Honda Museum Sandcast. Which seat fitted?

[ashimotok0]

A well known part dealer in the UK and also Yamiya's main distributor, who have just set up in the UK, have been told they cannot sell  items in the UK which are logo'd Honda. However, in other parts of the world Yamiya's seats and covers are sold without restrictions. I have agreed to write to Honda on behalf of the two Yamiya / PMC distributors here in the UK  explaining that this situation is unfair. I did write to them in 2009 but their excuse back then was that the Ducktail seat is a 300 superseded part to the K1 version, so a suitable seat was still available from Honda. This is no longer the case however because the K1 --300-- part is now NLA from Honda. One bit of 'fuel' to my argument is that the Vic World sandcast, which Honda have in their museum is, presumably, fitted with an 'aftermarket' cover but I need to make sure of my facts first.
There have been 4 ducktail Yamiya seats on eBay UK over the last week or so (suspect something to do with CMSNL) and I managed to bag one of these so I am doing this really  for the other poor UK souls / agents.

I did ask Yamiya if they would consider supplying the UK with seats/covers without the 'HONDA' logo printed but they told me the minimum order from the factory to have this omitted would be 50+ seats / covers.

Cheers ... AshD

[hondasan]

I believe the restrictions in place in the UK are a result of action taken by Honda UK to "protect" the established UK Honda franchised dealers from unofficial competition.
The fact that many of the parts, etc, had been discontinued by Honda, and as such were not available through the dealer network appeared not to matter. The fact that the dealer network and staff are generally more interested in the sale of new bikes, with little interest or knowledge in the older bikes appeared not to matter. Honda UK threatened, and here we find ourselves.
The fact that Honda have a bike in their museum with a reproduction seat on it will I suspect count for little here in the UK, given that the bike was restored in the US.
Good luck though Ash, I do hope you can get through to someone with a grain of common sense at Honda , and change the situation. After all, surely continued interest in the Honda brand resulting from the restorations we all aspire to has to be to Honda's global benefit?

Cheers - Chris R

[ashimotok0]

I believe the restrictions in place in the UK are a result of action taken by Honda UK to "protect" the established UK Honda franchised dealers from unofficial competition.
The fact that many of the parts, etc, had been discontinued by Honda, and as such were not available through the dealer network appeared not to matter. The fact that the dealer network and staff are generally more interested in the sale of new bikes, with little interest or knowledge in the older bikes appeared not to matter. Honda UK threatened, and here we find ourselves.
The fact that Honda have a bike in their museum with a reproduction seat on it will I suspect count for little here in the UK, given that the bike was restored in the US.
Good luck though Ash, I do hope you can get through to someone with a grain of common sense at Honda , and change the situation. After all, surely continued interest in the Honda brand resulting from the restorations we all aspire to has to be to Honda's global benefit?

Cheers - Chris R

Cheers for your comments Chris... I am mainly doing it for honest traders in the UK , one of which has supported you and myself since 1986 !

Worth a try anyway but agree it will almost certainly fall on deaf ears.

I have managed to get hold of a Yamiya seat for 399GBP (not red foam though). There was a guy selling a new one  on eBay UK for 399 GBP. He has one more then taht's it.


Cheers ... Ash

[CBman]

I totally understand Honda UK. Yamiya is parasiting on Honda engineers and brand. It is not legal to use Honda logo on their products.
I´m sure you will be also not happy if anybody else will use brand logo of your own company and will copy your products, or yes....?
Yamiya could be happy to not been producing Apple replicas. If so, top management will be just in prison, because Apple will not allow it.

[patriotcommercial]

How many seat covers does Yamiya sell ?  Hard to imagine they are profiting very much ?  Aren't they advertising for Honda every time some one sees the name ?

[ashimotok0]

I totally understand Honda UK. Yamiya is parasiting on Honda engineers and brand. It is not legal to use Honda logo on their products.
I´m sure you will be also not happy if anybody else will use brand logo of your own company and will copy your products, or yes....?
Yamiya could be happy to not been producing Apple replicas. If so, top management will be just in prison, because Apple will not allow it.

Yes but if that's the case it should be a Honda WORLDWIDE ban not just us poor souls in Europe. Mr Honda would turn in his grave that we cannot get hold of the correct parts for our bikes. Copying is a sincere form of flattery BTW

[tomcourtney]

I totally understand Honda UK. Yamiya is parasiting on Honda engineers and brand. It is not legal to use Honda logo on their products.
I´m sure you will be also not happy if anybody else will use brand logo of your own company and will copy your products, or yes....?
Yamiya could be happy to not been producing Apple replicas. If so, top management will be just in prison, because Apple will not allow it.

. Copying is a sincere form of flattery BTW

The problem is there are copies and there are copies, I bought some triumph copy parts that could only be described by me as a POS and I can fully understand why Honda don't want there name on any old POS copy parts, on the other hand everything I have bought from Yamiya and all their parts i have seen have been first class, compared to some other parts on the market so the guy at Yamiya is doing a great job and Honda could be proud of his stuff.

[ashimotok0]

My point is, if Honda see it fit to display a sandcast built by Vic World which is fitted with aftermarket replica parts then that is surely an endorsement of that part and we should all be free to purchase them, with Honda's blessing. From what KP reports on the Yamiya wrinkle tank, I bet it's been made with the original tooling anyway.

What ever happened to the promise detailed below.