Brakes ...... too good!?

hhhmmm.... well....... why are things never straight forward in the Lambretta world!?

Front brake is now causing me a right hassle!!

First off, the RS / Nissin master cylinder is not as solid as I'd like on the handlebars, but the main problem is that the bloody brake is sticking on after being applied!  Its very very annoying!

So far we have stripped, cleaned and checked the caliper, yes the pistons were very tight and not moving freely, so we cleaned, soaked the seals and re-assembled - they now move nice and free.... did it cure the problem... well naturally not!   reduced it slightly, but its still there - still sticking on!

so next we check the master cylinder..... all seems ok tehre - pumps and releases fine - theres no kinks in teh hose......

GGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRR>>>>>>>>>>>>

Video!

Yes......................... No bodywork................ but it runs!

April

Basically not much happened on the race bike in April!

A number of things got in the way really, first off my road bike had been off the road since November, with Charlie Edmonds having the cylinder, piston and head for a little bit of work on the Mugelo 225!

i picked the barrel up on the first weekend in April, so of course that took a priority!
The newly re-worked barrel was a revelation as soon as I fitted it! As you would expect, Charlie has done a great job - whta he calls a 'fast road' tune, which brings the barrel into well set up TS1 territory. Its very nice to ride, and is very driveable..... not peaky and with a really broad spread of usable power. It brought a smile to my face for sure - and of course ANY opportunity to go out on it was taken!
So a few ride outs with Miles on his Dragster, made for a pleasant month. Miles is a second generation scooterist now! He's happily coming along on his Dragster to ride outs with Grantham Daytrippers Scooter Club!
At a ride out to Gunthorpe Bridge - near Nottingham

April also saw the final snowboarding trip of the year with 5 days in Chamonix. Snow was fantastic for late season! Fresh snow whilst we were there, powder, sun - what more could you ask for!? A somewhat scary moment starting an avalanche off piste and riding off it brought me down to earth though! A VERY scary moment!










Catching an air whilst showing a definite lack of colour co-ordination!









The infamous gully where we had the avalanche moment!










So now we pretty much up to date!

May has seen much more progress - mainly to shut Classic Ed up - his nagging is like being married you know! LOL !

Front Wheel!

So............. here we go with another instalment!

Last post in March was the fitting of new steering brearings ( handily after the frame had been painted!)

Well now finally some GP forks were located, brand new at the bargain price of £50 squid. The damper brackets needed welding on, so mate Dave ( a very handy man to know) sorted out for me, and after some careful measuremts were nicely welded on!

Now............ Hammerite! Not the brush on hammer finish rubbish that Chris Taylor uses ( applied with massive brush) I selected the satin black smoothe finish Hammerite - which kind of seems a contradiction in terms.... but hey.... on withthe plot!

the forks were painted, a set of Taffspeed's finest quality springs were fitted, alongwith all new internals to the forks, all stiffened up with some 12mm stainless steel bushes ( Cheers to Dave - again - a handy bloke to know lol)

the hydraulic outboard disc that was originally due to be fitted to the road bike, has now been diverted to the race bike, and looks mighty fine against the satin black forks!



So now I have a rolling chassis! Which I have to say is quite handy to be able to actually wheel it around the garage! Temporarily the indian welded bent headest is fitted - its destined for the skip once the SX one arrives from a mate who's replacing it with a chrome GP one! Handily he gave the SX one to me!



The side panels are now painted in primer, the petrol tank is painted ( satin black) and fitted with all new rubbers........... then.......... oh bugger........... the petrol tank cap is a crappy locking Indian thing, which doesn't actually fit properly! Oh well............ add it to the list of odds and ends which is building up! ho hum!

So............. now I had some progress I could go play in the snow with a clearer conscience ......... actually I had no conscience about it whatsoever! ...... i was offered an all expenses 4 days in Val D'Isere....... no contest really lol
So off i went.............................................................

Side panels!

Wow....... How time has flown. It's over two months since the last update. It's easy to start these things with every good intention, but theres so many things that have got in the way...... still, as 'er indoors repeatedly tells me I do far too many things!

So........ whats been happening since the last time? Well...... its been slow, but quite a lot actually, so I'll try and bring you a ( roughly) chronological update!

First - some side panels arrived! Carl Neath ( I will not say a word about a 70's pop family!) donated me a slightly worse for wear set!

So sometime in early March the old numbers ( cloth tape) were removed and the tedious process of rubbing down and filling with filler ready for priming started! The panels needed lots of iller, and also several additions of fibreglass and resin underneath to strengthen the weak points - of which there were many! Removal of the white backgrounds revealed a nice '80's fluorescent ref underneath!

Steering Bearings!

hhhmmmmmm well....... in my rush to get some shiny paint on the frame, i managed to miss the fact that the bearing tracks were shot to pieces!

Naturally it would have been desirable to have removed the tracks BEFORE I paint! But too late for that!

Anyway - being careful I managed to get the top and bottom bearing cups out without really damaging the paint! New fork overhaul set ( Ebay bargain ) arrived and are now fitted. The forks I orginally planned to use are really past their best upon further inspection, so I'm currently try to find a decent set! But it's not proving easy!

Chris Taylor (fellow blogger) has come to the rescue with a loan set until I get a set sorted. Its been great to find fellow racers so willing to help out with donating or lending bits........ theres a great spirit amongst racers!

Next major bit to source is legshields and a headset.!!

So Saturday - didn't have too much on, paint on the frame was nice and dry..... so hey - lets get the engine in! Now....... that seemed a simple task....... but in the two years since the frame I'm using was stripped apart, one of the engine bolt cones has gone AWOL. After an hour of pulling stuff out from under the bench, emptying boxes, looking fruitlessly in pull out trays............... I give up!

One of my nearest dealers is Kev Braithwaite ( ex- racer ) at TWE Scooters in Mansfield.......... so off we go to his emporium (!) Every time I go there he still tries to sell me it! I got a few bits and bobs, rubbers, cables and a few little things.

Bizarrely whilst up in his storage are I spy on the shelf a couple of things that take me right back about 15 years! Sitting there on the shelf is a Brand New Dunlop TT60 Slick - still with the labels on it! Next to it are 3 more - but these are used / scrubbed. They are for sale - offers invited! then..... sitting below them is a front and rear Brisgestone Battlax- I remember using these as wets back in the day! They had a different front tyre tread pattern with a centre groove, which was not on the rear version, which was also a slightly different profile!

I resisted the temptation to stuff notes in Kev's hand - but would have been very retro ( its all the rage you know!) So, back home, and slip the cones in the frame Miles gives me a hand with engine and in it goes! At least I'm now seeing some decent progress so I'm pretty pleased with this weekends progress.

Finally...... some decent progress!

Well...... at last a few things have started to come together!

As you may remember from previous posts I've spent a lot of time messing around with a twist and go for my son...... well..... an immaculate Italjet Dragster appeared at a reasonable price and ( fingers crossed ) is nice and reliable!

The old Sym Jet was pretty damn cheap, but its had a hard life and I reckon after talking to a few people they seem to have some pretty fragile electrics!

It seemed to be one electrical problem after another, which i reckon we've now cured , as its been reliable for a while now, so the Dragster has arrived, and the Sym jet is on Ebay! Hurray...... clear the decks and get on with the Race Scooter!!!!!!!!!

So.... the progress since last time..... well the engine was dropped off to Martin Cook at Chiselspeed. He gave it a once over, added a nice new Mikuni TMX35 carb, and set it up on the dyno. The ignition on it was a bit of a puzzler, and it turns out that its a modified Piaggio one. The HT coil supplied withthe engine was actually nothing to do with it! So Martin fitted a new Piaggio coil and all was well.

The engine dyno'd at a little less than expected, which we reckon is down to the exhaust system holding it back a little. Its good to go with for now though....... but a some point a new exhaust will help it out!

So with the motor collected and no auto's needing attention, then I decided to muck out my garage and make a bit of space so i could 'crack on'!

I spent this weekend rubbing down and preparing the GP frame for painting...... i'd forgotten just how tedious Lambretta frames are to prepare for painting! By late Saturday afternoon it was ready for a coat of primer, so fire up the compressor and away we go!

The primer filled and covered well, with a minimum of further rubbing down needed. So Sunday morning, and there I was laying on the Kawasaki Ninja green paint! Its nice and bright! I managed to get a couple of runs but they are underneath and well hidden so thats no problem!