The only drawback is the cost associated with RMAs and warranties.

 

[bigpoppa]

So I should keep my Harley since they have a large dealer network, and parts galore

get a ducati, at least you will look good waiting for parts, and they will take the same amount of time to arrive.

 

[TK4]

get a ducati, at least you will look good waiting for parts, and they will take the same amount of time to arrive.

A few years ago, a friend of a friend had her 696 Monster vandalized. It took 6 months to get a new lock set, then she was told she had to buy a new dash assembly because she didn't have the original magic red key and the ECU couldn't be reprogrammed without it. ETA unknown. She sold the bike as is, at a terrible loss. We all hear horror stories like this, with some makes more than others.

 

[Mad Mike]

I have bikes from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s,00, and '10 decades. Triumph, Yamahas, Honda, RE, and Suzukis. I have never waited more than week for a part to ship. Many times Ive had to go outside Canada, a few times I've had to settle for used parts.

Low production bikes will always get tougher over time. Popular models have large caches of NOS parts, and when those get scarce, aftermarket.

I'm not afraid of an aftermarket part. If I were in Mexico on my DT175 and needed a sprocket, I'd order it from CSML and pay the $40 for 2 day DHL Air freight.

I have one unobtainable on my list, a plastic carb cover for my Yamaha QT50.

 

[AllistonGT]

Let the naysayers pipe up, but the best support in both OEM and aftermarket is H-D.

I purchased a new Fatbob in 2017. Defective battery - 1 month old. 2 month wait for replacement. I kid you not.

 

[sburns]

get a ducati, at least you will look good waiting for parts, and they will take the same amount of time to arrive.

Actually HD turn around on parts can be pretty good. They usually say it will take 1-2 weeks, but I've had parts in a couple of days. Other times yeah it takes 2 weeks. Still not bad considering they don't have a warehouse in Canada and it all comes from the States.

 

[TK4]

I purchased a new Fatbob in 2017. Defective battery - 1 month old. 2 month wait for replacement. I kid you not.

There's nothing especially trick about a battery. If the dealer had wanted to, they could have installed an aftermarket equivalent and claimed the genuine replacement warranty part when it came in. Sounds like a load of B.S. to me, the dealer didn't step up..

 

[TK4]

I have one unobtainable on my list, a plastic carb cover for my Yamaha QT50.

Some stuff is really scarce - final drive parts for early Gold Wings are No Longer Available from Honda and used is usually in no better shape that what you already have. It was designed to last, but little or no maintenance for 45 years will do that.

 

[timtune]

Some stuff is really scarce - final drive parts for early Gold Wings are No Longer Available from Honda and used is usually in no better shape that what you already have. It was designed to last, but little or no maintenance for 45 years will do that.

And lets not forget that not everyone got the memo on the special moly spline grease. I'm responsible for one less older Wing rear end. (available used easy peasy a few years back when I needed one FWIW)

 

[AllistonGT]

There's nothing especially trick about a battery. If the dealer had wanted to, they could have installed an aftermarket equivalent and claimed the genuine replacement warranty part when it came in. Sounds like a load of B.S. to me, the dealer didn't step up..

Then that was poor service from an HD dealer.
Called another dealer at the time. No batteries available. They did install someones used one which wasn't much better. Point is, even simple OEM parts for bikes may not be readily available from any of the brands.
I tried telling my wife, this is why I should have a second bike just in case. She wasn't buying it.

 

[MacDoc]

I've been fortunate in riding bikes that generally don't break. 100,000 km on two Burgman 650s ....total parts needed.....two batteries available inside a couple of days.

KLR650 in Australia was straight forward to get bits like throttle cables and brake/clutch levers.
Dealers all had knock off cables or originals. I had extra cables taped on the ones in use.
Chains took a while to come in but I tend to order ahead.
I was going through batteries once a year but switched to Lithium and it was still going well 5 years on when I sold the bike.

The rest were mostly Hondas or Vstroms.
The Vstroms had a know issue with the stators and I was lucky when one of mine failed and a guy sold me his as he had a spare from a recall. That might have been a real issue.

CBF1000 also had stator issue and Honda honoured the extended 7 year warranty on it ( only had a few months left when it failed ). They had the part in within a few days and even covered my tow cost from the Forks to Milton. 7 years !!! damn.

I prefer bikes without the fancy gadgets....the CBF1000 and the other CBs I've owned and own now. all were without additional gadgets to break and of course the KLR650 had a 40 year run so parts easily availble....broke a shock and buddy with a 2008 gave me his for my 2004 and it fit ...

Will be interesting as the world moves to EVs. Different world from ICE motorcycles in terms of parts and maintenance.
I mostly only visit dealers to browse..... and in the current case - get tires and chains and oil changes done....12,000 km between service and maybe a rear tire. About double that for front tire and chain thos the "maintenance free" chain experiment is still ongoing at 16,000 km on this chain. I did not touch it for the first 12k km and it was fine ....now lubing it.

I really detest motorcycles that break....once reason I like the Hondas and even the Vstroms ( aside from stator ) were trouble free.

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