Side stand for a Plunger A10

[Simon59]

So I'll keep on looking for assembly #67-4902 at a 'reasonable' price.

The other day I saw an original centre and side stand (the wrong side stand for an A10 plunger) on eBay for £500! Crazy.

[Sluggo]

Dead on there. I guess we've all heard the stories about snapping repro kick-starts and shade tree girder fork copies.
[/quote]

Okay, fair enough, Do you folks actually have some verifiable actual examples of failed parts?  I mean photos, names, dates, real world examples.   If they are out there, it should be easy to document.

"On a night before Xmas, 2018 Simon Tuftwaggle skinned his knee and dropped his Goldie due to a poor quality pattern part, here is a link to his post and a photo of the broken part"

Or is this just repeating often told tales of woe with no substance?  If its as common as suggested might want to start a thread with " Poor quality pattern parts that failed" with credible 1st person reports and documentation of the part.  IE: Snapped in half, Bent, Defective weld, Metallurgy deficiency, wrong material, didnt fit, backwards, etc etc.  As well as vendor and source.   

[Rex]

If you want date times and photo's before you believe anything about how bad Far Eastern pattern parts can be, then I guess you're out of luck, but I vouch for a snapped BSA B44 (or B50) where the pattern kick-start snapped (days after purchase) just under the "foot bit" leaving a horrendously sharp end.
I can also personally attest that pattern girder forks from India can be/are so bad that they should be marked "For display only". Instead of the correct and traditional tube and lug construction the two legs have been used to make a sand mould and some molten recycled scrap iron poured in.
So bad even the grease nipples were cast in situ in the repro, and under the lower yoke there was evidence of rough fettling using a 12" bastard file. The spindles were a slack fit and the nuts and threads were cheap metric items.
The forks and the k/s both came from Kempton.
Feel free to disbelieve if you wish, but the p*ss-poor quality of this sh*t is why original bent and worn parts command such high prices now.

[Sluggo]

okay thats 2 examples, It would be helpful to actually start a thread documenting these items. Including the vendor.

But, there are decent quality parts that many people are happy with as well,  So lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater.  I have purchased parts and was disappointed, But I also purchased parts I was exceedingly happy with.

That includes parts made by folks in the UK as well.  Casting a wide net that "All xxxxxx parts are rubbish" is about as useless as "All white people are..." or "All black people are....."

I am looking at a Ariel Red Hunter right now missing many parts, The leading gurus of the Ariel club have been pointing out viable parts sources and includes some parts made in India.
My neighbor, who is from Yorkshire, grew up in the apprentice trade and now runs a machine shop making aerospace components is what by any stretch is an expert on metallurgy, manufacturing and English motorbikes and cars.  He has purchased a number of parts from India and Asia and rejects about 10% but marvels at the acceptable quality and low costs for what he has used.

I know most of the major US parts dealers, I am well aware of their challenges in importing and supplying the Vintage bike trade and speak to them often.  We could rehash that, but would be far more useful to start a thread with actual components, vendor, and defect.

[muskrat]

G'day Sluggo.
We must first give the vendor a chance to rectify a problem before pulling their name through the mud. Even they get dudded with inferior parts from time to time.
I bought a k/s pinion from a local supplier. It didn't fit. So I spoke to him about it. He then contacted his supplier who said "Ah yes, we supply a new bush to fit." I made my own but in a few weeks I had two new bush's in the post box.
Cheers

[Sluggo]

" We must first give the vendor a chance to rectify a problem before pulling their name through the mud. Even they get dudded with inferior parts from time to time."

True and fair enough.  But its tiring to hear "All parts from xxxx are rubbish"  so, useful to show where things are amiss and such.

Fuel tanks, from well known UK suppliers, to far eastern suppliers are a prime example.  I have a tank from a Scottish aluminum tank shop, and its quite nice. However I have seen credible accounts of very poor service from that very same vendor.
Same with some Indian made tanks,  And some useful reports on Norton forums for some of the tanks ordered from total junk to quite a nice product. Several people detailed the issues they had with fit and in some cases rework, No need for slander, attacks or racist rants, I still think with fair guidelines it can be a useful tool.