Sometimes you do get what you pay for!

marshg246

VIP MEMBER
Joined
Jul 12, 2015
Messages
3,998
Country flag
I order a lot from AN. It is truly rare when something has any problem and except for one part - all have been usable. I've given feedback a few times and it was clearly appreciated. The one bad part was pulled from stock, and I was refunded. In nutshell, I'm very happy with AN and I even look there for Triumph parts now.

I'm finishing two bike and need seats for both. I ordered 06.1677 which is a Roadster seat, ribbed, chrome stripe and pillon strap. It arrived today. It looks perfect, the construction is perfect, it has the six rubber buttons installed, and most importantly, it fits perfectly. Delivered in 3 days, it was $282.89.

That seemed like a lot to me because before COVID I was buying nice (not perfect), UK Made Roadster seats for about $150 delivered. But when you consider that the only other seats, I could find in stock were from The Bonneville Shop at $419.95 delivered the AN price is good. Unfortunately, AN only stocks them with Gold lettering on the back and I need one with Silver - The Bonneville Shop has them so we'll see what quality you get for WAY more money.

For the purists, the number of ribs in the top is the same at AN and The Bonneville Shop - 11 and the are not perforated (ventilated). I have five supposedly OEM Roaster seats - one with 15 ribs and the ribs are perforated and four with 16 ribs, not perforated - so, I'm not sure what is "correct" in that regard.
 
I order a lot from AN. It is truly rare when something has any problem and except for one part - all have been usable. I've given feedback a few times and it was clearly appreciated. The one bad part was pulled from stock, and I was refunded. In nutshell, I'm very happy with AN and I even look there for Triumph parts now.

I'm finishing two bike and need seats for both. I ordered 06.1677 which is a Roadster seat, ribbed, chrome stripe and pillon strap. It arrived today. It looks perfect, the construction is perfect, it has the six rubber buttons installed, and most importantly, it fits perfectly. Delivered in 3 days, it was $282.89.

That seemed like a lot to me because before COVID I was buying nice (not perfect), UK Made Roadster seats for about $150 delivered. But when you consider that the only other seats, I could find in stock were from The Bonneville Shop at $419.95 delivered the AN price is good. Unfortunately, AN only stocks them with Gold lettering on the back and I need one with Silver - The Bonneville Shop has them so we'll see what quality you get for WAY more money.

For the purists, the number of ribs in the top is the same at AN and The Bonneville Shop - 11 and the are not perforated (ventilated). I have five supposedly OEM Roaster seats - one with 15 ribs and the ribs are perforated and four with 16 ribs, not perforated - so, I'm not sure what is "correct" in that regard.
So, the seat from The Bonneville Shop arrived today in a box with some packing peanuts. Not enough protection - the mounting brackets were quite bent. At first glance the seat looks as nice as the one from AN and it is well assembled. The seat pan paint job is not nearly as nice, but it is acceptable. It did not come with the rubber buttons. Even after straightening from shipping damage, the mounting brackets were a little too close together. It took a lot of re-forming to get the seat on at all and then more to get the shape right for the seat knobs. In all, the seat is fine and looks good installed - I just wish it was better for over $100 more than the AN seats.
 
My repro seat, sourced from Walridge in ONT, came in a box stamped Wassell of Staffordshire UK I believe. Very happy with it and it ran me about $200 five yrs ago.
 
My repro seat, sourced from Walridge in ONT, came in a box stamped Wassell of Staffordshire UK I believe. Very happy with it and it ran me about $200 five yrs ago.
And as a Wassell dealer I was paying much less than that. The seats were quite good, about like the one I got from The Bonneville Shop. They haven't been able to get seats for over a year, neither can JRC Engineering.

I'm guessing that COVID ran many out of business - by now you would think the supply chain problems are gone but they are not. I have a standing order for EMGO side panels and for over 9 months, JRC has been being told "next month". That's why I've started having Fiberglass ones made and why when JRC finally got EMGO tanks back in stock I bought 6.
 
Seat update. I receive a good-sized order from AN Friday that included two seats. The seats are great, but I took one in the dark place.

When people ask me to get them things they usually want to know at least close to what it will cost. I never know exactly due to the exchange rate and shipping. However I've been doing it long enough that can apply a factor to the GBP price and come pretty close to the delivered USD price which is what I charge forum members - I generally make less than 1% on AN parts. On larger AN orders that factor is between 1.4 and 1.6 depending on what the exchange rate is doing. It would have come out at 1.41 on this order had I not been blindsided on the seats. My entire order weighed just under 17kg. But seats are charged at 17kg each so I had to pay like the order was over 43kg. This is due to "volumetric pricing" I'm told. For some reason, fenders and other large items do not have the problem.

So, going forward, no more AN seats for people unless they understand that with the shipping the cost way too much!

Most know that I support AN. But I sure hope Wassel gets seats soon. They cost 25% as much, orders arrive every time in under 48 hours, there is NEVER a customs issue, and shipping costs less!
 
Back
Top