Ordering from Andover Norton (2020)

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swooshdave

swooshdave

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I mentioned to Andover that the one thing that would be nice to add to their site would be the number of units required per bike, so if you needed say two of part they could indicate it. They have now added that to the site.

If you have ordered from them in the past and you were in, say, the US you would have to wait for a shipping quote. They've now updated the site to automatically calculate the final shipping cost in the shopping cart. Very nice! I didn't see the shipping cost in the cart so I ended up paying a lot for shipping, I probably shouldn't have gotten the shirt... but it did get here really fast. I ordered on Wednesday and it got here on Friday. I don't think I would get it that fast from Old Britts and they are just up the road.

I think I was suppose to spend the stimulus money on US products, oops. Hopefully no one will tell on me. :D

Ordering from Andover Norton (2020)


Ordering from Andover Norton (2020)


My Interstate has a sticky center stand and a loose side stand. I figure some new hardware can't hurt.

Plus the King Dick rear head nut wrench with it's funny twist.

I also got a tee shirt, for some reason I though it would have the Andover Norton logo on it but now I realize that was just the watermark on the image. o_O

Ordering from Andover Norton (2020)
 
Hi Dave

normally have really fast delivery. I got a notice that a clutch lever shipped on April 9. Still waiting for it two weeks later.
 
2 days!!! Ordered pulled, shipped almost 1/2 way around the world...
That's incredible.
Takes more than 2 days to mail a letter across county lines here.
Well done AN..
 
I've purchased a few things directly from AN, and for the most part, no issues. NEVER got anything in two days - I would say 2 weeks. 90% of my purchases come from Old Britts though - same AN parts, so i'm guessing OB is a AN parts distributor here in the states. overall, I would say shipping costs is the driving factor. with OB, it's usually a three day turnaround . most recent - ordered parts on monday or tuesday, and the package arrived Friday I do supplement some purchases with steadfast, and the bonneville shop - usually thru fleabay.
 
joe czech said:
I've purchased a few things directly from AN, and for the most part, no issues. NEVER got anything in two days - I would say 2 weeks. 90% of my purchases come from Old Britts though - same AN parts, so i'm guessing OB is a AN parts distributor here in the states. overall, I would say shipping costs is the driving factor. with OB, it's usually a three day turnaround . most recent - ordered parts on monday or tuesday, and the package arrived Friday I do supplement some purchases with steadfast, and the bonneville shop - usually thru fleabay.
Click to expand...

If you didn’t know Old Britts mostly sells Andover parts.
 
swooshdave said:
If you didn’t know Old Britts mostly sells Andover parts.
Click to expand...
correct - thought I said that -- "90% of my purchases come from Old Britts though - same AN parts, so i'm guessing OB is a AN parts distributor here in the states."

as for AN parts -- I've had better luck with AN parts than other replacement stuff. can't think of one thing that wasn't plug and play. form, fit, and function, IMO, probably as close to OE hardware as you can get. not super experienced here, so for me, pretty much makes it a no brainer. the main reason I don't buy directly from AN is shipping time and costs - faster and cheaper with old britts, and great customer service.
 
Whilst we would like to despatch within 24 hours this is currently impossible with our pickers hampered by our in-house rules regarding safety distances and the odd team member off in quarantine.
Add to it we are presently absolutely flooded with orders. Though the new ordering and shipment calculation system briefly accelerated shipping to the 24 hour target with the number of incoming orders and the safety precautions we are slower yet again, sorry!
In any case our primary target is not fast shipping but shipping a quality I want to fit to my own Nortons. No use to get a part very fast that then costs you no end of time to make it fit the bike or that is a total failure altogether, either not fitting or breaking quickly in use due to incorrect manufacture, say a casting where a forging was originally specified with good reason.
 
Last edited:
ZFD said:
Whilst we would like to despatch within 24 hours this is currently impossible with our pickers hampered by our in-house rules regarding safety distances and the odd team member off in quarantine.
Add to it we are presently absolutely flooded with orders. Though the new ordering and shipment calculation system briefly accelerated shipping to the 24 hour target with the number of incoming orders and the safety precautions we are slower yet again, sorry!
In any case our primary target is not fast shipping but shipping a quality I want to fit to my own Nortons. No use to get a part very fast that then costs you no end of time to make it fit the bike or that is a total failure altogether, either not fitting or breaking quickly in use due to incorrect manufacture, say a casting where a forging was originally specified with good reason.
Click to expand...
most likely the biggest delay with AN direct here to the states is U.S. Customs - AN has no control over that. that in itself, probably adds a week or so in shipping. adding in this virus thing, doesn't help matters either and adds to the delay. recently sent out a package to a member in NZ that normally takes two weeks - a month now, and he still hasn't received it.
 
I got a USPS package sent last day of March got to me three days ago. It got to Heathrow in three days.
Rest of the time in was in Coventry...no doubt slowed down by the current situation. In country I find stuff to
be about a day slower overall.
RGM is the fastest shipper for Norton stuff.
 
The AN website is downright addictive. Too many good things there are available too easily!
Since I'm in Canada, I also deal with Walridge. They have been excellent over the years. They have been good for BSA parts as well.
But the AN website for Commandos.....it's perfection.
RGM has a fair amount of specialty lightweight and racing parts for Commandos. These are items I've not found anywhere else.

Glen
 
I have had good experience with AN delivery, until lately. A small order took almost 3 weeks to arrive. Normally I get it in a week or less. Also, they ship larger orders with a service that allows tracking. The small order did not have this service, so I was left wondering till it finally showed up.

I have some other comments about the AN website:
1) They recently added Triumph parts to the site. I sometimes find this useful, but I am only working on Nortons so it mostly gets in my way. e.g. I have to scroll down 2 pages in their 'Browse by Model' dropdown menu before I get to get to the Commandos; and when I use search, now I have to take the time to sort through a bunch of Triumph parts as well to find what I am looking for. The top of the webpage has tabs for 'Norton Parts' and 'Triumph Parts' but clicking one does not seem to filter the other out.
2) I think it is an improvement to include the quantities required for parts, but I find that the addition of this information in the drawing section can make it very busy up there sometimes. I think it is enough to just include it in the detail description.

In any case, worntorn is right. Maybe its better to not make it so easy for me to buy stuff!
 
NickZ said:
I have had good experience with AN delivery, until lately. A small order took almost 3 weeks to arrive. Normally I get it in a week or less. Also, they ship larger orders with a service that allows tracking. The small order did not have this service, so I was left wondering till it finally showed up.

I have some other comments about the AN website:
1) They recently added Triumph parts to the site. I sometimes find this useful, but I am only working on Nortons so it mostly gets in my way. e.g. I have to scroll down 2 pages in their 'Browse by Model' dropdown menu before I get to get to the Commandos; and when I use search, now I have to take the time to sort through a bunch of Triumph parts as well to find what I am looking for. The top of the webpage has tabs for 'Norton Parts' and 'Triumph Parts' but clicking one does not seem to filter the other out.
2) I think it is an improvement to include the quantities required for parts, but I find that the addition of this information in the drawing section can make it very busy up there sometimes. I think it is enough to just include it in the detail description.

In any case, worntorn is right. Maybe its better to not make it so easy for me to buy stuff!
Click to expand...

I agree the drawing area is very cluttered. To the point it’s sometimes hard to even see the drawing. Still it’s better than most sites.

If you click the Norton or Triumph at the top you have to wait until it refreshes the page. I suspect this preference might get saved if you are logged in.

I agree about the drop down menu. Alphabetical would be ideal.

Please note that we only make these suggestions because we love the site and just want to make it all that much better.
 
As the long suffering webmaster I agree with most of the critizism and I'll suggest to our software gurus to switch Triumph to the bottom if you come in via andover-norton.co.uk and to Triumph at the top if you come in via nvt-motorcycles.com.

As for the quantities cluttering things up I agree especially on the "vintage" drawings when Norton tried to show every part of, say, an engine in one picture. Later (Commandos 1971-on) this was extended to several drawings and is much clearer and has more space.
The problem with integrating quantities in the text is that the text of an item is fixed, so if we say "60.2320 washer (5off)" this will show in every graphic, including all those where the quantity is different.

Alpabetical drop-down meny is ideal for those who grew up in the English language, but gets our foreign customers nowhere. If you don't know the English word for "piston" you'll be searching endlessly. Interesting was when I started the nvt-homepage out of my German shop the "early acceptants", i.e. first customers ordering from foreign countries, were typically those from Roman language regions, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and East-European countries.

A website is a compromise. I'd like to give everybody the website of their dreams but that isn't possible.

As for sports/racing parts you find them on the "Production Racer" pages and also under "Go Faster Goodies". These are my personal hobbyhorse, much critizised by the Andover Team because the call for them decreases rather than increases. 25 years on track with my children- the Andover Norton owners- leave emotional traces that tend to overrule commercial reasoning!
Joe S.
 
ZFD said:
As the long suffering webmaster I agree with most of the critizism and I'll suggest to our software gurus to switch Triumph to the bottom if you come in via andover-norton.co.uk and to Triumph at the top if you come in via nvt-motorcycles.com.

As for the quantities cluttering things up I agree especially on the "vintage" drawings when Norton tried to show every part of, say, an engine in one picture. Later (Commandos 1971-on) this was extended to several drawings and is much clearer and has more space.
The problem with integrating quantities in the text is that the text of an item is fixed, so if we say "60.2320 washer (5off)" this will show in every graphic, including all those where the quantity is different.

Alpabetical drop-down meny is ideal for those who grew up in the English language, but gets our foreign customers nowhere. If you don't know the English word for "piston" you'll be searching endlessly. Interesting was when I started the nvt-homepage out of my German shop the "early acceptants", i.e. first customers ordering from foreign countries, were typically those from Roman language regions, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and East-European countries.

A website is a compromise. I'd like to give everybody the website of their dreams but that isn't possible.

As for sports/racing parts you find them on the "Production Racer" pages and also under "Go Faster Goodies". These are my personal hobbyhorse, much critizised by the Andover Team because the call for them decreases rather than increases. 25 years on track with my children- the Andover Norton owners- leave emotional traces that tend to overrule commercial reasoning!
Joe S.
Click to expand...

Do you think your team might be able to get around to correcting the various parts description errors etc. on the diagrams some of which have obviously been copied from the parts books?
 
LAB,
Tell an old, slightly overworked fogy what to correct and I'll consider it. Problem is when I work on a webpage at 11pm after a full day at work I tend to overlook things. Unforgiveable for sure but it happens.
You'd be surprised how many mistakes I already found and corrected in the old parts lists when I put them on the net. No doubt there is more.
Joe
 
ZFD said:
Whilst we would like to despatch within 24 hours this is currently impossible with our pickers hampered by our in-house rules regarding safety distances and the odd team member off in quarantine.
Add to it we are presently absolutely flooded with orders. Though the new ordering and shipment calculation system briefly accelerated shipping to the 24 hour target with the number of incoming orders and the safety precautions we are slower yet again, sorry!
In any case our primary target is not fast shipping but shipping a quality I want to fit to my own Nortons. No use to get a part very fast that then costs you no end of time to make it fit the bike or that is a total failure altogether, either not fitting or breaking quickly in use due to incorrect manufacture, say a casting where a forging was originally specified with good reason.
Click to expand...
I would just like to say Thank You!

I love the web site, I love that you stayed open - Amal, Wassell, and some others didn't.

Not one of the little nit picks I can think of for the web site are worth mentioning - being able to click the number in the drawing and going directly to the part is one of the best interfaces I've ever seen.

I particularly like that when I've clearly defined an issue with a part or the web site, that it's resolved quickly.
 
ZFD said:
Alpabetical drop-down meny is ideal for those who grew up in the English language, but gets our foreign customers nowhere.
Joe S.
Click to expand...

Only alphabetical for the Model dropdown. No language issue there. Nortons first, then Triumphs. Then sort by year.

Hight resolution part book images would be great. Allow users to zoom in.

Old Britts, although the site design is 20+ years old, is the still one of the easiest to use as it replicates the parts book, which was what many of us were use to. But it's age shows mostly in the eCommerce side with order processing.

Please remember these are just suggestions, not complaints. Every software has a backlog list of enhancements... ask me how I know.
 
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