Mudguard Sets from India

[Terryb]

I’m starting change my 1962 GF and I wish to replace the mudguards with Chrome ones. I’m not keen on the GF replicas, but would like to buy the mudguard sets from India which are advertised as Gold Star or Super Rocket ones. Has any one purchase these and would they fit my 62 GF. I can’t see why not  as the frame for a GF is similar to a SR. Please advise

[limeyrob]

Its not so much the mudguards as the stays, these are all different depending on the mudguards.

[Roger (Doomtrainbarx)]

I bought a set for my SR a few years ago.
The chrome is OK without being as good and deep as triple plating but it seems to be holding up
The fit was good and the brackets/stays are reasonably quality
Worth the money I'd say.

[CheeserBeezer]

I bought some Road Rocket ones. They're dreadful. The front edge of the rear guard won't even fit in the gap in the swinging arm. The stays are flimsy. The GS and RGS guards available from Autocycle are my preferred guards.

[limeyrob]

I sure made in India parts have been discussed a lot, both here and we have the same issue with our old Land Rovers.  The trouble is there are a lot of manufacturers in India and they vary a lot.  They seldom use brands so its hard to tell what you are getting.
I recently bought an A10 seat from India direct after doing a lot of research on the seat base as I've found these can vary a lot.  I also went cheap so I could write it off if it was junk.  The base was well made but the padding and cover were all wrong, they had put a lot of work into making it a "modern" shape.  I was able to reshape it and re-cover it and that is fine with a seat but there's not much you can do with a chrome mud-guard.

If you look at the price direct from India and the price from a recognized UK reseller they have around a 25% to 50% mark up which is actually quite reasonable. For mudguards, tanks and other costly items I would buy from a UK supplier and be prepared to return it if its no good.  The 50% mark up is worth it to have this facility.

I'm waiting on a Matchless side stand from India, looked at around 6 suppliers and all were different dimensions but claimed to be the same part.  It will be interesting to see if the part that arrives matches the dimension on the advert.  If it doesn't all that research was a waste of time.

[Richard Hinton]

I bought a rear mudguard from India for my A10 Gold flash 1960 on Ebay. The pictures of it looked perfect so i ordered one. took ages to get to me but when i unpacked what a load of crap. They have made it from strips of metal welded together and bent them to shape. the turned edges of the sides of the mudguard were hammered to shape. the final finish they used a grinder to clean up the overall shape and get rid of the excess weld. Obvilously they don't have a (former) press to make the mudguard.

I have had an oil tank from India looks great but the internal pipe that goes into the filter for the return is not installed so they have missed that part. The return cost and effort for this stuff you just scrap it.

So be careful getting stuff from India

[Swarfcut]

 I'd go along with Rob's take on Indian Stuff and buy from a UK based supplier. There is more chance of satisfaction if things go wrong.

  CB  mentioned Autocycle in Dudley, West Midlands UK, they have been going for years, Chris Williams started off in an old butchers shop in Moxley as a bike breaker, now an established major player for new old stock, and also a noted manufacturer of good quality pressed mudguards.

 Swarfy.

[MikPowl]

I was told that Chris Williams & Autocycle bought out the old Speedwell company who made many of the 'guards for the British bike industry back in the day. So buy from them and you get 'guards made on the same tooling as may have made the originals!

[limeyrob]

There's a lot to be said for finding out who has the old tooling.  I need a replacement front wing on a 1990 Mercedes. Mercedes prices was astronomic and a long delivery, most aftermarket wings were a terrible fit.  I was searching the web in despair and found a post saying that a particular company had bought the original tooling.  Ordered from them, only a few £ more and the wing was a perfect fit so I reckon they do have the tooling.  Its worth doing a bit of research.

[Bsareg]

I also saw the announcement that Autocycle had bought Speedwell and that the original staff were staying on to show how the machines were operated.

[Rex]

Useful tip about Autocycle as I need a Goldie chrome front mudguard and stays, and my experience of Indian stuff isn't very good.

[Beeza]

I have bought a few Indian shithouse parts, no good at all. I ordered some short chrome head light ears, when they arrived I opened them and threw them straight in the bin, absolutel crap. Not for me ever again.

[muskrat]

G'day Fellas.
A few years ago I needed a front guard for the 51 plunger Got an Indian one that needed over a can of spray bog to cover the angle grinder marks before primer and paint.
Note to self: avoid Indian parts as much as possible. Although there's an alloy Lyta copy tank I'd like
Cheers

[limeyrob]

I've had the same with Indian and Chinese parts.  They spent more time on the seat from India making it wrong than it would have taken to make it right.  I got a tool from China that was about half the price it should have been but it didn't work, it took some machining now its great, I would have paid more for one that worked straight out the box.
I think its cultural, they have no idea what they are making, they just get something and copy it.  They don't know what a good standard is, but why should they, they probably live on a bowl of rice ad day and travel to work on a moped.
We had a great example - the paper towel holder in the washroom on an mobile oil rig.  The rig was being build in the far East and the shipyard did not want to pay for the US towel holders, they said they could get the same locally.  When the rig arrived it had towel holders that looked almost identical but they were made of wood. Really nice carpentry but the wood was 1/2" thick and the external dimensions were correct so the paper towel rolls would not fit.  So with it came a huge box of individually cut down rolls of towel.

[berger]

Made in China / Made in India , looks like it will do a job but won't do the job. i think most of the metals they use to make the crap are recycled many times and just like B&Q compost there is no goodness left. but while we buy it and throw it in the bin { yes Beeza i am also guilty of this} it keeps the money flowing.