HJC HJ-V5 Sun Visor Replacement for the Symax II - Worth the long wait?

After our return from the Nova Scotia/PEI trip in late July, I removed the internal Sun Visor on my HJC Symax II only to break one of the tabs that secures the visor to the retraction mechanism. This is the second time this has happened in the few years I've owned this helmet. The first time, I was able to visit the local BMW and obtain a replacement. Not this time! They were already on backorder with other customers also waiting for replacements.

A quick check online reflected that other sources were also hopelessly stuck in backorder mode, too. One glimmer of hope surfaced when Competition Accessories' website showed that they had them in stock. I quickly ordered up two. Disappointment set in a day or so later when the order was acknowledged and... they were also showing backordered.

Competition Accessories can be praised for keeping on top of the situation, emailing me updates on the order status once a month. However, three months later, I started to get concerned and took the opportunity to email the folks at HJC to see what was up. I was getting suspicious of a factory defect that was causing the widespread availability problems. Here's my email exchange with HJC:

To: parts@hjchelmets.com

Hi, I'm hoping you can answer why nobody has stock of the flip down sun shield for the Symax II. Everyone's backordered on the replacement shields. I broke my 2nd one during removal for cleaning over three months ago. I immediately put one on order at my local BMW shop and two more on order (one for a friend) at Competition Accessories. I like the helmet! I can't be without the sun shield. Hope to hear from you. Best regards, Brian Young Raleigh, NC

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HJC Parts Center <parts@hjchelmets.com>	Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 6:51 PM
To: Brian Young
Dear Brian:   In response to your inquiry, unfortunately the eta on delivery will be given and known by the dealer once they get the order filled by their distributions.  We do not sell nor distribute from our location so we do not have any control or knowledge to when a dealer will get parts filled from their orders.   We appreciate your business and contributions in making HJC Helmet North America's number one helmet selling company for the past decade.   Please visit www.hjchelmets.com for our new and exciting product line (RPS-10, IS-16, IS-MAX BT, CL-MAX II, CL-X6, CS-MX and CL-Xy) alongside recent past models. There are still more new models to come very soon in the future!   Thank you and have a great day!!! Fritzie Cota Customer Service HJC America, Inc. 16918 Edwards Rd Cerritos, CA  90703 T:  (562) 407-2186 Ext. 256 F:  (562) 802-7706 E:  fritzie@hjchelmets.com [Quoted text hidden]

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Brian Young	Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 6:45 AM
To: HJC Parts Center <parts@hjchelmets.com>
Thanks for the reply, although I'm a bit disappointed in your answer. Being associated with the parts supply for HJC, I would expect you to know when what seems like a global shortage of a common part is going to be resolved and comment on it. This part has been unavailable for months, so it has to be on your radar as a problem. How about providing just a bit more information in order to build my confidence in HJC filling the pipeline sometime soon so I can enjoy my helmet once again?

I never received an answer to that last email. :-(

The friendly reminder emails continued from Competition Accessories all the way into November. I even received a phone call from them indicating that they were finally being told the shields were due in at the end of November! It was nice to get a call from them. It was certainly not their problem.

Finally, a week or so before Christmas, I FINALLY received the two visors as ordered after almost 5 months!! How, come on HJC, what's up with that?

Back to being suspicious of a factory defect, I decided to compare the old and new visors. It took me a bit, but I found the broken one (glad I saved it) and was able to compare it to the new one. From what I could tell, there wasn't ANY difference. The photos below speak for themselves.

Here's the original "broken" HJC visorAnd here's the new replacement HJC visorMy conclusion after the long wait... It must have been a Chinese supplier problem and an unrectified design problem remains IMHO. The moral of the long story... Consider a spare if you routinely remove the visor for cleaning.

I'll probably change my ways in 2011 and NOT remove it for cleaning. How about you?

Happy New Year to all!!