I am experiencing a bit of frustration here.
My FJ's fork sprung a leak. I decided this would be a good time for a minor upgrade. FJ prior to 1988 used a 16 inch front wheel and then-fashionable anti-dive mechanism (it's supposed to stiffen the fork when brakes are applied. In reality it does little except introducing a couple of leak points via an extra hose). From 1989 onwards Yamaha switched to normal forks and a 17 inch wheel. Also, the caliper mounts allow using brakes from newer bikes, like R1. There was no 1988 FJ.
Local yard is a mess. They have a pile of bikes, some piles of parts, never know what they got, don't answer emails, and a phone call is usually along the lines of "we'll call you back in a couple of days" because they literally send a guy out to go look in the pile.
I put in a request at Mr. Cycleparts, which is a website that sends it out to a network of yards all over the place. I got four hits. The two with reasonable price saw full well that I requested 89 and up, but tried to sell me an 86. Both required me telling them to look for a little doohickey over by the thingy while they went to physically see the part because their parts aren't actually marked and they have no inventory lists. The other two must have special edition forks made of solid platinum, if their price is any indication.
Car junkyards at least have a list of what makes/models/years they have in the yard. Better ones have actual inventory lists on computer. Meanwhile, these people apparently have never head of this newfangled thing called a spreadsheet. Or a tag, on which you could put the info on which bike you took it off off.
Ugh. I might call one of the high priced places, but I have a feeling they aren't any better...
