Honda OEM parts still available today - how so?

[Big G]

I was on Beatrice Cycle (DrATV) yesterday placing an order for a box load of goodies, and it got me to thinking...hold on a sec, these machines are 35 years old, how come some OEM parts are still available? It makes sense when I look on Partzilla.com and see "Part Obsolete", but why is it that others are still available? You'd think by now all stock would be depleted and only aftermarket options at this point. The way I understood it, Honda mass produced a certain quantity of parts, then when they're gone they're gone, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Are they still manufacturing some parts?

[fabiodriven]

One major factor is parts which also fit quads and newer Honda vehicles.

[Big G]

One major factor is parts which also fit quads and newer Honda vehicles.

So is Honda still manufacturing those parts then, or is what we see just stock from depleting inventory? How long do they continue to manufacture a part for before it becomes obsolete? Also, what do they do with all the parts they manufacture...do they immediately get shipped out to various retailers throughout the world, or do they keep a mother ship warehouse in Japan somewhere that is stocked and slowly dispense it out until it's gone?

It's just something that I never really understood about parts and how it works.

[DAM shop]

So is Honda still manufacturing those parts then, or is what we see just stock from depleting inventory? How long do they continue to manufacture a part for before it becomes obsolete? Also, what do they do with all the parts they manufacture...do they immediately get shipped out to various retailers throughout the world, or do they keep a mother ship warehouse in Japan somewhere that is stocked and slowly dispense it out until it's gone?

It's just something that I never really understood about parts and how it works.

I assume it's just stock being depleted. Like Fab's said some of those parts are also cross refrenced for other trikes, bikes and quads. I think that's why you see a highly desirable part or a unique part ( a 78 atc 90 headlight bucket ) for instance no longer available (depleated stock). As a footrest mounting bolt would be available because it fit's other machines. With today's computer tecnology it's easy to list a part for a newer machine but then have it cross refrenced to all other machines ( past and present) that it fit's. So i assume that if you were to order a 14mm mounting bolt for a 2001 trx 250 you may be getting via usps a 30 year old bolt because it also fit's a 78 atc 90.

[83ATC185]

A guy i know at the local dealership says Honda manufactures enough replacement parts for a certain model for 20 years. Not sure how true that is or how they even would calculate the need but i do know there were a lot of ATC specific parts that were available 15 years ago that aren't anymore.

[Rob Canadian]

A guy i know at the local dealership says Honda manufactures enough replacement parts for a certain model for 20 years. Not sure how true that is or how they even would calculate the need but i do know there were a lot of ATC specific parts that were available 15 years ago that aren't anymore.

In automotive they only have to make the part available for 'X' amount of years. I think 10 years but could be wrong. It does not mean they have to stop producing the part. At some point they would stop production of the part. Supply and demand.

I know I bought a OEM CDI unit from Honda 2 years ago. (it was for my 1983 200X) I don't think the CDI unit fit others vehicles.

[El Camexican]

While rebuilding my old stuff I've had some good conversations with a few dealers. It seems the way things go is that there is the 10 year obligation for the factory to make parts available, followed be the dealers selling off their stock, often between each other depending on the networks they use. At the end of it all there are usually OEM parts available for a lot more than 10 years after the last model that uses them is sold.

Obviously if a part carries over on another model it will remain on the parts list and the factory always has the option to keep making parts if they're selling. The Suzuki GS 1100/1150 engines would be a good example of one that you could still get almost everything new for from the dealer more than 30 years after the last one was sold in a frame.

Then there are the people that buy up stock when dealerships close and it seems a lot of those guys are hoarders, so between people trying sell off their NOS collections little by little and the parts that come out of estate sales that have been horded away for years there's likely to always be parts available way past the 10 year mark, but the prices will never go down unless someone starts making jobber parts.

There are also a few dealerships that seem to gather up all the old parts for certain models and makes that they can get their hands on and sell them off for years after everyone else clears out their stock rooms. Speed and Sport Yamaha and Omaha Ducati to name a couple. I wouldn't be surprised if the factories offer out the NOS parts at the end of 10 years at a really low price to their dealers.

[barnett468]

Also, what do they do with all the parts they manufacture...do they immediately get shipped out to various retailers throughout the world, or do they keep a mother ship warehouse in Japan somewhere that is stocked and slowly dispense it out until it's gone?

No motorcycle mfg can not force its dealers to buy any parts. The parts the mfg's make sit in their own warehouses until a dealer orders them.

[ps2fixer]

I'd be interested in what they do with the old molds and such, like plastic injection molds. They are expensive and have a pretty high life span for # of units produced (something like 100k if I remember right). I'm not sure if they use the tooling till it's deemed worn out and recycled, or if they stop at a target number of units produced. In theory the molds could exist somewhere, but I suspect very few get in the hands of the workers/collectors.

This stuff makes a lot of sense, I was buying from Honda the squared off dash insert for like the 250es and reselling on ebay since used ones were going for like $20 when new from Honda they were like $3. Something like 6 months ago, they ran out of stock, also there was like 3-5 people copying my listings after I showed there's potential for the part (# of sold listings). Just checked ebay, there's 1 used one listed for $10 now, I was selling new for $7 shipped to profit like $1-2 off it. I think I have one left on hand that I'll hold so I'll have a tiny start on a NOS collection. Also have the orig one I opened the packaging on somewhere for the listing photos. Figured worse case, if someone made up a mold, I could send the opened NOS one out to be molded up.

Too bad there wasn't a solid way to see when Honda's stock was getting low, so people that have the skill to remake parts can get their hands on the new parts at normal retail price instead of inflated NOS prices.

[oldskool83]

There's demand yet and many parts are used or still used on atvs today. Sometimes parts are the same between models but different years will use a different front alpha or numerical designation. Yamaha does this a bunch. So.e sites say still avaible due to not being up to date. Bike bandit or partzilla are two of the better ones. Partzilla even made it easier in the last few years telling you what other models it fits. 15 years ago that was done buy trial and error. Buy parts go play.

[ps2fixer]

Yea I agree, I've based a LOT of stuff on the partzilla interchange info. There's still a fair bit of trial and error, but at least some of it is reduced. Sometimes they update the part number, for a new model, but it's the same as the old one with a super minor change, like paint color, so some interchanges are lost until someone manually tries it. Most things electrical are somewhat standard, at least things staying in their own era and machine type.

[Dirtcrasher]

About ALL you can find is parts that match other applications, it can even be a jet ski, doesn't matter.

All I can find are bolts, nuts, clamps and collars. Everything else is mostly gonezo.

However, it seems like you feel as if quite a bit is still available?? IDK if you placed the order and didn't know the stuff was gone for a week because these websites are just lovely for that. Oh look, it's in my cart! and I paid for it! whoopie!! Nope, it's gone

Because to me, it's all gone, ALL OF IT And TBH, I want to know WHO finally bought it out?? Someone HAD TO! They were gone in a few months, everything...

I placed some monster orders back in about 2008, I know that it was about 1 or 2 years later that EVERYTHING was gone.

I do find it odd that they still have fork boots and 250R shrouds. And every single order I place, I get 2 sets of 350X and 250R boots, and 2 sets of 85/86 LC250R tank shrouds.

I have asked everyone, begged them for information, but I cannot get 1 single guy to say "They have 237 more in stock at American Honda". They have to access the website usually thru the parts manager or the owner of the dealer, but I've had guys on the inside and I STILL cannot get any answers.

About 2 years ago, the 350X LH and RH tank shrouds/scoops disappeared, and that is 1 item that even from MAIER, they look and work great, So, screw OEM, I sold them all off at 459 - 499$ a set. Real cost 10 years ago might have been 90$ a set.

That tells me that there's more items that WILL go bye bye. I don't know when, they may still have th mold for the LC85/86 ATC250R shrouds, I JUST DON'T KNOW!!

But, I will continue to buy them a few times a year.

I have made 1000%, yes one thousand percent markup on NOS parts. Because we can ALL get trikes 80% assembled, but that last 20% can be hell.

[ps2fixer]

Yea, NOS investing should in theory be a solid investment option for anyone willing to sit on items, and when it's time to sell, they don't mind the possible long wait + work related to selling, and of course fees.

10x profit across 10 years is 100% RoI per year, anyone that knows about investing would know that's great numbers. If you throw in cost of storage, orig purchase price, shipping, fees, time moving around etc. You'll probably see more around 80% RoI, still very good when the best CD you can get is like 5% at best.

I've bought a lot of stuff from partzilla, their stock levels are very accurate, it takes them about 2-4 weeks to update the page to unavaiable when a part goes away. I suspect dealers don't really know what the left over stock would be in the sense things can get back ordered then find out it's out of production. Stock level for all other dealerships I'd think is something you could find out though, but I suspect it's a slow process doing it 1 in stock dealer at a time. I'm sure their program isn't setup where you can get total avaiable left in stock at dealer locations. It makes sense to us, but at POS, they just need 1-2 maybe 4 at a time, so anyone with the part on hand can come up, worst case get em shipped from 4 different locations.

I don't have my hands on the Honda software, but if I did it would be interesting to poke around in it with a valid login.

[keister]

But be careful.... just because a part interchanges and fits doesn't make it the same.
I recently bought a gas cap for my 86 Big Red (you know the same cap as the 185S, 200E, M, S, probably all Big Reds, late 125Ms.....).
I bought it from either Bike Bandit or eBay, the part number matched.
But when I received it, it was not the same. It was very close, and it still fit, but has very obvious differences from my original gas caps.
I suspect this was made for a FourTrax or Foreman or something like that.
Anyway, I am glad I opened the bag instead of squirreling it away.

[fabiodriven]

But be careful.... just because a part interchanges and fits doesn't make it the same.
I recently bought a gas cap for my 86 Big Red (you know the same cap as the 185S, 200E, M, S, probably all Big Reds, late 125Ms.....).
I bought it from either Bike Bandit or eBay, the part number matched.
But when I received it, it was not the same. It was very close, and it still fit, but has very obvious differences from my original gas caps.
I suspect this was made for a FourTrax or Foreman or something like that.
Anyway, I am glad I opened the bag instead of squirreling it away.

That's when a part has been superseded.