I was rebuilding my forks yesterday, replacing everything before fitting my Lansdown dampers (very nice kit BTW) and damaged the circlip which holds the bottom bush on. Called RGM at 10 minutes to 4 last night with a small order and the stuff arrived before lunch today, excellent service! Good to let people know when it goes well rather than just moaning when it goes bad!

I will agree, RGM send fast, so does Mick Hemmings, really good service.
If I want any simple parts for my ride to work Yamahaha!, I have to wait until they come in.
In september, I bought a Francis Barnett & decided to rebuild the motor, it took over 6 weeks for the parts to arrive. I did have intentions to get it going before I started work on the Commando in November. The Fanny B parts are still in the shed for next year.

I've had good luck with RGM also Gino. They are as fast getting parts to me (in Virginia) as suppliers on the West Coast (I wish the shipping wasn't so dear though ) Also, the first Xmas card I got this past year was from RGM, and I hadn't bought that much from them. Nice touch I thought!

Same thing here. I buy my parts from RGM.
Very few problems and so far they have promptly fixed the few things that has went wrong.

/Per

I called in to see Norman White last week, and apart from being very impressed with his enthusiasm and pleasant manner (unlike some I could mention.....but wont. You know the person I'm alluding to ) he has machined down my rear sprocket to accept a 5/8" X 1/4" chain, repared the crack in my cylinder head by alloy welding and made and machined in a top hat locating spacer into the drive side crankcase to locate the oil seal in my MK3 crankcases and posted them all back to me, all work done in one week.

Not only that, but I recieved the parts today on the basis of "I don't know what the postage will be, so I will send a bill for the work/ parts (with the parts), and send me the payment when you've received them." This is a bit of good old fashined trust. A cheque is now on it's way.

I also have to agree with the thumbs up for Mick Hemmings and RGM.

Ditto. Ordered my PW3 from Mick and arrived next day with reasonable carrier charge. Didn't need it that quick but it let me do some clearance grinding on the cases before the tappets get back from surfacing at RGM. Still trying to figure out what valve springs I have and tying myself in knots measuring valve train assy.

Hi Keith,

Originally it was suggested that you could use standard springs shimmed to 60thou without any issues......but I think you would need to be sure they were genuine standard springs. When I got my first PW3 cam (one of the first batch made) I used new standard springs, properly shimmed, and they all broke within 100 miles! Since then I use Mick Hemmings springs and shim them to .060 and I've never had a problem.

Cheers

John

John
Thanks for that. Yes I've installed my old Fred Barlow supplied springs (9000 miles) which were fine with the 2S which on the inlet side is I guess a touch harder on the valvetrain than the PW3? Haven't got tappets back yet but have been messing with measuring assemblies for any issues with retainers hitting guides and inlet seals etc. Seem to have bags of clearance. Also measured spring, seat and retainers off the head but compressed to as installed dimensions. Until tappets are in I can't do it properly. Cheers.

My PW3 is running fine with standard springs with no shimming. I did check the clearance & was o/k.
I think Mick Hemmings is only opening 4 days a week now, Monday to Thursday.

I'll be the fly in the ointment, have always had a good run with RGM on Commando parts but recently bought a stand for my 16H from them and it was rubbish - as in it is not even close to fitting on the bike without spending more money on grinding, cutting, welding etc than the part cost.
They have responded to my polite email with yes we weren't happy with that supplier, they won't be used again - but had no qualms in taking my money for a part the barest of quality checks should have rejected.

ntst8 wrote:I'll be the fly in the ointment, have always had a good run with RGM on Commando parts but recently bought a stand for my 16H from them and it was rubbish - as in it is not even close to fitting on the bike without spending more money on grinding, cutting, welding etc than the part cost.
They have responded to my polite email with yes we weren't happy with that supplier, they won't be used again - but had no qualms in taking my money for a part the barest of quality checks should have rejected.

You think they have time to check every part?

They've already said they would using that supplier again. Did you say you were going to send the part back? No matter how much the modifications cost you, it'll still be cheaper than make a part for a 75 year old bike from scratch.

swooshdave wrote:You think they have time to check every part

WHY NOT at least every new batch should have a percentage check on it, they want to sell every item don't they

swooshdave wrote:Did you say you were going to send the part back? No matter how much the modifications cost you, it'll still be cheaper than make a part for a 75 year old bike from scratch.

YOU can only send parts back to the other side of the world so many times at your cost before the frieght is more than the item

splatt wrote:

swooshdave wrote:You think they have time to check every part

WHY NOT at least every new batch should have a percentage check on it, they want to sell every item don't they

Unfortunately, QC is only as good as the person checking.

It just that I don't expect the parts being made today to fit exactly every time. There are just too many variables (slight changes during the model run, variances on the original assembly line, quality of current parts suppliers who may or may not have the original specifications and I can go on). On top of that if the parts are perfect we'd complain that they cost too much and won't buy them.

I'm sympathetic, but only to a certain point.

have been thinking it wasn't my smartest move posting negative comments in what started out as a positive thread, - put it down to my increasing age and grumpiness.

I've spent obscene amounts of money with RGM recently, and they've been very good.

Yes, I do have their T-shirt! So does my Daughter, and she's very proud of it

However, if a part doesn't fit and they've acknowledged that their supplier wasn't delivering the goods to an acceptable standard, then you've got every right to expect some recourse, whatever that may be. If they've flat refused to do anything about it that's another issue.
Maybe there's more dialogue to be had?

My recent experiences of British bike spares has been far more positive than 20+ years ago when I was frequently putting the old stuff back on because it was still better than the new replacement

Trying to associate modern levels of customer expectation against 'traditional' British spares support is always going to be challenging IMHO, especially when the US consumer model is the benchmark