That was just great Trevor!
But it's not all bad - there be good bits out there too. Pipes are a particular PITA I agree, and shiny bits generally (which I try to avoid, just make for washing and polishing). Could be a bit cheapskate!
Harley people like shiny, so they'll pay for top-notch stuff that gleams and stays gleaming, and good luck to them. But I don't feel I've suffered all that much from lousy pattern or after-market bits myself, despite my complete uninterest in cosmetics. I've got 6 not shiny machines on the road at the moment, and they all work pretty well (touch wood) and all go out all year round whatever the weather. Just done a couple of hundred km on my A10 this morning. Did 300km last Sunday on a B31, 200km the day before that on an AMC. Well over 1500km a month average on the old stuff. Combined age of the 5 old Pommies (I have one modern I hardly use) is 256 years. All are kept going with bits from these dealers we love to hate, through club spares schemes for the non BSAs, and with whatever I can come up with or recycle from something else in my barn. Dead lawnmowers are a favourite source. A bit cheapskate, I know - but I enjoy that side of it. Couldn't afford to keep my toys going otherwise.
All of them have obviously needed major attention now and again as part of the inevitable cycle. So far I have managed to get everything I've really wanted, and often to a better standard than the bit that was there in the first place. The same goes for an old car or two, one really pretty old (she's 73 now). The other one's barely run in, only 42. They both, and the majority of the bikes, have been down practically to the last washer over the years.
So while I rant as well as the next guy when so-called solutions prove to be just more problems, I have to say (despite being unamused by the difficulty of getting springs - thanks for the Domi-Racer reference!) mostly I'm actually happy.
Happy? Am I mad? When I think back to the hassle of running old machines in the '70s, when they were in no-man's land (unsought after and all the old spares running out), life today is a bed of roses compared. So I think I'm only a bit mad.
Now I'll probably run under a truck, need loads of unobtainium if I'm still alive, and rapidly retract every word when horse thieves sell me stuff that doesn't ***** fit.