Bad attitude from XS650 Direct

renovator

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Hi,
I have been extensively refurbishing my 1980 xs650 for the past 2 years.
put more than $5,000 of parts on it. Passion work cost too much..
Ordered a S__ load of parts from XS650 Direct. They have been good and the parts were, all in all, as I had expected.
But recently I ordered rubber foot rests ($20 + $14 freight) from them. They came in defective: the rubber is not properly form on the steel frame of the pegs. It Ok, probably came from China and it was a bad batch. I understand.
The issue is that to return the parts, they do not want to stomach the freight cost.
I did pay for the freight of all the goddam parts I have ordered.
Hell, I do not have to agree. Just pay. And I did.
Trying to get the defective parts back to them COD: No dice!
Their response was: 'As the item does work for your bike and is not defective.... it will work as designed for your bike, you are worrying about look only we can't pay return postage on this'
Amazingly enough, yes, I buy the parts for looks. If not , I would keep the old ones!
We all do.

So for all you dreamers out there watch out: if they send you what you expected, Great! Your blessed.
But if it is defective, well, tough luck, I guess you have to live with it.
Not the best attitude from somebody I have feed my money for a while.
Will go to MikeXS in the states on my next trip.
Tough to buy Canadian..
 

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Maybe dip the ends in tool dip? Or plastidip spray?
So....if you order a wind sheild from them, and it comes to u scratched, would u be satisfied if they said it still sheilds you from the wind, correct? Dont give up
 
I think that's just rubber "flash" from the molding process. You could probably trim it off around the edge of the metal part with a sharp knife. They may all be like that. That being said, they aren't very good replacements. They wear quickly. My buddy got them from Mike's and they were worn down in about 2 seasons. They showed more wear than my 35+ year old originals, lol.
 
Restoring old motorcycles is an expensive hobby. That's just a fact of life. Probably cheaper in the long run to just have bought a new bike.

Mikesxs in the USA or XS650 Direct in Canada................it does not matter, they are both the same. Most of their parts are made in China/Taiwan, to a low price point, and as a result are generally of sub standard quality. In addition I have found that the dimensions of many parts are so far off as to be unusable.

The parts they sell are no where near the quality of the original Japanese made parts. Of course if the original Japanese parts were still available they would cost considerably more. Think of XS650 Direct and Mikesxs as the Walmart of motorcycle parts. You don't pay high prices, but you don't get high quality either.

So, no you did not get a bad batch. The parts you received are just the same low quality parts that they sell everyday. The "bad batch" excuse is commonly used by sellers of inferior quality chinese parts.

Believe it or not, you can still buy some Yamaha OEM parts. However, the list is very small. When I need parts...............Yamaha OEM is always my first choice. XS650 Direct is always my very last choice.

Here is just one example:

I made the dumb mistake of buying XS650 Direct's, camshaft "Special triple lip oil seals". They lasted one season, before they started to leak oil. Not only is the rubber of poor quality, but the 7 mm width is too wide for the space available.

I then ordered Yamaha OEM part # 93101-25044-00 ( S-25-40-6) from www.boats.net , and they work perfect. They are a single lip design. I could give many more examples.

I hope you didn't buy those seals in my example.
 
Thanks guys.
will not loose sleep over this.
The bike is almost ready.
summer is here
Let's all ride!
 

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Restoring old motorcycles is an expensive hobby. That's just a fact of life. Probably cheaper in the long run to just have bought a new bike.

Mikesxs in the USA or XS650 Direct in Canada................it does not matter, they are both the same. Most of their parts are made in China/Taiwan, to a low price point, and as a result are generally of sub standard quality. In addition I have found that the dimensions of many parts are so far off as to be unusable.

The parts they sell are no where near the quality of the original Japanese made parts. Of course if the original Japanese parts were still available they would cost considerably more. Think of XS650 Direct and Mikesxs as the Walmart of motorcycle parts. You don't pay high prices, but you don't get high quality either.

So, no you did not get a bad batch. The parts you received are just the same low quality parts that they sell everyday. The "bad batch" excuse is commonly used by sellers of inferior quality chinese parts.

Believe it or not, you can still buy some Yamaha OEM parts. However, the list is very small. When I need parts...............Yamaha OEM is always my first choice. XS650 Direct is always my very last choice.

Here is just one example:

I made the dumb mistake of buying XS650 Direct's, camshaft "Special triple lip oil seals". They lasted one season, before they started to leak oil. Not only is the rubber of poor quality, but the 7 mm width is too wide for the space available.

I then ordered Yamaha OEM part # 93101-25044-00 ( S-25-40-6) from www.boats.net , and they work perfect. They are a single lip design. I could give many more examples.

I hope you didn't buy those seals in my example.

Thanks for the input, Retiredgentleman!
Was fortunate I did not have to mess with the seals
Quality is an oddity in this day and age!
 
- - - I ordered rubber foot rests ($20 + $14 freight) from them. They came in defective: the rubber is not properly form on the steel frame of the pegs. - - - will go to MikeXS in the states on my next trip.
Tough to buy Canadian..

Hi reno,
I'd have drilled the brake rotor full of holes because they DO work better that way and left the bandage off the exhaust because it rusts the pipes out but apart from that, you've done a superb job on that bike.
FWIW, the stock pegs on my Heritage Special looked just like the pegs in your photo from new, except that mine came with the rubber "moulding flash" over the peg's core ends picked off and the exposed steel painted black.
&BTW, XS650 Direct in Canada, MikesXS in the USA and Heiden Tuning in Holland all share a common catalog and source most of their stuff from the Far East so you ain't "buying Canadian" anyway, you are paying for Far Eastern product in Canadian money.
 
Yeah I think Fred has it (oddly :wink2:) IIRC the factory pegs have the metal exposed and painted that "nearly black" that Yamaha sprayed on many metal parts. Get out your razor knife trim away the flash and save your :banghead: for more important stuff, like when the cheezy rubber splits and falls off. :shrug: :D
 
Yes, or something like this. The MikesXS part is on the left. Notice the fine threading job they did. It was so bad we had to laugh, lol .....



I only use renovated originals for this fitting now. Wire wheel the rust off, paint it silver with Testor's model paint and a Q-tip, and it comes out looking almost as good as a new original.
 
As RG said, boats.net is the premier supplier (imho) of new old stock parts. I buy a fair amount of stuff from Mike's but would rather go to 650 Central if I can. The guys like gggGary also have a lot of serviceable original equipment at very fair prices. When I do order from Mike's I know going in that I'm making do and may be disappointed.

roy
 
I have had a lot of problems with short wear life on rubber foot pegs and kicker rubber coming from China or Taiwan . In the end I search for NOS replacements and just resigned myself to paying the high prices. I ride a lot, and the soft Asian rubber compounds from China just don't hold up the way Japanese rubber did. The after market world is full of that stuff. There can be issues with NOS rubber too depending on storage conditions, but I've only had one NOS peg bottom split on me so far.
 
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Mike's XS foot rest covers lasted one whole season for me. They are still available OEM as is a whole bunch of stuff. I have a few favorite OEM suppliers. There are now a bunch of them that discount parts. Partzilla is the one I use most often.
 
Very interesting post gents. I've been lucky so far with any parts I've ordered from originally Mike's a few years ago and lately fro Xs650direct. I never realized I could still get some OEM parts but, also, never really investigated it. I will be from now on though.
 
Shift lever and kick starter rubbers are still available from Yamaha, and quite reasonably priced ($2 to $3). I just got a shift lever one, wonderful part that I'm sure will outlast me, lol.

XS1B-2.jpg


LeversCompared2.jpg
 
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