Rubber

[TouringGodet]

Good luck you can find plenty that look right but the trouble begins with with the rubber quality
Something has changed in the composition of black rubber components over the last 20 odd years I never experienced the extrusion of carbon on simple washing of the rubber surface before and my rubber trials seat cracked within a few months without being left in the sun is it the reduction of natural rubber? Any chemists out there?

(didn't want to hijack the other thread, started a new topic)

I think the change in rubber goes back more than 20 years. I think by the 80's or maybe even the 70's, rubber was quite a bit different than before. My John Bull kickstart rubber on the Shadow is still the same one that was on it back in the 50's. And I have one of those John Bull accessory spark plug carriers, made back in the 50's, and even the 2 thick rubber o-ring shaped pieces that hold it together are still flexible enough to work well.

 

[vibrac]

Absolutely I could write on a white board with some rubber components there must be standards for composition after all the technology exists for a good product tyres for instance are clever compounds
But on my kit car for instance when I wash it long black streaks appear on the body work away from the rubber fittings and rubber items on my millennium trail bike are already cracked and with a hard discoulored surface.
I do have a product called tyre softener on my shelf that the drag boys use I wonder how that works?

 

[Peter Holmes]

Well I guess there is a lot of rubber required by all the inhabitants of this planet, and not enough rubber producing trees, they have been cut down to provide houses and employment for all the people that require more and more rubber.