Rising
Sun Cycles has been supplying road racing supplies, GP bikes and replacement
parts since 1998. Steve
has been in the motorcycle business and involved in racing and teaching since
the early seventies, (yes the older I get the faster I was and Google does not
go back that far. - no internet
or cell phones, how did we survive?).
For
those of us who have been racing these special, limited production 2-stroke
Grand Prix machines we have seen the cost of replacement parts float from acceptable
to “I think I will sit this one out”. Most of this was due to the currency exchange.
Since 2008 when a US dollar would buy you almost 120 YEN we have seen it get as
bad as a US dollar only being worth 74 YEN in 2012. That is close to a 50%
markup in cost to us in purchasing these items. Now in 2014 the Bank of Japan
is trying to end deflation and the US dollar is finally worth back over 100 YEN. Let’s hope it continues
to strengthen.
As
I have said in the past, parts supplies from Honda and Yamaha will be winding
down for our 2-stroke GP Machines.
As
you may know, Honda planed to produce parts for the RS125 though the end of
2012, which has pasted and for the most part we can still purchase what we need
to keep these machines on the track. The more we order they seem to continue to
deliver so what this means is that "if we order it, they may still make
it".
Primarily RSC have
been handling parts and accessories for the Honda and Yamaha hand-made, l
ow volume, and
purpose built GP machines. Due to the nature of these machines there have been
many changes over the years and in most cases after 5 or 6 years some parts
could become hard or impossible to purchase. Or in many cases prices have gone
up from the manufactures a lot more than any of us would like to see. The
problem is that due to the AMA and world racing changing the nature of their
entertainment business the makers of these machines can no longer subsidize
these parts. Many racing supplies were sold by the manufactures at or
below cost to help maintain the particular sport for their advertising
purposes. Therefore companies Like Honda and Yamaha who have been big
supporters of racing for many years have to decide whether to continue
supplying these parts or not. If they are going to supply them then they must
at least break even if not try to make a small profit. I would much
rather the parts were available even at a higher cost then not available at
all. Unfortunately, if Rising Sun runs out of an item that we have been stocking
for some time and has to reorder, the price may have been adjusted at the YEN
level in Japan and sometimes to a surprising increase. In spite of the fact
that we say “Prices are subject to change without notice” we as
well as our customers are many times caught off guard with a staggering
increase. We have artificially kept some highly needed parts as inexpensive as
we can afford to help you keep your bikes on the track (i.e. Honda pistons which
have doubled then double again in the last 12 years and RS125 crankshafts
both of which mathematically should be much more in line with some of the kit
part pricing). We have seen 50-100% increases on some items especially in
Yamaha parts. This means that we have to correct our current prices with every
incoming stock order. Then roll in the fact that the US economy, which pretty
much caused this world financial crisis, has caused our US dollar to be worth as
much as 50% less against the Japanese YEN in the last 6 years. This has caused
prices to rise quite a bit on many of these short run items. Also due to the
lesser demand, production of these needed items is down so we run into periods
between production runs when we are backordered on many items. Some of these
can be show stoppers as when the RS125 Honda cranks were unavailable or almost
4 months back in 2009. To help counteract this shortage we purchased all the VHM rod kits we
could get our hands on so that cranks could be rebuilt. Besides direct costs of
parts there are the shipping costs which sometimes can be surprising for our
export customers even though each order confirmation includes a link to our
explanation of these costs. (No one seems to read it so please CLICK HERE and read it
now).
So
if you have plans to keep your bike running and fresh and be ready for next
year without shortages of parts, you need to plan ahead. So think forward and
plan your future needs, Place your orders for future shipment and we can plan
our inventory needs and give Honda and Yamaha a reason to produce more of these
needed parts. For many years, we at Rising Sun Cycles have been sourcing these
parts from third party manufacturers as well as the OEMs to keep these machines
on the track. We have had a few customers be proactive and place stock orders
but there are many of these bikes in the field. We can no longer stock enough
parts to supply projected
needs here in the US, so we are just reminding you that it will get harder to
purchase what we need to keep these short run, purpose built GP machines
running. We do not what to have to tell you that the part you need to ride next
weekend is no longer available or is not on our shelves, so we are doing our
best to stock the most important items..Honda is already running on inventory
only for the RS250 and has shut down their RS250 support department many years
back. I would assume that this is the case for Yamaha as well.
Also,
if any of you are planning to sell your GP machines, we have buyers looking. So
email us a few pictures, a good description of the bike and spares available,
sales price and your contact info. We will post it to our "Bikes for
Sale" section of the site for a small listing fee
and percentage of the sale.
We at Rising Sun Cycles work hard to continue to make
these OEM and aftermarket replacement parts as available as possible for all of
us enthusiasts.
We have been supporting the sport as best we can from
product certificates all the way to having given away a New Honda RS125 for many years in conjunction with the USGPRU.
Also, if you are no longer racing the 2-stroke GP bikes
that we have been supporting, please think of us if you are looking for parts
and accessories for your current race bike or street machine. We have new site which
makes all things motorcycle available to you from us. www.rscycles.com
Thank you all for your continued support.
A lot of people go through life doing things
badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well. When you’re racing, it... it’s
life. Anything that happens before or after... is just waiting. - Steve McQueen
as Michael Delaney in the 1971 film "Gran Prix"
