Naked News would not be possible without the support of our generous sponsors:
Pinching Pennies With Dougz
As many of you on the board know, I am a cheap mofo...if I can find a cheaper, better way to do something, I certainly will. Whether its buying parts, or fabricating things...I try to achieve the goal, with as little money put out as possible....who wouldn't.
case in point...I have put together three GSXR USD front ends for all under $250...that is $250 per set..that is for tubes, triples, and clip ons.....one set was with axle too.
Here are some tips to go about things like that:
1. Shop each part around...no need to buy everything at once, or from one place. A lot of times there are deals on Ebay, where one of two fork tubes is damaged...if the price is right..buy anyway...so long as you can find two good sets that will have a left and right good tube....you are good to go.
2. Along with tip 1...use many different sources to get parts...as well as all of the boards I am on, I also like to use:
These sites all have great deals to be had...you just have to find them and/or be in the right place at the right time.
As far as buying new parts....I have many different
sites whose emails I get..gets to be a pain in the ass sorting through many junk emails....but deals can be had....clearance sections, etc. You can get fighter favorites....dirty bars and risers...from many catalog MX places at year end sales..I have gotten $80 Tag bars for $45 shipped and MX style risers for $30.
3. Use Bikebandit.com and Ronayers.com like a valuable resource.....cause they are. I will spend hours looking up and cross referencing part numbers and applications. I know Suzuki does it, but probably all the big four Jap companies do it....even if the part numbers do not match up...many parts are still interchangable. A lot of it is also guess and check too. Sometimes a little modding is required.
For example....as many of you know, my fighter is gonna be a double duty track bike. I do not wanna track it with all of the parts, like the drilled top triple and dirty bars....so I got some used woodcraft clips ons and needed a spare top triple. I had an 03 gsxr 1000 set of triples on the fighter..with 750 USD forks. I could not find a good deal on an 03-04 top triple...but I was able to on an 02. Now I already knew that the 01-04 gsxr 1000 triples all had the same fork tube offset at 207 mm......and yet the 01-02 had a different part number from the 03-04...what could it be. I went ahead and ordered/bought it anyway. Turns out the difference is the stem shaft thickness....the top triple from an 01-02 was about 25 mm...and the 03-04 went to a 29 mm...no problem....brought it into the shop and bored it out to 29 mm. Boom....now I have a perfectly usable spare triple that I got for about $20, and had to put 5 minutes worth of work into.
4. If you can use something from an industrial catalog....like http://www.mcmaster.com/ , like bolts....go for it......why bother to get a stock bolt if you can find something else that will work. I will give ya the fact that you have to be able to figure out what the thread and pitch is..which is really not all that hard...even if you do not have thread gauges...you can do the guess and check method at the local hardware store. Go in with your bolt(s), and go to their hardware section..usually in the back..and start seeing what nut turns smoothly onto that bolt. Sooner or or later, chances are you'll find it.
A prime example of this is for a front brake lever bolt I needed. It was for an RC51 front brake master that I am changing to....a shoulder bolt, 8 mm shoulder...20 mm long...10 mm length at the bottom with an M6 X1.0 thread. Granted the bolt was not expensive $3.55....but pay shipping for one bolt or have to deal with the local parts asshat at my local Honda dealer..I opted to figure it out myself. ( I like the parts guy my my local Zuki dealer). I order a bolt from MCM....and it worked perfectly. I need to grind the head down a little from 13 mm to 11 mm...but nothing throwing it in a drill and holding against the metal file in the vice could not handle.
5. Lastly...treat people with respect, and honesty....and they will back to you. This works great for getting deals on parts. This is obviously more for interacting with people on boards and online..I guess to some stores as well.
I have gotten some parts from people for a good bit less than people were asking. Have had people want say $100 for what ever the part is......many of those times...I did not have that much in my paypal...I'd be honest.. I'll tell them that.."Look, I only have $75...but can pay you right away"....many sellers got for that..the reason they are selling the stuff is to get some money back out of it...many opt for a quick sale rather than a full asking price sale. This does not always work. I did have once case where I was trying to buy a spare swingarm for my SV1K for less than this guys asking price of $75, plus shipping. He would just not budge and was being an asshat...even after I had told him his prices were high and I could get normal swingers all day long for $40. He said go ahead...so I did...I bought one for $24.99 shipped off ebay....just to throw back in his face. He put out no respect, so that is what he got back.
Along the lines of what I talking about above..respect..if you get deals from people..make sure you take care of them when the time comes. I have had a couple people hook me up pretty well, so I have in turn made them great deals on some parts as well.
