Best deal on Commando parts

I'm in the midst of a total restoration of an 850, need lot's of parts to include, rims, pipes, headlight shell, brake lever, forks, brake kits, clutch side stand. I don't want to review every site for every part-looking for feedback on the best overall parts store, maybe a discount for large orders?

Hi, welcome! www.oldbritts.com is a GREAT place to do business

You will most likely be shopping here one way or another.
Eleven days from order placed to at the door.


http://www.andover-norton.co.uk/Index.htm

I recommend Andover too. They were great. Shipping to Australia can typically hurt the pocket but I paid aprox $10-15 for a new cam to be shipped which really surprised me.
Old britts is also highly regarded in the states.
I havnt had dealings with them (yet) but no doubt I will one day.

Go to the Tech-Photo subject at top of forum, call each vendor and tell them what you want and what they'd do for you, take notes then pull trigger on the ones with the best deal for their particular bargain-ish set of parts. Don't forget overseas and exchange rates either - especially NZ when exchange rates favor you. I had a pair of new Amals arrive in a week for $160 usd in past. Right now
1 US Dollar equals 1.23 New Zealand Dollar

http://www.britishspares.com/

I've had my best luck price wise with UK dealers. But it's been a few years. If I were you, I'd check a few largish kits and see how it goes. Things change year to year. Even with shipping I found the UK stuff more reasonable, usually by quite a bit. But I do buy stuff from the states too. Don't expect to buy fenders and frames from the UK though, I'm talking about the usual small M/C parts. Hemmings and RGM are easy to deal with, but you have to call Hemmings. I've no experience with AN. Like hobot says, check out the NZ prices too. Walridge has some good prices too and usually good stuff.

Dave
69S

Check out Clubman Racing. I am also doing a total restoration and they seem to have the best prices for most items.

concours said:

Hi, welcome! http://www.oldbritts.com is a GREAT place to do business

Click to expand...

OldBritts offers a 10% discount to repeat customers.
So place a small order, followed by big orders that get the discount.
OB's also gives great service including fast shipping and a web site that is very easy to order from and has a bunch of how-to articles specific to Norton Commando's.
Commando Specialities has good prices on fork tubes and header pipes.

Re postage; :idea:
from the UK to overseas is very expensive on any package over 2 kilos, sometimes it is cheaper to get individual items posted to keep each parcel under 2 kilos.

Fedex has cut shipping rates dramatically on UK to North America shipments. A lot of the UK suppliers are unaware of this and still use Royal mail for everything.
For example Devon rim sent me two alloy rims and spokes, Royal Mail, 75 gbp. Central is sending me the same items for another bike, Fedex, cost is 35 gbp.
I like Buchanans wheels, however the savings on the rims by going to the UK (very nice rims by Akront/ Morad of Spain) was enormous and shipping from Uk via Fedex not much different than shipping from Buchanans in Ca.
The same is generally true for most Norton parts, but really you need to do the easy work of checking prices at several suppliers, unless you want to give money away for the small convenience of only purchasing from a single supplier.

Fedex is very fast as well, Molnar notified me that he had shipped the cases on Monday, the Fedex truck was honking at the driveway gate Wednesday morning, 8am.

Glen

Boy that is a shot to the head , I just dropped 75 bucks on a box to UK. Thanks for
the tip.

RGM is good too.

For the most part I stopped hunting deals and just ordered from old britts. Gret service, never a doubt that it will be great product they process and ship fast. One thing I found that helped, I always ask for USPS shipping from them because I'm on the east coast. Ups was taking 7-8 days to get stuff but USPS is three days from old britts every time. I realized jumping around to multiple sources and paying them all shipping costs just wasn't worth the small savings

Can't say enough good things about Old Britts (http://www.oldbritts.com/ob_main.html). Very good and reputable. However, I do business with Raber's in the SF bay area as well, don't hear as much about them, but really good folks to do business with (http://www.rabers.com.) Also deal with RGM (http://www.rgmmotors.co.uk/categories.aspand) and Norvil (http://www.norvilmotorcycle.co.uk/) in the UK, both good, have had returns, and what not no problem. Bought from Clubman in Connecticut (http://www.clubmanracing.com/nortonexhaust.php) and Walridge in Canada ( http://www.walridge.com/), both fine. There is this place (http://www.britcycle.com/) I have asked to get their price list about 5 times and they ignored me, for whatever the reason, so fine. There are specialist guys like John Bould that do fork upgrades, I got those, he is good to work with. Madrass makes some nice upgrade parts. So does Colorado Norton Works (http://coloradonortonworks.com/). Hi performance parts here (http://www.jsmotorsport.com/.) There is a place in Tucson AZ called AMR, way scaled back but do some upgrades (http://amr-of-tucson.com/) I have not dealt with them but a friend of mine says they do good work. Someone mentioned Andover Norton. Have bought EBAY parts from this place (http://www.baxtercycle.com/) As you look thru posts here you can glean what you need depending on what you are looking for, there are many more places these are the ones I either buy stuff from, or lust after their very cool items I can not justify needing, or can not afford. I am trying to control costs (I am rebuilding a basket case) so I do a bit of comparison shopping, and I also like to patronize all sorts of places never know who will have what and good to have relationships. Make sure you understand shipping details, can be a real cost adder or deal maker. Hope this clickable links get you some good leads. Get a parts book, best way to search most sites. Also, need to know parts formats, some sites like 06-6972, some like 066972 to search. Good luck.

Boy, I think rw covered it. Only thing he missed is http://www.eurojamb.com/ they have a few parts. And Commando Specialties. I think that should cover it.

The best deal is the one you like and are happy with.

Dave
69S

I've also had good experiences with commando specialties, although I'm not a fan of their shipping prices.