Topic: David Silver Spares Parts Trip Across America

[CrankyOldGuy]

David Silver is currently on a cross America trip visiting Honda dealers in the search of old parts.  It is interesting to follow the trip on Facebook.

Below is an excerpt from one of his posts.  It is surprising to learn that America Honda is purchasing old parts.  I wonder where the parts actually end up.

Harry O.


"This was one of the first US dealerships, starting with Honda in 1960. American Honda began in 1959.The dealership is now fully closed and ceased with Honda around 4 years ago. Fortunately for old US dealers (not so good for owners of old Honda's and us) American Honda will take back all parts in their original packing for current day refund pricing. So the dealer paid pennies for the parts in the 1960's and get's back current dealer cost. We don't know the fate of the millions of old parts that have been returned. Many of this dealers parts didn't get returned because the parts were out of their packets or packaging torn , so we agreed to buy the remainder. This was a large amount of parts which took 3 of us 18 hours to pack and load, achieved in the first evening till 10:30pm and the following day. I won't be able to answer questions as to what is exactly in there, but it's mostly from the 60's-80's."

[ekpent]

Vic World did a pretty good job also of cleaning out dealerships back in the day of all their early NOS K0 goodies.
  I met a guy this fall who was doing a buy out at an old closed Honda shop also and he mentioned Honda was buying back most of the NOS. He also mentioned that Honda does not like that stuff hitting E-bay.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Eff 'em, if they are too short-sighted to not provide parts for these bikes they can take a long walk off a short pier for all I care.
Ebay keeps my bikes running with parts when Honda says 'tough turds'.

[faux fiddy]

Oh great, a monopoly.

[Prospect]

I can't understand why honda doesn't want the parts hitting ebay.  I guess they want us to buy new bikes instead of fixing the old stuff.  It really saddens me becasuse Soichiro Honda said that Honda would produce parts for every bike forever.  That all changed when he died. 

[faux fiddy]

I know Oklahoma Honda Suzuki has the keys, order one up with the number NOS. But don't tell anybody.

[vfourfreak]

I have it on good authority that at times Honda dealers have scrapped NOS parts rather than keep them on the shelves or even offloading  them in bulk. I think there is some strange policy regarding keping old bikes on the road.

Kev

[HondanutRider]

I can't understand why honda doesn't want the parts hitting ebay.  I guess they want us to buy new bikes instead of fixing the old stuff.  It really saddens me becasuse Soichiro Honda said that Honda would produce parts for every bike forever.  That all changed when he died.

Actually, it was Soichiro's dictate that each Honda organization in a worldwide marketing area had to stock all the parts for every model EVER sold in their market area.  He wanted to ensure that his customers would always be able to repair and keep their Honda's running....but then he died.

[grcamna2]

I can't understand why honda doesn't want the parts hitting ebay.  I guess they want us to buy new bikes instead of fixing the old stuff.  It really saddens me becasuse Soichiro Honda said that Honda would produce parts for every bike forever.  That all changed when he died.

Actually, it was Soichiro's dictate that each Honda organization in a worldwide marketing area had to stock all the parts for every model EVER sold in their market area.  He wanted to ensure that his customers would always be able to repair and keep their Honda's running....but then he died.

I wish some of Soichiro's family had a similar LOVE for the older models and keeping'em alive forever,that should have been a stipulation in his will or something.

[Raul CB750K1]

When you are a multi-million motorcycle factory you can't think about the things you make with your heart but with your head. The price of storing parts for decades is outrageous, far bigger than the part price whatever it may be. In fact Honda shouldn't even have to had any warehouse for parts; if they are applying the "Just in time" policy the japanese factories are so good at, they would just order parts from their manufacturers as soon as they receive an order.

Those dealers who bought the parts 40 years ago and will have them re-bought by Honda had lost lots of money. They paid market price back then and are getting market price today. The only thing they have been able to achieve is to keep up with the cost of living. But had they invested the money in other thing, they would have much more money today. Not to speak about the cost of having and maintaining a big warehouse, and the opportunity cost.


You have to change your mind: these old bikes, even when we love them, are just old pieces of machinery. Industry can build far better bikes today, at far less cost. That is an improvement. Keeping old bikes on the road is not reasonable from an economic point of view. Thanks God we still have quite a few spare parts around. Let's enjoy our bikes while spares last!


Can you imagine Kodak re-buying all their photo films? It is all gone now, its time went by such as typewriters, walkmans and tube tv.

[HondanutRider]

Well, kudos to David Silver for collecting those old parts and making them available worldwide.

Back in the 1980's I went to the Honda dealer to inquire about getting a part for my 1962 Super Hawk.  I was pleasantly surprised when told that they could get it and when they explained the "Honda" policy.  I resolved to continue buying Honda products as a loyal customer, proud to hear how they stood behind their products.  Year's later (about 2005) I was told by an acquaintance how he had witnessed the supervised crushing and destruction of all Honda Canada's old stock...a tax write-off by the accountants - Soichiro had died.

Call me old fashioned.  I currently drive a Ford...not a Honda.  (BTW I believe you can buy every part new for the Ford model A, maybe also the model T - just not from a Ford dealer. )