The BSA A7-A10 Forum
Bikes, Pictures, Stories & more => Services, Parts Suppliers, Manufacturers => Topic started by: gary on 13.10. 2021 09:20
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hi. has anyone had any experience with any of the guys in india reproducing motorcycle parts? parts look nice but have been a little leary on purchasing. thanks
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G'day Gary.
It can be a bit of a lottery. Some good, some bad, some bl@@dy awful.
Similar to China, there may be several factories producing the same part. Some further down the food chain than others.
Years ago I bought a front guard for my plunger. It was that rough (grinder marks) it took 2 cans of spray filler before primer and paint.
Other parts fitted straight on.
Cheers
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Likewise approx 5 yrs ago I bought a speedo ,first one was kph instead of mph ,emailed seller over in India and 2 days later the correct one turned up ,still working well ,I hope not ridden this year. For £29.!!!
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Likewise approx 5 yrs ago I bought a speedo ,first one was kph instead of mph ,emailed seller over in India and 2 days later the correct one turned up ,still working well ,I hope not ridden this year. For £29.!!!
Did they pay your postage to send the other one back?
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Afternoon Neil, still got it I think kicking around our old office obviously stood 'em at pennies , I was well chuffed.
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Bob,
What they planned for with fast and free corrective service was a goodwill boost. To be fair to them, you could share their name. Each member can decide for themselves if they choose to buy from this vendor, but you will have returned the goodwill.
Richard L.
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Gary
I’ve had two experiences with buying BSA tinware from India both being positive.
A gas tank and a front fender.
Both needed a bit of fettling but no major drama
It was quite some time ago so I don’t remember the vendor
S
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thanks . i did run across another thread on here somewhere couple guys mentioned a person that goes by pummy. said his parts were half descent. thanks again
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Do I need to state the obvious that there are probably 1000’s of suppliers of bike parts (and probably manufacturers) in India.....so you need a specific recommendation of a supplier, and even then I think you may find the quality variable. Online stores usually will have feedback/reviews you can check.
“Made in China” no longer carries the stigma it used to.....made in Japan (aka “nippon” in older times) certainly doesn’t, India (in my opinion) is still a work in progress, but for classic bike parts it will always be a niche industry.
Just my 2 cents worth
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A very good point Richard, only wish I could remember the name of the company ,i must have an invoice so will have a look who knows,
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Ebay & Amazon are the perfect platform for shysters & snake oil salesmen .
You have no idea who you are dealing with and even less of an idea where they cource heir parts from.
With tinwear it is all bespoke.
You send them your money and whoever banks the cash puts an order on one of the "tinsmiths" to whip them up a tank for you.
Most are paid a starvation rate for this work so these are made at home. after work often from some scrap stee; supplied by the vendor
In many cases all the tinsmith has to work from is photo of what it is supposed to look like.
The idea that there are small factories is total rubbish, most are made from home out the front in the street in the dirt.
Endless stories of girder forks falling apart the first time they are used.
I for one bough a rear stand for the M20 from a local vendor which was made ( and is use that word very loosely ) in India
First strange thing is the bolts were Unified pipe thread , not CEI.
I put it on at the BSA international Halls Creek
So it did the first run ( 3 lifts onto the stand ) OK
It did the second , long run ( 9 lifts onto the stand ) OK
It did the third run ( 3 lifts onto the stand ) OK
On the 4th it fell apart & I meaan literally broke into 6 pieses as the bike was being lifted onto the stand for the first time.
So I think that would be about 400km all up
These stands are still being sold and people are still having them fall apart so their bikes fall over .
Only problem was I had it for year before fitting and the vendor had closed down , possibly to avaoid being sued.
So if you buy any part from India , make sure it is unpainted because that would have allowed me to see the rear stand ends were made from 4 pieces of steel tacked with a tig then filled with bronze which did not take then puttied ofe, smoothed down & painted so it looked like the ends were either forged or cast
I bougn some gearbox bushes only to find they had been cast into a smnd mould using the original finished machined bush as the pattern
Needless to say they got crushed & tossed strait into the copper scrap bin.
There have been several batches of counter shaft sprockets where the splines are cut wrong so they won't fit
And to top it off I have 4 rear QD brak e drums where the drum is not concentric to the mounting bolts or the drive pins & mounting bolts are not spaced equidistant or the bolt holes are counter shunk in place of being counter bored.
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trevor my brother has been looking at some of these india made castings on the internet and the crap and methods they use to make a casting. he says no wonder most of it turns out only fit for the scrap bin, but the crap they make gets the next meal on the plate for them i suppose.
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India parts, i have ordered oil tank and rear mudguard on line from India never again, you wait for ever and the quality is rubbish, think the mudguard was made by a guy with a hammer and grinder sitting in the street. To send bits back will cost money and more time.
So my advice is steer clear.
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It's the luck of the draw ... bought front & rear mudguards for my SA GF from India. They're practically indistinguishable from original, well made and fit perfectly. Remember, stuff from BSA wasn't always up to standard .....
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If I were to buy expensive parts for my bike, I'd be looking for a UK retailer to get the statutory consumer protection, or at least to make returns easier. Obviously the retailer would add their own charges but I'd be happier anyway.
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Remember, stuff from BSA wasn't always up to standard .....
Yeah, well no-one has that option any more. Then again, never ever heard of anyone sending a tank or muddie back to Small Heath because it didn't fit, although comparing an industrial conglomerate with some shade-tree metal basher sitting on a dirt floor seems a little odd.
My A7 front muddie came from India, and apart from being over-heavy it's fine, but a pre-war headlamp shell had the mountings at the 3 oclock and 10.30 positions. If they could just get some concept of quality control.... *eek*
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i recently bought a petrol tank for my A7, its ok, had to do a bit of adjustment as the petrol cap did not fit, and they used metric treads to hold the badges on instead of 4ba, paint looks ok but its the wrong shade of green so will have to get it painted at some point.
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Remember, stuff from BSA wasn't always up to standard .....
some shade-tree metal basher sitting on a dirt floor seems a little odd.
While not up to modern (or BSA 50's) standards, this is a far cry from the image suggested above. Actually, I was pretty impressed by it. A video of a factory in India making vintage fuel tanks. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=it1KQjNg_a4
Richard L.
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bought 2 gas taps for my A 10 tank one worked the other leaked at the threads the dealer told me they were from India but said they had no problems .....guess they have to get rid of them one way or another ..........all the threads both going into the tank and where the line fits on were very sloppy and loose .
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While not up to modern (or BSA 50's) standards, this is a far cry from the image suggested above. Actually, I was pretty impressed by it. A video of a factory in India making vintage fuel tanks. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=it1KQjNg_a4
Loved the safety guards on all their machines. Must keep the nearby hospital busy ......
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Except for, maybe, one machine, riding a motorcycle is probably more dangerous than all those other slow-moving presses.
Richard L.
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Dunno if those guys made the tank I had but I was happy enough with the one on my A. Threads good and in the right places, Cycle for the strap, BSP for fuel taps (plumbing ball valves went straight in, no slop no leaks), and knee rubbers & central hole lined up no problem, not bad chrome, bayonet cap fitted OK, served me best part of 10 years and still looked good even without being polished much (hardly ever). Not for purists - one man's happy can be another's 'appalled' - and I'm sure the shape wasn't perfect - but a better bet for me than a bodged-up original with sealant, braze and weld here and there etc etc. Good value too, and would go there again for any daily workhorse. In fact am probably going to have to before long on one of mine.
I raise my hat to the dexterity of the folk doing this stuff - without them, we'd be worse off, even if some of the bits are sub-standard. But would order through a reputable local reseller, not direct from India, as no comebacks doing it that way.
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Except for, maybe, one machine, riding a motorcycle is probably more dangerous than all those other slow-moving presses.
Have to say I don't agree. The whole workshop is a nightmare (and no, I'm not an elf'n'safety nut - in fact my son says an elf'n'safety guy would have a heart attack watching me). First off there's the unguarded belt drive from a motor, then there's the machine for shearing off surplus material - wonder how many fingers that has chopped off? But my main concern is with those presses. They should have guards such that the ram will not move as long as a person's hands are close. Slow they may be, but that doesn't automatically make then safe.
Back in '67 I worked at an engineering firm making alloy castings (I was in the tool-room where we made the dies for that). Now our injection-moulding machine held a pair of dies (each approx the size of a microwave oven) and sometimes the sprue would get stuck on opening the dies. Time to call the fitter, only on one occasion the operator decided to sort it himself. Now the machine had a cover over the dies, with a safety lock so the dies couldn't be closed without the cover in place. So said operator removed the safety lock and proceeded to use a drift pushed by the moving die to shift the sprue. He ended up losing his hand (squashed between the dies). I remember it well, as I had had the job of re-commissioning the machine afterwards.
Not long after that, the replacement die-caster guy blew up the furnace. It was gas fed and the twit turned on the 1 1/2" gas pipe before going for a pee - he then returned and shoved in the lighted pilot. Good job he had to bend down to do that, as the whole lot went up through the roof above him. Interesting times.
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Sensible safety precautions are obvious. Perceived unnecessary H&S is down to the issue of litigation; child playgrounds have been dumbed down. Everything sold hot must have a warning sticker. In the UK we seem to have followed the USA into a world of worry about being sued. I worked for BT for 30 years. In later years the H&S warnings at BT became ridiculous and obviously not really meant to be observed; 'Do not exceed speed limits in your official vehicle' , (but get to your location in a timescale that forces speeding)
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Well, India is a large industrialized country who's regulations can be read by us in English if we care to scrutinize 5 Star's safety breaches. On the other hand, according to the Standards for Mechanical Guards on Machines, adhering to the standards is non-mandatory:
Non Mandatory Standards on
OSH for Workplace Safety
BIS Standards
Mech. guards on machine IS 9474-1980
Not suggesting anyone review this in depth, but the graphics are amusing. https://law.resource.org/pub/in/bis/S01/is.9474.1980.pdf
Richard L.
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Here's my latest (4th) indian tank. A very close copy of a
british grp tank. I've not been using that bike much because of the effect ethanol has on grp and I'm down to my last 4 gallons of 4star. I've pressure tested it and checked the mounts. All in order with the correct threads. Quality is definitely improving.
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have i seen you tube vids of them bare foot walking about with a crucible full of molten scrap bean cans ready to be poured into a mould for another abomination to be exported over here or elsewhere ;) *pull hair out* *bash*
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Berger,
You seem to be conflating a reasonably respectable factory (RD's objections notwithstanding), with some poor struggling souls working themselves to death with bronze-age technology.
Richard L.
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mmmm what does conflate mean that's way out of my department *whistle* *dunno*. all i am saying is they haven't got any safety boots on or much of anything else while handling molten bean cans
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conflate
verb
combine (two or more sets of information, texts, ideas, etc.) into one.
"the urban crisis conflates a number of different economic, political, and social issues"
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Neil EH? *thanks* *conf2* i am glad it's pub day *beer*
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😁
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As for the Himalayan and Interceptor, well, sorry, patriots but that's what you should have been doing in the UK right now.
Being made in the UK soon... apparently... care of an Indian company.
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assembled in the UK from imported ..... parts then. I mean, from an economic point nothing else would make sense.
Like Triumph then?
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As you say, that's global manufacturing in the 21st century, but ultimately, WGAF? The factories will build them in the most cost-advantageous place to themselves.
Not really anything to do with dirt-floor tin-bashing and it's incredibly dangerous working practices though. I see nothing praise-worthy with those poor unfortunates or the (usually scrap quality) parts they turn out.
That's the paradox of India though...they have a space programme and nuclear weapons but over half of the populace have never used a flush bog..
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a flush bog..
Which reminds me. I've just visited Austria. Some of the toilet pans, including the one in our flat, have a platform for your poop to land on before you flush it down a hole at the front of the bowl. I believe this is to enable inspection of said poop, which may well be a very good idea with colon cancer in mind, but it scared the bejesus out of me when I turned round to press the cistern lever and was faced with a mahoosive smelly jobbie staring back up at me. Yikes!
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I remember them fitted in Army bases in Germany in the 1960s. As you say, so those strange continentals can have a root through their big old Richards..
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I remember them fitted in Army bases in Germany in the 1960s. As you say, so those strange continentals can have a root through their big old Richards..
We may need to explain the use of 'Richard' there for our ex colonial readers. It's cockney rhyming slang; you know, like "Apples and Pears" for stairs. In this case it's "Richard the Third" for turd!
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The RE Twins -Interceptor and GT - designed by poms in pommyland, built in India.
A large Aussie RE Dealer I know has had almost zero customer/warranty issues with them. They're well built and apparently bullet-proof ('scuse the pun).
I think we'd find more robots in the factory than palm trees!
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i went to the pub and don't i know it *countdown* Rex space rocket thingy's and primitive workings along side each other. a bit like not great Britain with food banks and tax payers money for friends of the regime / club/ gangsters and tax payer funded race horse stable heating etc... don't start me off . REVOLUTION!!!!