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!

January update

Well...... Christmas came and went with little progress on the race bike sadly!.

I spent most of Christmas in and out of hospital, so there was no opportunity to really get on as i'd intended!

The arrival of chickens at home as well ( yes yes - its becoming just like the Good Life) has meant a few jobs to do building chicken runs which took up valuable scooter tinkering time, still,

Feeling a bit better.... I managed to have a good stab at clearing the decks in the garage this week, so i'm now ready to make a start on spraying the frame in readiness. The frame is not too bad really, I think the layers of dirt and grime had protected it pretty well!.

First priority then is to get it painted, so when the engines in it at least i'll have a rolling chassis to move around, seeing as the garage is pretty cramped with far too many machines I tend to do a lot of juggling around to make space!

The engine is going off to Martin Cook at Chiselspeed to check over and tweak (!) ( http://www.chiselspeed.co.uk ). It was apparently dyno'd at 26HP, but no longer has the carb on it that it was originally built with, and of course I don't know 100% how accurate that figure is, so a new carb will be needed, and then Martin will set up and dyno ready to go.



Coming up soon is the AGM for the BSSO, where there are a number of motions and proposals which will possibly shake up the rules for the future in Group 4 , so it will be very interesting to see how the riders vote!

My own proposal is to restrict back current Group 4 to become 'Classic4' and revert back to cast iron barrels and other restrictions, whilst at the same time creating a new 'super4' class where the rules are actually relaxed slightly so there can actually be slightly more scope for engine tuners, alongwith the fitting of various gadgets, sensors and gismo's, all within a standard shaped, full bodied scooter. I reckon Charlie Edmonds, Paul Baker and the like will soon have engines pushing or exceeding the 40HP barrier, and would be awesome to see full bodied scooters flying around the tracks, mixing it up with the bigger bikes. Non scootering spectators would love it, and would be a great spectacle. I just hope the riders share the vision, and vote for it!

You only need to raed the post relating to Charlie's escapades with the bikes at Mallory on boxing day where he came 7th against 250 and 500cc bikes. That kind of thing really helps us I feel get good publicity and feedback on scooter racing.

I picked up a decent set of Belstaff leathers from trusty Ebay last week, so thats one more thing off the list!

Anyways........ happy new year to everyone involved or interested in scooter racing, next blog post should hopefully be shortly after the AGM with all the news from it for you!

A Historic Day

It was Miles' CBT test today......... and his SymJet scooter was still in pieces!

Droppped him off this morning at 8.00 for his training, and then into the garage to get it finished!

Rear brake lever was broken and Mr Sym has not despatched the new one yet! So....... what to do...... an hour's messing around with metal and a bracket was fabricated as a (very much ) temporary measure.

All the plastic fantastic body work is a bit battered....... previous owner seemed to have bounced every panel off the road at some point! So....... trusty cable ties here and there and its all back on again...... reasonably solid as well!

A new set of bulbs, and we're about there! Oops!!!!!!!!!!!!! well............ except for L plates for the boy wonder! A trip to Halfords and we're all sorted

So...... except for a few odd bits and bobs - its safe and sound for the road.......... needs some prettying up here and there but I doubt it will be standing still for long if Miles has his way!

Anyways... picked him up at 5.30, with a huge smile on his face and a CBT certificate in his hand!

6.30pm and I'm on my GP225 proudly following my son down the road on his very own scooter!

Happy Days.........

no progress!

hhmmmm... Well work has been very busy the last couple of weeks, and my son turned 16 so all my spare time has been spent trying to get a 50cc Symjet up and running for the young fella.

We managed to get it for peanuts.... cosmetically its a little battered and bruised, with a rare selection of cable ties holding the plastic fantastic body work in place. But on the positive side it came with 8 months tax and mot , although it has been stood since last MOT and would not start. A full strip of the carb, pouring a little petrol straight into the cylinder, recharging the battery, and it started!

Its very very temperamental to start though! One minute its tickety boo, then the next bloody thing won't start. Theres a new carb and choke mechanism on its way from fleabay, so that may cure it - i have a sneaking suspicion its the auto choke at the centre of the starting issues.

Anyways............... once carb, and new throttle cable / oil cable arrive it will up be back together and young Miles will be off to do his CBT!

So................. back to the Lambretta - once the auto is done then it will be serious progress with a bit of luck on the Lambretta!

First job is to source a carb as the one which came alongwith the engine is not actually the right one! Its a 30mm Mikuni, so it will be on Ebay with a spare manifold, and we'll see how much it goes for, as that will dictate budget for a new one!

The electronic ignition on the motor is a bit of a puzzler, I'm not famliar with Vespas, but apparently its a considerably lightened T5 ignition. I'm going to have to make up some form of holding tool though as there is just a single hole about 10mm diameter to hold it! Oh, and no apparent timing marks! So I have no diea where the timing is currently set - so thats gonna be fun. Probably have to invest in a strobe !

Digging around underneath my work bench revealed some virtually new powder coated rims, so they have been set aside in readiness for the race bike. My road bike is being treated to some stainless rims for next year, so the current rims will be going to the race project as well!

More soon!