The quest for NOS parts... How frustrating!

So many parts places appear to have tons of NOS parts in stock and ask you to put them in your shopping cart and checkout only to inform you they do not have.

I'm looking fro a whack of parts for my 1978 Z1R restoration and it is so frustrating trying source NOS parts.

Who are the best sources for these parts?

NW Vintage cycle has a real-time inventory but precious little in stock.

Need some pricey parts like a complete rear master cylinder assy. Ignition assy. and (OK I'm dreaming here) a complete NOS seat.

Any advice or should I just stop banging my head.

I have searched every eBay site in the world and seeing people charging a fortune for corroded old scrap or astronomical prices like 540 Euros for a NOS Z1R windscreen makes me wanna throw up.

Wayne in WInnipeg

Try Bike Bandit, Babbittsonline.com, Old Bike Barn for starters.

The issue that you have encountered is that many of these e-vendors that have on-line search capabilities don't have real-time connections with Kawasaki. Just by-pass them for your parts searches and go straight to Kawasaki. Somewhere on this site is a tutorial (by Patton, IIRC) on how to use the search function on www.kawasaki.com It'll tell you what parts are available, what parts are in short-supply, and what parts are NLA. This is fundamentally the same mechanism that all these e-vendors are using after they take your order. BTW, these e-vendors don't keep large stocks of obsolete parts on hand, no matter what they say.

The second step is to become one with eBay...it is a steep learning curve. There are many eBay vendors who are hawking NOS parts...and they are not truthful. If you are truly looking for NOS parts for a rare motorcycle, then there are sellers on eBay but you'll really pay high prices.

EDIT: Wayne, I just read your other post and you should know all I stated above. Forgive me for lecturing.

It is frustrating if you are in a hurry. I like to use the saved searches function on Ebay to help find those elusive NOS parts.

About the only way u will find NOS parts for 30+ year old scooter is for someone to stumble across parts in some long closed or abandoned shop/warehouse or laying around in someones garage. If,as someone said,u do find it,u will pay out the wazoo for it.There is some repro stuff out there, and some items are still available from Maw Kaw. Pickins are slim though.I keep waiting for some young enterpreneur to buy the specs from Kaw and start building parts again-the market is small but growing and a profit could be made IMO.For most of us its buy used and hope it holds together.bj

I've had good luck with sportlandmotorsports . Their prices are good and the shipping is reasonable.