I must have been speaking a dead language today

[ohiorider]

While I was out riding today, I stopped at a Honda Powersports store to purchase what I thought was a universal item.  Went to the parts counter and asked for an H4 headlight bulb.  Got the deer in the headlights look.  "what bike is it for?" 

Me - it's an H4 bulb, far as I know, it's a universal standard. 

Him - 'what model Honda is it for?'

Me - 'I don't know, probably any one that uses an H4 bulb.'

No luck there, so I stopped at a "Motor Company" dealer, where I thought I was sure to find one.

"What model Harley is it for?"

"It's for my BMW."

"Ohhhhhh ....well ....

Again, no luck.

So I went out of my way to stop at the BMW dealer.  They were closed on Mondays.

Who on this forum wouldn't be familiar with an H4 headlamp bulb?  I don't think there'd be many.  Or have H4 bulbs fallen totally out of favor over the past 10-15 years?

Bob

[Tom H]

Try your local auto parts store. They should have the bulb.

Tom

[fotoguzzi]

[Triple Jim]

Agreed that an auto parts store is the place to get one, but it's hilarious that two motorcycle dealers didn't even know where to send you.

[ridingron]

I was told that on a dual head light bike, you can't use an H4. DOT says no more than 90 watts are allowed. My Honda, sold all over the world, has a modified lamp housing for the US. The head lamps look like an H4 at a quick glance. However the 3 locating flanges are at different locations than the H4. Honda sales a 45/45 lamp.

I bought a European housing and run the standard H4. Works great!

[ohiorider]

I knew NAPA or Autozone would probably have them, but seems like I've had better luck over the years with bulbs spec'd for motorcycles (supposedly less susceptible to vibration damage, or so I have always thought.)

[Markcarovilli]

Bob

are you sure you were dressed appropriately to enter these cycle stores 

I think Tractor Supply even carries them......

Mark

[Tom]

 :1: Auto Zone, O'Reilly's, CARQUEST, Napa and WalMart.  There are H4 equivalent LED on Amazon too. 

[ohiorider]

Bob

are you sure you were dressed appropriately to enter these cycle stores 

I think Tractor Supply even carries them......

Mark

Mark,

Maybe not, but I felt appropriately grungy and stinking of the smell of gasoline from my flooding carburetor issue from an hour earlier.  Maybe it was a turn off when I walked up to the counter at the HD dealer and said "Aaarrrrrrrrr, Lassie ..... lead me to the H4's."

[Perazzimx14]

Problem is even going to the mega auto parts store is if you can't find the part on the shelf and you have to ask the counter guy the 1st question out of his mouth will be "what vehicle" is the part for. You might be asking for some fast orange hand cleaner or an air freshener but if they can't look it up and see it on the monitor they don't have it.

[Triple Jim]

Maybe it was a turn off when I walked up to the counter at the HD dealer and said "Aaarrrrrrrrr, Lassie ..... lead me to the H4's."

A lassie at the parts counter?  We haven't evolved that far in this area.   

[Arizona Wayne]

Sounds like a typical HD store to me.  A few years ago I needed some fork gaitors for my MuZ and all the HD parts guys didn't have a clue what I needed.  Ended up finding them @ the local Suzuki dealer. 

[Lannis]

Problem is even going to the mega auto parts store is if you can't find the part on the shelf and you have to ask the counter guy the 1st question out of his mouth will be "what vehicle" is the part for. You might be asking for some fast orange hand cleaner or an air freshener but if they can't look it up and see it on the monitor they don't have it.

Right there is the problem.   Most of the guys behind the parts counter these days are NOT gearheads, they did NOT grow up working on cars, they know NOTHING about the parts they are selling.

All they know how to do is navigate the company's parts menu.   If you won't tell them what kind of car it is for, they don't want to hear anything else.   You can tell them the type, the manufacturers number, or something that we used to expect parts guys to know.   Not now.

The good thing is, I have access from my very desk to the same inventories that they have, without coming into the store or even buying from their store.   I just push a button, and an energetic young person in brown shorts drops it on my doorstep ....

Lannis

[Lee Bruns]

Try your local auto parts store. They should have the bulb.

Tom

Yep, every auto parts store will have H4, AND you really should have helped educate the nimrods at BOTH of those shops They have no business at a parts counter if they don't know what a 1157 or a H4 are.

[oldbike54]

Sounds like a typical HD store to me.  A few years ago I needed some fork gaitors for my MuZ and all the HD parts guys didn't have a clue what I needed.  Ended up finding them @ the local Suzuki dealer. 

 Uh Wayne , Bob started in a Honda dealership 

 Dusty

[troyhamilton]

I once went into the motor company to get a 530 master link. dino asked me what modle hd it was for. i just replied shovel head. he turned and got me one...then i laughed and said its for my cb750...the dirty look i got was worth it!

[Arizona Wayne]

Uh Wayne , Bob started in a Honda dealership 

 Dusty

Hey Dusty, don't bother me with details.     I went to the HD store figuring if anybody had what I needed they would.  Boy was I wrong!

[Guzzistajohn]

I called the local tri-yam shop and asked for a wheel bearing for a '48 rickshaw in my best Chinese accent. They told me they couldn't help me. The nerve of those people

[oldbike54]

A lassie at the parts counter?  We haven't evolved that far in this area.

 Absolutely the best three parts persons we've had around here in are female 

 In defense of these no-nothing parts counter droids , the game is all about parts numbers now. Back when an entire parts store's inventory could fit in 3 rows of shelves, and the book was only a hundred pages thick it was possible to pretty much memorize what was in the store . Not possible now . Of course not knowing what an H4 bulb is seems problematic 

 Dusty

 Dusty

 

[Guzzistajohn]

Absolutely the best three parts persons we've had around here in are female 

 In defense of these no-nothing parts counter droids , the game is all about parts numbers now. Back when an entire parts store's inventory could fit in 3 rows of shelves, and the book was only a hundred pages thick it was possible to pretty much memorize what was in the store . Not possible now . Of course not knowing what an H4 bulb is seems problematic 

 Dusty

 Dusty

Many parts aren't even IN the store. They have to be shipped from a warehouse somewhere. All the guy is asking for is search criteria so he can find the part in the system and the location, get the price yadda yadda. Sorry, but you have to play the game.

[Triple Jim]

I guess I'm lucky in the small town I live near.  Most or all of the auto parts stores have counter guys who generally know the stock, and are happy to take a random part I bring in, maybe from an old boat engine, and match it to something they have on the shelf.

I do admit though, that the hour I would have to spend driving to town and back usually makes me order parts by web.  The fact that including shipping, it's usually still less expensive than buying locally reinforces that.

Unfortunately, the motorcycle dealer in town has been little help to me.  They couldn't even help me get a spare key to my Ninja 250.

[kingoffleece]

Never walked into a NAPA and not been able to find a H4 on the shelf.  Several are rated for high vibration.

[Muzz]

Much the same out here, although I suspect that most would know what an H4 bulb is.

I have a "contact" who is older than me, been in parts all his life and has not retired yet because I think he enjoys the job too much. He actually deals with the phone enquirers as he can usually get to know what they are after. So far the shop lets me go out back and Keith can sort me out with the awkward stuff.

[LowRyter]

those bulbs  technically go by 9003/H4.

When you search at walmart, it can drive you crazy if you can't remember 9003 bulb.

Bike shop?  Ahhhh never.

[Kentktk]

Just order from Amazon at a cheaper price, answer your own questions and stay at home.  Even websites that sell parts always want the vehicle, year, and model before you can get what you are looking for, it`s just the way it is. You can`t blame the kid behind the counter as it`s not a career, he/her is not interested in parts and companies are to cheap to even want to give basic training and they learn through trial and error with customers. I have to say I find women behind the parts counter to be more helpful, because like with most things in life they actually care.

[Huzo]

Right there is the problem.   Most of the guys behind the parts counter these days are NOT gearheads, they did NOT grow up working on cars, they know NOTHING about the parts they are selling.

All they know how to do is navigate the company's parts menu.   If you won't tell them what kind of car it is for, they don't want to hear anything else.   You can tell them the type, the manufacturers number, or something that we used to expect parts guys to know.   Not now.

The good thing is, I have access from my very desk to the same inventories that they have, without coming into the store or even buying from their store.   I just push a button, and an energetic young person in brown shorts drops it on my doorstep ....

Lannis

That's probably the very reason that good spares places are going down the toilet Lannis. Less people are using them and then when you go there for something on a Saturday morning just before they close.....Woops !!! They just employ some inexperienced dick who remembers to close and lock the door when he leaves. Hopefully.

[Kentktk]

Right there is the problem.   Most of the guys behind the parts counter these days are NOT gearheads, they did NOT grow up working on cars, they know NOTHING about the parts they are selling.

All they know how to do is navigate the company's parts menu.   If you won't tell them what kind of car it is for, they don't want to hear anything else.   You can tell them the type, the manufacturers number, or something that we used to expect parts guys to know.   Not now.

The good thing is, I have access from my very desk to the same inventories that they have, without coming into the store or even buying from their store.   I just push a button, and an energetic young person in brown shorts drops it on my doorstep ....

Lannis

Exactly  :1:

[Lannis]

That's probably the very reason that good spares places are going down the toilet Lannis. Less people are using them and then when you go there for something on a Saturday morning just before they close.....Woops !!! They just employ some inexperienced dick who remembers to close and lock the door when he leaves. Hopefully.

Maybe a sort of "chicken and egg" question.   Are the stores failing, including not attracting good help, because we've  heartlessly and disloyally abandoned them for a better source, or are the stores failing because technology has changed (like needing buggy whips to NOT needing buggy whips) and they didn't anticipate it?

I think it's the latter.   Bookstores are the perfect example.   Books are the easiest thing in the world to buy on-line.   I can get out-of-print AND newly published books on-line in an instant, books I would never see at a Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million.   

So if I'm in town (30 miles from home) and wander into a Barnes and Noble, and say "Hey, I remembered there's a book I want to buy", and I look for it and it's not there, but they say ...

"We can order it for you, it will be here Friday"

what kind of idiot would I have to be let THEM order it, then I have to come BACK to the store and pick it up, when all I have to do is One-Touch ordering and in two days, the book is on my own doorstep?

Most oil threads include the same thing, where someone says "I can't get the oil that's recommended for my bike locally, is it OK if I use the reprocessed chainsaw bar oil that's on sale for 50 cents a gallon this week at my local BiggBoxx?"

With apologies to the Canadians, who have explained that there are very many products that are not shipped to Canada, WHY would you not just buy it on-line at 50% of the price offered for the right stuff 100 miles away, and go with it?

My first priority is to use my local retail place IF it makes sense or IF they provide a service for me, but I do NOT use them as my shipping depot.   My front porch works for that.

Lannis

[Cage Free]

While I was out riding today, I stopped at a Honda Powersports store to purchase what I thought was a universal item.  Went to the parts counter and asked for an H4 headlight bulb.  Got the deer in the headlights look.  "what bike is it for?" 

Me - it's an H4 bulb, far as I know, it's a universal standard. 

Him - 'what model Honda is it for?'

Me - 'I don't know, probably any one that uses an H4 bulb.'

No luck there, so I stopped at a "Motor Company" dealer, where I thought I was sure to find one.

"What model Harley is it for?"

"It's for my BMW."

"Ohhhhhh ....well ....

Again, no luck.

So I went out of my way to stop at the BMW dealer.  They were closed on Mondays.

Who on this forum wouldn't be familiar with an H4 headlamp bulb?  I don't think there'd be many.  Or have H4 bulbs fallen totally out of favor over the past 10-15 years?

Bob

The H-4's Honda uses are specific to their bikes, they use a different tab set up than a conventional H-4, my friend who owned a Honda dealership explained this to me years ago.  He said its just marketing, selling a $50. Honda bulb is much more profitable than a $15. universal bulb. 

[LowRyter]

The H-4's Honda uses are specific to their bikes, they use a different tab set up than a conventional H-4, my friend who owned a Honda dealership explained this to me years ago.  He said its just marketing, selling a $50. Honda bulb is much more profitable than a $15. universal bulb.

then it's not an H4 (9003) bulb.