A little update on the spokes
My father which is a metallurgical engineer with 40 years experience had a look at two of the broken spokes and had a few comments. He is suggesting it is a manufacturing defect with either bad raw materials or bad manufacturing process. He said that the raw materials may have been too hard to work properly and during the heading or bending the steel has developed cracks that are propagating outward through the stress of use until it fractures. He also commented it could have to do with stress relieving / annealing or hardening after the spoke is shaped.
On my wheels I may replace the two broken spokes to get by for a couple weeks but I don't intend to keep using them for very long. I have two options:
1. Restore the set of Lesters I bought over the winter and put them into service, they need modded for the dual disk speedo drive, bearings, paint and polishing...
2. Rebuild the existing spoked wheels with better quality spokes. People have suggested Stainless i assume they are recommending Buchanan's as they are the only manufacture making stainless spokes or I would also consider regular plated steel spokes from a reputable manufacture in the States or Japan, none of this Taiwan or China crap
Chris,
I have posted about these guys before and you may have missed it under the cam chain tensioner issues. I didn't have an issue with this item but responded to the seeming failures and subsequent recall of said item.
I am a local ON guy and have had a number of dealings with both these companies. I refuse to buy anything else from them, as I find the quality of a large part of their goods are price driven not quality driven.
I have had issues with tools, fork seals and wrong engine seals and frankly found they are not very knowledgable on the parts they sell.
No phone, no real tech support and US dollar purchases plus HST and shipping in US dollars equals no business from me!
Oh I saw, read, panic'd, had a "wanna put a rag in the tank filler and light it moment" then checked my E-receipts and purchase history on those cam chain tensioners... Luckily i did not buy mine for them!
In Ontario and maybe else where, these guys have a paper catalog any powersports dealer can order out of here they are "MC distributing" I have been to there building on a trip through Stratford, I thought I would pick up a few things and save some shipping since i was there anyways. They wouldn't have any of it and refused to sell anything this way. they refered me to there website. Now about the website there are 3 i know of
www.vintagecb750.comwww.partsnmore.comwww.xs650direct.com if you look they all have the same address:
79 Linton Ave
Stratford, ON N5A 2S3
Canada
Now im not gonna directly throw them under the bus. The reason being is they aren't manufacturing these parts they are merely distributing them. I would hope they pay more attention to what they are selling and listen to customer complaints and input. On that thought i can't comment as I donno there inter company workings.
