Fabric Couplings: The Good and the bad

[JonE]

Our cherished suppliers do an excellent job, the parts are cheap, and I for one 
don’t mind do a bit of fettling if needs be. I wouldn’t complain about a minor issue on a forum.

It's a difficult one, as there are lots of newbies coming in (we all hope) who perhaps don't have your engineering understanding and skills, Zeto. Suppliers are no doubt busy and one little part - it might be good that it is raised if it doesn't get picked up through the normal "this doesn't seem quite right" channel - which didn't happen to work this time.
Otherwise lots of new people start using potentially slightly wrong things - whilst the old hands quietly sort things out?

It has got to be a (tiny) barrier worth minimising for encouraging people to stay with a Seven for the longer term (i.e. rather than buying something, getting annoyed with faffing around trying to fix things perhaps without adequate support, and then selling up at a loss to return to a classic)

So we should look at it as positive - asking questions about slightly different shaped parts on here, so we can all learn to fettle if we DO need to, or specs can be updated. I was thinking this with brake lever cotter pins last week. New ones from somewhere - can't remember and it doesn't really matter anyway - didn't fit like another older one I had which fitted straight in. I will try to remember to check size when I buy some more next time!