hard bag mount brackets- REALLY?

[1moreroad]

Update on availability: Dealer spoke with his parts rep and, at his encouragement, I with corporate customer service.
 
Yamaha corporate has zero brackets in the US right now. The next batch is not expected in the US until June 30. Dealers should have brackets 3-5 days later (but that is around July 4 so there could be delays).
 
I bought the bike and ordered the bags with a corporate Demo Day promotion discount May 8. I was originally told 2-3 weeks then 6 weeks and now 9 weeks after purchase for the mounts. Unfortunately I have a trip planned for this week and another tentatively planned for the July 4 weekend. I'll be using 10 year old soft bags for both. I might catch a short overnight in August but after that I probably can't tour until August 2016 due to (fun) family trips! I'll have this bike for many years, I'm a little disappointed in the short term.

[efjay]

Check Ebay vigilantly. That's how I scored mine.

[1moreroad]

Already paid. $473 for all the bags AND brackets + $84 installed. It was a good promotion.

[efjay]

That is good deal!

[pixlox]

I purchased my bike last week and told the bags and rear carrier would be in within 2 days, this week I'm informed that the rear carrier and sidebar brackets are back ordered until July 22nd.  So much for any way to carry my gear on my trip in two weeks.  Dealers should be more honest.
 

[Guest spunrdneck]

mine are on ebay now... search for the part number. 2PP-F84G0-V0-00 the ones I made are perfect for me. if you mount permanently, long term, the stock ones are probably best.

[Guest spunrdneck]

If that works out I would buy a set! What would they cost?

I wouldn't build and sell but I will gladly send all info needed if you try the whole DIY thing. 

[pixlox]

My mounting brackets are back ordered until the 22nd of July......we'll see.  I was told when I purchased bike 2 business days and everything would be here!  Yeah, right!!

[jimf]

My mounting brackets are back ordered until the 22nd of July......we'll see.  I was told when I purchased bike 2 business days and everything would be here!  Yeah, right!!

Hah, yea, my dealer said "usually about three days."  Some stuff did in fact show up that fast (tail rack, engine protectors, luggage lock cores), but most of it didn't. 
Frame sliders?  No, that took a couple of weeks, by which time I'd already bought crash bars, so I had them return the parts.  Hard luggage?  Just over two months.  Lower luggage brackets?  Still haven't shown up, two and a half months and counting, last estimated ship date about three weeks from now.  Heated grips?  Same thing, but with a ship date marginally sooner at two weeks.
 
You can't trust the backorder dates at all.  They come and they go and nothing shows up.  So far, zero items that were backordered showed up anywhere near the first backorder date.  Only one showed up within a couple of weeks of the second quoted date.  One within a couple of weeks of the third.  Haven't got to the fourth quoted date yet.
 
When it became clear that the luggage, mounts, and grips weren't going to show up any time soon my dealer confessed that Yamaha yells at them for not selling more accessories, but any time they order any kind of expensive accessory it's not available.  That certainly matches my experience.  I kind of wonder if that's why some accessories can't be ordered online; they need the dealer to manage the customer when it becomes clear that the stuff isn't showing up any time soon.
 
jetfixer was kind enough to sell me his lower bag mounts; I should have them by mid-week (thanks man!).  I'll be canceling my order with Yamaha, so maybe someone gets a set just a little earlier than they would have.  Hopefully the heated grips show up before my trip up in Canada in September.
 
I would chalk this up to unexpectedly high demand -- the FJ is selling quite well worldwide, I understand -- if the dealer hadn't said it always happens.  Plus some of the accessories are common to other bikes like the Super Tenere and the FZ-09 and FJR so you'd think they would already have some inventory.
 
IMO Yamaha is trying to keep their inventory costs down by collecting orders before ordering manufacturing, and they probably have limits on how much they can manufacture with each order cycle which are being overwhelmed both by normal seasonal demand and by relatively high sales of popular new models (look at how many great bikes Yamaha has introduced just since last fall).  Whether this optimization's cost/profit win is more than the lost sales from people who simply give up and order third party stuff is an interesting question, but no matter what it has tarnished what I think about Yamaha's parts support.  Should I consider buying another Yamaha I will think very hard about whether or not I want to go through that kind of wait for accessories again.
 
And that's a shame, because the FJ is a stomping good bike.  I suppose the annoyance of this will fade over time once I get everything, kind of like the two weeks I had to wait for the recall part to show up (which was listed as plentiful in the parts system when ordered, yet did not ship despite this).  At the moment, though, it's hard not to be fairly pissed off about it.
 

[vrex]

I had the same reaction when I got mine . . . Jeez! Totally out of character with the bike . . . Looks like a Harley part. Hope the aftermarket offers a better-engineered equivalent . . . I would buy.
 
 

[jimf]

I had the same reaction when I got mine . . . Jeez! Totally out of character with the bike . . . Looks like a Harley part. Hope the aftermarket offers a better-engineered equivalent . . . I would buy. 

It's not anything like a Harley part, it's not even a little bit chrome. :-) 
One of the reasons why I decided to use Yamaha luggage rather than aftermarket is that I liked the clean lines of their luggage mounts when the bags weren't on them, rather than the plumber's nightmare of your typical Givi mounts.  I'm not really sure what people think would be in character for the bike, but at least the things aren't obtrusive.
 
 

[1moreroad]

Sigh. Good news - the mounts arrived at the dealer yesterday and were installed today. That's 13 days before Yamaha corporate said they would arrive in the country. The bad news is that the dealer didn't know to order lock cores. They gave me a 20% discount on the cores and will mail them to me when they arrive. Right now I have zip ties to make sure everything is closed.
 
Rode about 80 miles home with them. Couldn't really tell they were on the back. I increased pre load 1 click. I think the bike turns faster making me think I need to raise the forks ASAP.

[jimf]

Yesterday I had the dealer cancel my order since I already have a set of the mounts from jetfixer, and they came back and said that coincidentally the mounts had just shipped from Yamaha the day before. So, they did get a shipment in ahead of the date that was quoted. Not ahead of the three previous backorder dates they'd given me, though.
 
Still no word on heated grips.
 

[bobaintstoppin]

Jim,  My dealer (Troy, NY) just advised current date for heated grips is 7/23.  I guess that's before the cold weather sets in  ;-|
 
I ordered these in February, but I suspect that the dealer didn't place with Yamaha until later.

[jimf]

Jim,  My dealer (Troy, NY) just advised current date for heated grips is 7/23.  I guess that's before the cold weather sets in  ;-| 
I ordered these in February, but I suspect that the dealer didn't place with Yamaha until later.

Well, the current backorder date would theoretically be for new orders, not orders already placed.  It's abundantly clear that orders placed when the backorder date is X do not normally ship anywhere near X, but they probably do have some kind of order queue, so yours (and mine) might show up before that date as parts trickle their way in. 
For instance, the last time I checked with my dealer about the luggage mounts I was given a date of 7/6, but they shipped on 6/16.  That's nowhere near the ~4/21 date I was quoted when I placed the order on 4/1, alas.