I needed a mirror for my 10 month old Street Triple RS, none available and informed they are on back order until September, given the machines are now made in the far east and shipped here to the UK Triumph UK appear not to carry stock to meet demand, the same was true a few months back when I required parts for my Speed Triple 1050, again I was told some parts were no longer available whilst other parts on back order with no time frame. I wanted a fair few parts for a classic Suzuki, guess what they were all available from stock and the machine is over 40 years of age. I have had Triumph's since 1967 (amongst lots of other makes and models), however given this is my second new Triumph in 18 months and the extremely poor parts back up, I am intending trading it in and looking at the BMW S100R or the new Suzuki GSX-S1000. Its a real shame as my Triumph Dealer (Philip Youles) are fantastic and you get 5 Star service and well looked after by them, its a shame Triumph let them down with their poor parts back up. If I go for the Suzuki GSX-S 1000 I will deal with Philip Youles as they are also a Suzuki Dealer. Triumph even have the audacity to charge over a £100 for the mirror, and then charge extra for the plastic ring that secures it for another £20 plus quid. You could buy a new bike from Triumph, break it up for spares and sell them on and make a nice profit and still undercut their inflated prices. So sometime soon it's goodbye to my Triumph and hello to BMW or Suzuki, at least I know from buying both marques in the past you get fantastic spares back up when you need it, and 12 months more manufacturers warranty than Triumph. I think manufacturers like Triumph should be made to carry reasonable stock for the models they sell for at least a 10 year period, maybe legislation is needed like the recent one for white goods manufacturers. It's evident Triumph do not need to carry much stock given most machines are now produced abroad.
I think they're putting all their efforts into lifestyle marketing videos in the dealerships and questionnaires about how the clothing products are presented etc... oops, some people are actually just interested in the bikes! If they would perhaps concentrate on things like putting tubeless rims on the classics or coming up with better colour schemes I'd still be a Triumph owner!
Agreed, Mrs HV just bought a Street Triple Low and both the heated grips and bar end mirrors are on back order (possibly up to Sept) so will have to be fitted whenever they come in not when we picked the bike up today, took a small amount of shine off her first bike experience
Painful though it is, I suspect a lot of this problem is a knock on from the grounding of the Ever Given back in March, as I believe a huge amount of Triumph's bikes, parts and clothing stocks for 2021 are on board. Whilst the ship has been dislodged from its position in the canal, it hasn't continued its journey as it is impounded along with its entire cargo until the compensation claims are satisfactorily resolved https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9811000 Rather than try and duplicate the entirety of the delayed stock, I suspect Triumph will be concentrating on supplying those items that would render a bike unusable, rather than those which might be considered nice to have. Different manufacturers will have been hit differently by the shipping (and also chip supply) issues this year, and it may well be down to the luck of the draw which ones are looking good and which are looking bad at the moment. Regards the Suzuki spares; chances are those will have been on the shelf in the UK for long enough not to be affected by the shipping issues.
As a follow up - if the majority of the 2021 Triumph stocks arrive at the end of the riding season, there may well be some bargains to be had!
With regard to the cost of spares and breaking a bike, I remember sometime back (1980s ish) motorcycle news had an article about this they used I think a honda or suzuki as their example and if you brought all the parts to build a bike it would cost 3 times the cost of buying it whole. So in that respect parts have always been expensive, its where manufacturers make the most profit.
Interesting point. I wonder if spares are sometimes more expensive because of the additional handling (admin, shipping, distribution, and dealership costs) charges. It must be far more economical and efficient to have all the bits in one place, and to assemble them into a bike (or other product) than dealing with thousands of fiddly bits going here and there (often sitting on shelves and tying up working capital). There may be a bit of profiteering in the spares logistics supply chain but not as much as is thought. There’s a whole science about managing mean time before failure and providing enough stock and in the right place. Too much and they’d go broke. To little and customers would get fed up with the after sales service and leave (and the manufacture would.also go broke). This theory could be utter bollocks - consume at your own risk.
Ever Given should be released to travel onwards to next port of call (Rotterdam) sometime next week as the ship's owners have agreed to pay $550M in damages. So the Triumph mirrors and heated grips should be here soon
eBay? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274765547325?epid=27002589758&hash=item3ff94d873d:g:t9gAAOSw0HlbuJ1b
I did just wait for 3 months for a complete left-hand switch cube for my Tiger 1200, but the price was reasonable. I did a few comparisons with other typical mainstream brands and the Triumph price was 1/3 to 1/2 of the other brands. Considering the LHS cube controls about everything on this bike I thought that was OK. I would of liked it much sooner though.
But a Street Scrambler headlight is more expensive than one for a Harley tourer... Harley Road King Special - £227.68 Street Scrambler - £457.82 (but that does include the bulb) Oh hang on, there's a newer part...£169.48. Bargain!
