[High On Octane]

Hi!  I need some local help Mumbai.  A close friend of mine travels to Mumbai quite often for work and I am in need of parts.  I know parts for Royal Enfields are a lot cheaper in India so I figured as long as my friend travels there every few weeks, why not have him get the parts for me.   

I need front fork springs for my 1958 RE Indian Trailblazer 700cc Twin.  The fork springs need to be 20.75 inches (577.8mm) and are listed from Hitchcock's as part #40857.

If anyone on the forum lives locally in Mumbai and is available to help me out with this in the next couple weeks, please let me know.  It would be much appreciated.  Thanks!   

Scottie

[AVL Power!]

Scottie, I don't know anyone there but I can give you contact details of few guys from Pune and Delhi, they can ship things to bombay for free (Also, they do not charge anything extra, the OEM parts have the same prices even if you buy from them). Do let me know if you need them. Also, if anyone here is from bombay then nothing like it! Oh! And don't forget to pickup fag bearings from India. They are very cheap here

-Sanket

[ace.cafe]

Just remember that many parts sold by street vendors in India are not genuine Enfield parts. There is no telling what level of quality you might be getting, including total junk that won't even work.

The bearings are the worst. A large percentage of bearings sold by normal outlets in India are fake bearings in what appears to be genuine packaging.
You can look it up on the web. Last I read, at least 40% of all bearings in India are fakes. If they are cheap, they are fake.

Here's one link among MANY articles about counterfeit bearings in India.
http://www.ebearing.com/news2009/061001.htm

[AVL Power!]

Yep that happens but instead you can just pick up a bunch of OEM parts from the RE Authorized stores. They'll be cheaper in here anyways. For other type of parts, which are not made by RE anymore, for them you'll have other sellers who export stuff in the overseas. I am sure that Cris harlen will be able to help scott in this case.

[High On Octane]

I realize a fair amount of the parts in India are not as high of quality as the UK made parts, but I figured it would be kind of hard to get "bad" fork springs.  Especially if I can save some money.  But if they do turn out to be the same price as Hitchcock's, I'll just order the springs from them.  Just thought I'd look into all possibilities.

Scottie

[barenekd]

Specific parts for a twins were never made by Enfield India AFAIK. I would think this would include fork springs.  I have heard some mention of twins being made in India which is absolutely untrue. Someone is confusing the American Indians (REs) with India, which were not made in India.
Bare

[High On Octane]

Yes, but Enfield also hasn't really changed the fork design in 60 years either.

Scottie

[ERC]

Your right Scottie. The thing you have to check on is the length. I think they make them that length in India. Hitchcocks are only about $48.00 a pair may not be worth it.  ERC

[Arizoni]

I think it might be pretty easy to get "bad fork springs".

Good spring design is a complex engineering task and manufacturing them requires very controlled conditions.

They might be the right diameter and the right length and even the right wire size but if the material is not correct they could be very "bad".

There are many hardenable grades and types of steel but many of them will rapidly fail from repeated flexing.

If the hardening and tempering was not done correctly the spring could fail.

If the steel was fully hardened but the tempering temperature was too low or the temperature was not held for a sufficient amount of time the spring could break when it was used.

If the tempering temperature was too high, the spring could fail to return to its original length after a few compression cycles.

IMO, buying springs from a totally unknown source of supply could be dangerous to the bod and the bike.

[High On Octane]

Ok then, never mind.  I'll just order them from Hitchcocks.  I don't want to run into anymore headaches.  Thanks for your thoughts guys!

Scottie