There was a time that I would walk into GN Gonzales in Baton Rouge and need a part for my 1975 Honda CB550K, and the parts guy would walk to the back, find NOS parts, and bring them back up to the counter and charge whatever price that was in the computer. Some prices were old and outdated. Some were made up prices... but in many cases, I made out pretty good.
The staff was knowledgeable. The wait for the old parts would be quite a while (because they were digging pretty deep into their parts bins). The dealership has been in Baton Rouge since 1936. Nobody looked at me crazy or stupid when I asked for parts for a 75 550.
It was inevitable that I would eventually lose the seat key. I remembered that GN had boxes and boxes of old keys for old motorcycles, so I gave them a call. They wanted to know the number of the ignition. I told them the ignition has been changed. I gave them the number from the seat lock, and he said it didn't match anything. I was surprised. I told him that years ago I saw boxes and boxes of old keys and that my seat lock would match one of those keys. He explained that ALL of the vintage parts was auctioned 3 years ago.
So there's that. There goes that resource for NOS parts... and apparently with it, service and staff that are knowledgeable about vintage bikes and parts.
/endrant
