Best Parts websites?

[Tenshots1]

I have used Ron Ayers on many occasions and love em. Their website is great, and easy to confirm you are selecting the correct part. Prices and shipping times are reasonable. Only part that gets a bit expensive is the shipping cost, which appears high. Sometimes i will select a part on Ron Ayers to get the part number, then buy it off of ebay due to lower prices.

[gwad19709]

How's it going Steve (GS Whisperer) Mike from Cincinnati with the GS1100E You helped me tune the carbs. I have since sold that bike. it developed a horrible low end knock. I'm riding a 1999 zrx1100 now but I needed a Suzuki in my life. I was given the worst one on the planet but it's well on its way to a new life! Just need a few things spoked rims, flat seat and some other odds and ends. If I ever get it done we should go on a short ride!

[oldGSfan]

haha thought I was the only cheap a$$ that diid that. partzilla seems to work out for me, I've added a 1.50 item to get free shipping before, then wondered when it got to my house WTF was I thinking. Bourbon could have been involved on either end of the transaction.

I actually will typically load my shopping carts full of the exact same parts at both parts outlaw and partzilla, and compare total price with shipping.
Parts Outlaw is a big dealership with a substantial internet prescence. Partzilla is a big conglomerate huge online parts dealer, including boats.net or .com and others...

[BigD_83]

haha thought I was the only cheap a$$ that diid that. partzilla seems to work out for me, I've added a 1.50 item to get free shipping before, then wondered when it got to my house WTF was I thinking. Bourbon could have been involved on either end of the transaction.

Standard practice in my household, too (minus the bourbon)

[bwringer]

I most often buy Suzuki bits from OnlineCycleParts.com, which happens to be the online arm of a large dealership about 15 miles from my house:

https://www.onlinecycleparts.com/oemparts/c/suzuki_motorcycle/parts

They also sell Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, KTM, and Polaris, FWIW.


Anyhoo, their prices are within pennies of the cheapest of the rest, but I save a couple of days and shipping costs because I can go pick up the parts when they come in. It's a nice little ride and I get to slobber on some new bikes and stuff.

And their service has been quite good, too -- they ALWAYS call when the parts arrive (seriously, it's amazing -- every other place I've ever ordered any car or motorcycle parts from has NEVER actually called) and if something is back-ordered, they call me and offer solutions. For example, I once ordered clutch plates that were back-ordered, and they offered to obtain an aftermarket kit and discount it to the same price so I could get back on the road. (Yes, aftermarket cost more than OEM...)

So, the moral of the story is to poke around locally too -- you may find that a local-ish dealer also has an online storefront that can save you bundle in shipping costs and a lot of time. They don't always make this info easy to figure out, so it takes some detective work. And if you waltz into the dealer and force the parts monkey to wake up, you will pay a lot more. You only get parts at a discount when you do the work and everything is automated.


As Scott noted above, you need to make sure your mental model aligns with the reality. Absolutely NO ONE actually stocks very many, if any, OEM parts. (Some take this to stupid extremes: I once walked into a rather large Suzuki dealer and asked for a V-Strom oil filter. Suzuki has used maybe two or three oil filters across their entire product line for decades, but the dealer did not keep any filters in stock. They offered to order it for me for $18... Uh, nope.) They ALL have to order from the manufacturer warehouses, wait at least three days for the parts to arrive, repackage, and then ship to you. It sucks, but that's the way it is. If you can scare up a dealer that's somewhat local, and you have the flexibility to go pick up your goodies during business hours when they arrive, you can save a lot of time.

Also, some smaller volume dealerships manually place parts orders only once or twice a week; watch out for this because it can also cost you a lot of time. Most of the ones that have gone to the trouble of setting up an online storefront have automated the process so the orders are transmitted to the OEM warehouses right away.

[willie]

I turned to the GSR for advice now that I'm in need of an air filter element for the '82 1100G I picked up last month. Went to Onlinecycleparts 1st

https://www.onlinecycleparts.com/oemparts/a/suz/50d40437f8700230d8b4ecf6/air-cleaner

They don't sell air filter elements but I thought part number 6 sounded interesting.

[bwringer]

I turned to the GSR for advice now that I'm in need of an air filter element for the '82 1100G I picked up last month. Went to Onlinecycleparts 1st

https://www.onlinecycleparts.com/oemparts/a/suz/50d40437f8700230d8b4ecf6/air-cleaner

They don't sell air filter elements but I thought part number 6 sounded interesting.

FWIW, most of us shaftie people are running Uni foam air filter elements (NU-2436). The metal cage comes apart easily enough. You do have to make sure you seal the top of the cage with weather stripping, then give it a coat of grease so you can slide it into the airbox. And seal the airbox end caps with weather stripping as well.


And yeah, the parts descriptions are... interesting sometimes. For a long time, it was difficult to discuss your petcock troubles around here because the naughty word filter would get upset at the last four letters in the name of the part. There was a massive software upgrade a while back, and the GSR admins have more control over the naughty list.

[willie]

Having owned a couple of GS G's with stock airbuses, I'm all too familiar with the age related problems that they suffer. Thanks though, for making sure I was aware of them. Interesting story behind my getting this bike. Short version being that I had a soft spot for it having ridden the length of Route 66 on one identical to it and the seller making me a deal that I just couldn't resist.
Have found myself working on it before completing my GT750 resto project. None the less, I am putting some time in on the Buffalo to help rationalize working on the G.
Thanks again.