It’s like Christmas in March!

I had a very pleasant surprise on Friday. I was working from home that day when I hear a knock at the door: I am greeted by someone from Canada Post who has in front of him a very large package. This can only be one thing: MOTORCYCLE FAIRINGS.

Some of my friends know the background story behind this purchase, but in case you don’t, it was a little bit of a headache acquiring this fairing set. As the bike has now been out of production for 26 years, you can imagine how difficult these were to find. I scoured the internet for months trying to find them, and I’m pretty confident I found the only after-market dealer in the world who has injection mold fairings for the NSR. (If you are unfamiliar with the difference between injection vs. compression mold, it basically comes down to the overall quality. But I will write a follow up entry explaining the difference!)

The fairings were bought from MFS Motor in China. And to be completely honest, these guys are a joke. Like there is 0 interaction with these guys, so you have to be 100% O.K. with sending money to the other side of the world and leaving it to blind faith that a package will arrive at your door. I tried to interact with these guys for MONTHS on their website and every social media platform that they are on, multiple times. Each message was met with radio silence. Finally, after reaching the realization that there wasn’t anyone else in the world selling this set, I reluctantly put my order through. The money was quietly withdrawn from my Visa account in early February, and there was no other indication that a transaction had taken place; no follow ups on my emails, no invoice, nothing. To be honest, I was going to give it another couple of weeks before I disputed the charges with Visa. All the while, I kept in the back of my mind the multiple reviews I have read online of MFS Motor, all saying the exact same thing; they will take your money and ignore all your emails and messages. The customer service is garbage, but the quality of the fairings more than makes up for it.

They were right. My only real complaint (besides the customer service) was the fact that I requested that they send screws and a heat shield for the inside of the fairings. There are no screws, but that is okay because they included the heat shield.  The fairings are solid. I couldn’t be happier with the purchase- they really are shiny and beautiful! Because of the timing of the purchase I also got to take advantage of a Chinese New Year discount.

My good day on Friday was followed by some more good news today: My motorcycle has arrived!!!!!

It is currently waiting for me at a warehouse near the Airport. The arrival was delayed due to the rail blockades since it travelled from BC to Ontario via rail. But I will have to go on Thursday to clear it with customs. They literally give you 3 full days of notice (I don’t count today since I found out just before lunchtime) to pick up the bike before you start incurring storage fees.

I anticipate issues clearing it with CBSA because I only have a photocopied version of the ownership and the original version is with the (crated) bike under the seat. I anticipated a problem from the start, but the reason I did things this way is because Japan is known for having some of the most stringent regulations in the world. This is precisely why most exporters will not deal with you as an independent exporter. Since this is the case, I left the ownership with the bike in case it had issues clearing customs in Japan. It basically came down to a last minute judgement call and I’m not sure if it was the right decision but I will let you know! I figured this would be a much bigger issue than clearing it with customs in Canada since they could simply de-crate the bike to access the ownership.

I will post lots of pictures and updates when I pick up the bike!