Why is it

[deacon]

I know there are a lot of dealers here and I'm not trying to rattle any cages, but I do wonder something. Let me first say I have had no dealings with anyone on this site. My only after kit purchase was from my seller who is not a member. So you can beat up on me if you want.

Why is it that a kit costs about a buck and a half, but if you buy even the smallest replacement component it is way disproportionate to the kit cost. Ie I bought two rings for the kit for fifteen dollars once. In the kit that item must be worth a dollar at best.

 

[Pablo]

A couple reasons.

Gotta make dough on spare parts and people will pay it.....

Legitimate stocking, handling, hassle, of spare parts - this is not minor. I've been on the procuring end - depending on the items, sometimes the distributor can negotiate from strength and get free spares - say 50 units worth of spare parts (or something) if they order 50,000 (or whatever).

Most companies will treat spare parts as a profit center, not a goodwill counter.

Now as for the dealers of bike parts....some like thatsdax look pretty OK. An entire carb? What? $22? That's like 0.000001 euros.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

thatsdax has really cheap replacement parts....at least for the CDI and mag. Everything else you can pretty much find elsewhere for a lot less dough.

 

[Pablo]

thatsdax has really cheap replacement parts....at least for the CDI and mag. Everything else you can pretty much find elsewhere for a lot less dough.

I thought the perf pipe $19, carb $22, etc were OK - some of the small stuff looks a little spendy, I'll agree.

 

[Norman]

Here is kind of my thoughts on why parts are kind of high. You can buy a engine kit for say $180.00 now if you can turn around and buy all the parts for an engine kit part by part for $100.00 you would be able to save $80.00 by just buying the parts. Manufacturers don't want you to buy just parts so they price the parts so it will cost more if you build a engine/kit by just buying parts. You all getting my drift?! I know that these parts don't cost to make what they are being sold for. We have to remember all of us have to make a living and these bikes are not yet a necessity more of a fun toy so I can't really gripe if the rings cost $15.00 I'm not going to be able to make these parts at home not at least for a long time so I have to pay to play just like everyone else. I wonder if a guy would be wiser to buy an extra complete kit just for spare parts like parts you can't make. So far for me that's not happened but I'm sure it will if I keep playing with these things. If I had more time I would like to see if these things like rings piston etc. could be cross referenced to a engine that's manufactured say in japan or like use parts from a Chan saw but then again there is the price those parts are more than likely to cost even more. I re ringed my home lite weed eater 7 years ago and the cost for the one ring was over $20.00 but I have used this same weed eater for years and I have yet to wear it out. So the bottom line is we have to pay to play darn it. The price of gas keeps going up and we all are feeling it I work for a major oil company and we are working hard to get the oil for our county's needs and I feel the cost its hitting my wallet like all of you. I don't get any discounts at the pump. Sooner or later things will change I hope for the better. I'd like to see a electric battery that will take a charge in 10 to 15 minutes and be able to propel a family of 4 for over 400 miles comfortably before needing a recharge and be affordable for all but that is my dream I hope to see that happen. In the mean time $15.00 is high for a set of rings but where else you going to find them for a less price?
Ride it like you stole it.
Norman

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

15 bucks is not bad for a set of rings....

I'm sure you could find aftermarket rings and pistons through Wiseco, they make rings and pistons for virtually anything. I guarantee they'll be more than 15 bucks.

As for the other stuff- I think you could find a tensioner for around the same as dax, but maybe better built.

You won't find a mag replacement or CDI for less than 50 as far as I know....most CDI's (there are basicly two kinds- two wire and three wire) go for around 50-100 dollars.

 

[deacon]

before I paid a hundred bucks for cdi I would scrap the bike and sell it for parts lol... One at a time on ebay...

 

[Andyinchville1]

I can't remember the actual numbers but I remember reading an article about replacement parts and autos and somebody actually took the time to price out building a car piece by piece and it ended up costing something like $70000 for a $10000 car....On a more personal note I once bought a work truck for $3000 and had a "little" work done to the transmission and it ended up costing me $2000....Tranny almost cost as much as the rest of the truck GO Figure!