Maybe getting to old and grumpy for this gig!

20 years ago I got out of the street rod seen because the aftermarket parts were less than great quality. Big name suppliers wouldn't stand by their products. You might have seen it in the background of some of my pics. It needs a new cam and a $250 upgrade to the Milodon oil system!

This brings me to my latest rant. This is NOT aimed to anyone on this forum!

I have been looking for a center stand for my Bitza 500. So I joined a Norton single forum, placed an add and received a answer from a "major" contributor. I stated I did not want India repro, is it original, and he said it was. $250 + and it was on the way. I get it unpacked and it looked like a India repro, sounded like India repro and didn't fit like India repro. I can make it work but question it's strength due to poor casting. I questioned the seller and he offered to send me another, but stated all of them were the same..

So here is a "major" contributor not knowing original from India repro! What kind of information is he putting out .

I joined a Moto Guzzi forum and they can't even find my Sport serial number in their system!

All this makes me appreciate this forum all the more! A lot of knowledge. A lot of friendly advice and a little friendly agitation. The all other forums fail to compare!

Thanks to all!

That was me yesterday afternoon.

mean gene said:

20 years ago I got out of the street rod seen because the aftermarket parts were less than great quality. Big name suppliers wouldn't stand by their products. You might have seen it in the background of some of my pics. It needs a new cam and a $250 upgrade to the Milodon oil system!

This brings me to my latest rant. This is NOT aimed to anyone on this forum!

I have been looking for a center stand for my Bitza 500. So I joined a Norton single forum, placed an add and received a answer from a "major" contributor. I stated I did not want India repro, is it original, and he said it was. $250 + and it was on the way. I get it unpacked and it looked like a India repro, sounded like India repro and didn't fit like India repro. I can make it work but question it's strength due to poor casting. I questioned the seller and he offered to send me another, but stated all of them were the same..

So here is a "major" contributor not knowing original from India repro! What kind of information is he putting out .

I joined a Moto Guzzi forum and they can't even find my Sport serial number in their system!

All this makes me appreciate this forum all the more! A lot of knowledge. A lot of friendly advice and a little friendly agitation. The all other forums fail to compare!

Thanks to all!

Click to expand...

I hear you!

I hear you in terms of forums. I look-in on others from time to time, as I do on Face Ache, when I’m wanting info on other bikes etc. But it’s clear that the dross to useful ratio is way out on many other forums. Hence this is my only regular one.

And I hear you about repro parts from ‘specialists’. I did say some years ago that this was inevitable. As these repro parts fill up inventories around the world they start becoming ‘normal’ and even NOS, which folk take to mean factory stock, but it ain’t. Also these parts start to appear as used spares, again folk often think they’re buying genuine when they’re not.

This is why I often get on my soap box about supporting the good guys / suppliers, not only will you get better parts, but you’ll help keep them in business and providing better parts for the future.

If we all buy the cheap badly fitting crap, then that will be all there is to buy !

Even good suppliers get caught out sometimes, I remember a long time ago I had to replace my rear sprocket/brake, brought from my local British bike shop who always have full Norton stock and got a new sprocket/drum but it wasn't steel but cast iron so ended up on the bike, was all good after about 10 years on the bike when it failed big time while out lucky wasn't far from home and limped home, the circlip mount where it holds the wheel bearings in the outer edge broke all the way around with only about 20mm left and everything that it held in place wasn't in place.
So ordered a new steel one from RGM but while waiting for it to come to Aus I took the old one to work put on the lathe and cut a deeper circlip groove and a 2 size bigger circlip, did the job perfect and after about 14+ years its still on the Norton and the new steel one is still sitting under the bench, took 5 mins to set up on the lathe and using an internal boring bar took two cuts and about 5 mins of work and a 2x $1 oversize circlips ( one 40mm and the other 42mm, the stock size was 38mm, ended up using the 42mm circlip).
The outer casting was very brittle where it broke, I did a thread on this when it happened with pics and how I fixed it.

Ashley

concours said:

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To be fair, the cloud was at fault - the #%$##!!!

ashman said:

Even good suppliers get caught out sometimes, I remember a long time ago I had to replace my rear sprocket/brake, brought from my local British bike shop who always have full Norton stock and got a new sprocket/drum but it wasn't steel but cast iron so ended up on the bike, was all good after about 10 years on the bike when it failed big time while out lucky wasn't far from home and limped home, the circlip mount where it holds the wheel bearings in the outer edge broke all the way around with only about 20mm left and everything that it held in place wasn't in place.
So ordered a new steel one from RGM but while waiting for it to come to Aus I took the old one to work put on the lathe and cut a deeper circlip groove and a 2 size bigger circlip, did the job perfect and after about 14+ years its still on the Norton and the new steel one is still sitting under the bench, took 5 mins to set up on the lathe and using an internal boring bar took two cuts and about 5 mins of work and a 2x $1 oversize circlips ( one 40mm and the other 42mm, the stock size was 38mm, ended up using the 42mm circlip).
The outer casting was very brittle where it broke, I did a thread on this when it happened with pics and how I fixed it.

Ashley

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Of course Ashley. But it’s an odds game and buying from known / proven good suppliers definitely reduces the odds of buying shit !

ashman said:

...got a new sprocket/drum but it wasn't steel but cast iron so ended up on the bike, was all good after about 10 years on the bike when it failed big time while out lucky wasn't far from home and limped home, the circlip mount where it holds the wheel bearings in the outer edge broke all the way around with only about 20mm left and everything that it held in place wasn't in place.

Click to expand...

I had one do that, from that mother of all welded-together, U-bolted, caked-red-dirt chopper that I rescued.

I thought they were all cast iron?

concours said:

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I’m young enough to know that’s not me…

And old enough to see it’s starting to happen !!

If it’s the Norton Bitsa I could measure my center stand and send you dimensioned drawings/ card board templates if you wanted to
weld one up - seems doable for a competent welder ( and that ain’t me ) LMK .

Ashley you forgot to factor in the cost of the machine tools and the fact that you could do it on your lunch hour. Today you would get canned for using company tools for personal work and by the time you programmed the CNC machine the new drum would have arrived from RGM! :-O

I could get one cut out with a plasma torch but, wouldn't be the same!

What frame is it?

Early cradle frame. 7 1/2 inches between the attaching bolts

mean gene said:

20 years ago I got out of the street rod seen because the aftermarket parts were less than great quality. Big name suppliers wouldn't stand by their products. You might have seen it in the background of some of my pics. It needs a new cam and a $250 upgrade to the Milodon oil system!

This brings me to my latest rant. This is NOT aimed to anyone on this forum!

I have been looking for a center stand for my Bitza 500. So I joined a Norton single forum, placed an add and received a answer from a "major" contributor. I stated I did not want India repro, is it original, and he said it was. $250 + and it was on the way. I get it unpacked and it looked like a India repro, sounded like India repro and didn't fit like India repro. I can make it work but question it's strength due to poor casting. I questioned the seller and he offered to send me another, but stated all of them were the same..

So here is a "major" contributor not knowing original from India repro! What kind of information is he putting out .

I joined a Moto Guzzi forum and they can't even find my Sport serial number in their system!

All this makes me appreciate this forum all the more! A lot of knowledge. A lot of friendly advice and a little friendly agitation. The all other forums fail to compare!

Thanks to all!

Click to expand...

Yep I bought a side stand for a 49 Matchless g80 and when I bolted it on when it was up it was at 30 degrees under the frame and when it was down the foot was turned up at 45 degrees made in India ! , so I made my own S/Steel one .

Onder said:

Ashley you forgot to factor in the cost of the machine tools and the fact that you could do it on your lunch hour. Today you would get canned for using company tools for personal work and by the time you programmed the CNC machine the new drum would have arrived from RGM! :-O

Click to expand...

Onder I was lucky I was a T/A to the maintenance Fitters at a TEC College (TAFE) and we did jobs for the whole college and for classes so repairing the drum/sprocket if any bosses asked was a repair job for the motorcycle section/class, as long as our daily work wasn't affected we got away with doing our own jobs and really only took 10 minutes to set up on the lathe and 2 internal cuts with a boring bar, so not a big deal.
Even the bosses gave us personal work for us to repair for them so really it worked both ways, the bosses turned a blind eye on things as long as our work jobs were done and of course what they don't know won't hurt them and being a GOVT employee in the 31 years working there I seen a lot of things from high up that was criminal/dishonest acts and that was from the head people in charge of running the place.
The sprocket/drum failed Saturday, ordered a new one that night from RGM and Monday had the old sprocket fixed and back on the bike that night riding to work the next day (my Norton was an everyday rider then) the new sprocket/drum turned up in Australia 2 weeks later, so that would have been 2 weeks without a bike to get around on as the wife had the car.
As well being the T/A to maintenance Fitters it was my daily job to make sure all the machinery in the engineering workshops to be inspected/operational and ready for classes everyday.

Ashley

You were in the right place at the right time and you had the chops to do the job. My point was that most of us don't have these benefits and if we did it is unlikely the current work environment would allow it. How things have changed and not necessarily for the better. :-(