[HitchcocksMotorcycles]

Hello,

Just to give everyone who uses this board a quick update on the position of the forum.

This forum contains a huge amount of useful content that Enfield Owners of all models and years can use, as well as many active users who contribute with valuable information. In recent times, it appears that there are few updates required and bugs looking at in order for the forum to continue to operate efficiently for the Enfield community. Due to this, we, at Hitchcocks Motorcycles have now taken over the board and will hopefully be able to make improvements for everyone using it. We do not plan to make any major changes to the platform or face of the forum, and primarily we would like to address any of the operating/running issues that might be present so users can continue to enjoy the board.

So, if anyone has any known problems with the forum that they face when viewing/posting, we would appreciate it if you could let us know by posting in the "forum improvements" section for us to look into. 

Another point I would like to mention is, new users may have had difficulties signing up and receiving the confirmation e-mail. This is an issue which was on going for some time, hopefully this has now been resolved and any new users wishing to join should be able to do so, and we would advise they try again now. If there is anyone out there still experiencing this "registering issue", please contact us directly via e-mail at: cmw@hitchcocksmotorcycles.com 

Regards,
Dan

[GSS]

Dan,
Thank you. I stopped posting regularly after finding that a vast majority of my responses would get rejected with an error message while using an iPad, iphone or a Mac. Had the same trouble with a PC as well.

It looks like line spacing, special characters, paragraphs and punctuations are problematic. My only workaround for my rare responses is to post a one line response, and then to use the modify button to add additional text.

The forum usage has been dwindling and hopefully your ownership will restore stability and credibility. Thanks.

[tooseevee]

     Hey Dan,

             At last we know for sure who's running things

              Been on here since 2009 and have spent many many hours here and as of right now I have absolutely no problems at all.

               I would never have gotten my '08 AVL (bought brand new) to the stage it is at now without the people on these forums (all of them). Many have followed my whole saga since '09 and I hope it has added to the knowledge base that is ONLY here. I lurked here for a long time just reading before I even FOUND the bike.

               I've ordered from you a few times and I wish you and us a whole bunch of good luck. Your online catalog needs work. As it is now, if you search on parts for a particular bike you are given a whole bunch of listings for other bikes as well. If you search on the AVL bikes you should get just parts for AVL bikes. As it is now, it's a mish-mash.
 

[GSS]

I agree as well. Having ordered several times from HMC, while their service and products are outstanding, they should fire whoever built their absolutely abysmal new web site.  The opaque navigation and inability to find products in an intuitive manner has led to my moving on to suppliers on EBay.

[mattsz]

If that's the Hitchcocks website experience, I don't hold out much hope for improvements to this forum.  However, let's stay on topic, guys - the discussion here is the forum, not their commercial website...

[Enfield Pro]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say it's not possible to craft a website that fits EVERYONE'S browsing preferences.

HMC invested in an interactive catalog and parts books. That Sh*t ain't cheap. The HMC site seems to get regular updates and fixes, for example the search function works a lot better then it used to. Overall it's a nice site and a great resource.

I would suggest if you are having difficulty simply ask for help before giving your money to a middle man like eBay. It's important to remember,  you can find parts on the internet for cheap. But the majority of those vendors are doing nothing to support the Royal Enfield brand in the U.S. / U.K. Support your brand first!

[Adrian II]

Of course, if you need parts for a Redditch-built RE or Indian, there are a good many parts which our friends in India will be blissfully unaware of.

A.

[Dantheman]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the comments, obviously updates/changes will take time to implement, but hopefully we can get them improved in the long run.

     Hey Dan,

             At last we know for sure who's running things

              Been on here since 2009 and have spent many many hours here and as of right now I have absolutely no problems at all.

               I would never have gotten my '08 AVL (bought brand new) to the stage it is at now without the people on these forums (all of them). Many have followed my whole saga since '09 and I hope it has added to the knowledge base that is ONLY here. I lurked here for a long time just reading before I even FOUND the bike.

               I've ordered from you a few times and I wish you and us a whole bunch of good luck. Your online catalog needs work. As it is now, if you search on parts for a particular bike you are given a whole bunch of listings for other bikes as well. If you search on the AVL bikes you should get just parts for AVL bikes. As it is now, it's a mish-mash.

Just to touch on our HMC website, its something that is constantly changing and being updated to ultimately try and give improvements to the end user. Obviously, this doesn't always go to plan, and due to some rather big changes I completely understand the difficulty in being able to search through for a particular parts.

Perhaps there is a particular area I could try and walk through?

For example, if I was searching for standard parts for an AVL bike (what we would call the Electra X), I would use the online parts book as below, from here you can open up the group of components and click on the individual items to bring up price, picture, availability and add to cart:
https://www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/partsbook/111/2006-electra-x

If I was searching for upgraded parts or accessories, I would search through the accessory catalogue tab off the main page, then select the "find parts by category" and select the type of parts I was looking for. This will then bring up a list of parts listed under that category, where you can then narrow down the parts suitable for your particular bike by selecting the "Electra X" tick box.

And the last option, if you know the part number already, just type it into the search function at the top.

The difficulty for us comes with the large range of different parts we have available (15000+ different part numbers), so there is always going to be a few search options required to get started, and subsequently narrow down to your model of bike. 

[Adrian II]

That's good stuff, Dan.

The problems can come when we start dealing with Indian home market bikes which have escaped to the UK/USA. There are also some different models sold in the UK and USA. Your current range of on-line parts books, brilliant as it is, doesn't yet cover those models as such.

The 500 AVL Classic was never a UK import, so a mix of Electra-X and Iron Barrel Bullet parts books for the engine/power-train and cycle parts respectively would be needed.

Again the 5 speed E/S Deluxe was never sold officially in the UK, which only had the Sixty-5 and the army green bikes for the 5 speed E/S version of the classic Bullet. The differences were pretty minor: fork gaiters for the Sixty-5, tin fork shrouds for the E/S Deluxe. You also have metallic paint jobs for the Sixty-5 tinware while the 5 Speed E/S Deluxe has the chrome fenders and chrome/painted tank. The Sixty-5 would cover most of it, but you'd have to add in the 4 Speed Deluxe parts list for full coverage.

I really should get out more.

A.

[mattsz]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the comments, obviously updates/changes will take time to implement, but hopefully we can get them improved in the long run.

Just to touch on our HMC website...

I withdraw my previous statement... 

[GSS]

Dan,
Thank you for the explanation and totally understand the complexity....and truly appreciate all your wonderful work. There was previously a bit of navigational simplicity where GT 535 products were clearly batched together as were some others. Handlebars and other parts had a bit of description regarding fit and options. Clearly that is not possible with all 15,000+ parts, but maybe reducing the amount of generic, non-model specific stuff that get displayed, might be something to consider.  Looking forward to great things at this forum and your store.  Best regards.

GSS

[GSS]

Wow! Forum is already better

Message above got posted without a glitch on my first attempt

Thank you!

[tooseevee]

        Why isn't my bike, a 2008 AVL 500 Classic built in January '08 with front drum brake and triangular side cases, recognized on the Hitchcock site as it's own model?

         Only the Electra is called out. My parts book (November 2004) also is an Electra book, not a Classic book. Is there a Classic Parts Book?

         I have wondered about this for years.

[Adrian II]

You didn't see my post above dated 4th October tooseevee, the AVL Classic was never a UK import so Hitchcocks' on-line parts books aren't geared up for it, or any of the Indian home market models that escaped to the UK or USA.

A.

[tooseevee]

You didn't see my post above dated 4th October tooseevee, the AVL Classic was never a UK import so Hitchcocks' on-line pa ???rts books aren't geared up for it, or any of the Indian home market models that escaped to the UK or USA.

A.

           Yes, I did. I read EVery one of your posts with "baited" breath  I depend on you to make my day at least once a day here

           I still doesn'r keep me from asking "where's MY parts book  Waaa   

           (Just kidding. I know where to get stuff) )