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!