Front wheel not central?

My new outboard disc hub wasn't sitting central in my forks, it was about 9mm off. I don't have a photo because I was too annoyed to take one.

I couldn't work out why this might be, and a bit of googling only led me to one theory that I had a bent fork link. I can't possibly imagine a scenario where a fork link might get bent. If your fork link was exposed, in situ, to enough force to bend it then other things would bend or break first, surely?

With this in mind I dismantled it again and found the culprit. In the photo below you can see uneven wear on the face around the edge of the bush. The face has worn to the rear of the link (the top in this photo), but not at the front. This causes the link to sit at an angle when fitted to the forks.

The fix is simple. I filed the rest of the face in line with the wear so that the face was perpendicular to the bush/bolt that holds it in place. Then to compensate for the loss of width I doubled-up with another cup on this side, as not very clearly shown in this photo. You could also use a large penny washer under the cup.

While I'm on the topic of fitting the front hub, an important part of fitting your front hub assembly is using the right axle washers. They ensure that the hub sits exactly where its supposed to be but are more importantly a critical safety feature which will hold your wheel in place even if your main nut becomes a bit loose.

It's all back together now, and I'm pleased to say it sits perfectly in the middle!

More painting

Here's the rear hub in primer. I stripped it by hand with paint stripper so the finish isn't perfect under scrutiny.



The end result with the top coat of Silver / Metallic Grey looks great and matches the silver ScootRS rims really well. I used the same silver for the forks too.



It was also time to spray the top side of the frame and new cross member before I start doing the cables. A perfect match nor finish isn't required here as I'm going to be covering it in Waxoyl before finally fitting the legshields. Remember this ain't no show bike, this is going to be used!



Rather uninspiringly, the best (and it is rather good) match I could find was simply.....Beige.

New fork springs

I wasn't happy with the seemingly different performance of the old fork springs, so with the forks still in place on the scoot I dropped out the old ones and treated them to new uprated springs and rods as seen below.



These compliment the new link bolts, cups, bushes and buffers already fitted:



With the hub and the dampers in place, this is how its looking:

Taking shape

The engine looks great prior to refit with all its new shiny bits:





and now it was time to hang it back on the frame, along with the rebuilt forks complete with new bushes, buffers, cups and bolts...



The front hub is not bolted in yet, and it's interesting to see that the bike leaned to the left at the front (or the wheel to the right) as though the left spring was compressing more easily than the right spring. I'm going to investigate this a little further as I may have to replace the springs and rods with new ones to ensure I have a fork that's behaving properly.

ScootRS tubeless rims

Tubeless rims reduce (or do they eliminate?) the risk of a blow-out. A compelling reason, so I bought some from ScootRS in Vietnam. They arrived in good time and well packaged, although I got stung for an extra ten quid by Fedex for some kind of unpaid customs taxes.

The rims are nicely made, and if you read about them on the web you'll learn that they're popular, but are difficult for the tyre-fitter. This proved true for mine, and they didn't escape fully unscathed. If you're a perfectionist or you've bought some chrome ones you probably won't be happy, as you either won't want to or won't be able to touch up the near-inevitable marks.

Regardless of this, I think they're great, and with Schwalbe Weathermans on they look great too:





These 100/90 tyres are 10mm wider than the crappy old Indian tyres, and the differences in width, shape and footprint are neatly demonstrated below by my son Bill, who gets excited about literally anything with wheels and so a stack of wheels was a dream come true.



And in a state of my own excitement I couldn't resist offering up my hydraulic disc and hub unit. More on that in a future post...

Rattle-can spraying

This is no show-vehicle, so I've opted to use an aerosol for the few parts that need it. I stripped the forks with Nitromors paint stripper and a wire brush. A few coats of high-build primer followed the next day by a sand and then a few coats of Silver/Metallic Grey did the job:



And the new cross member looks a lot better after just one coat of primer:

A professional weld

I think I found the best way to find a good welder, short of personal recommendations. I chucked the Lammy in the back of the car and drove round the corner to the nearest backstreet car workshop and asked them. They sent me round the corner to another workshop, and a guy called Gary. It was 9am, and he said he'd have it finished by 2pm and it would cost only fifteen quid.

I'm pleased to report he did an excellent job:






and he did my damper mounts at the same time:



Now I can start rebuilding!

Welding on the new cross member

Removing the old cross member revealed a little more about the history of the frame. A crack can just be seen just beyond the end of one of the repair welds, and this shows that the frame suffered a collapse at some point which necessitated a full circumferential weld and strengthening plates to the upper and lower sides. You can see the crack arrowed in this image:



I bought a new cross member and borrowed a MIG welder to enable me to fit it in exactly the right place prior to taking it to the local welder who can do a better job finishing it than I.

To place it properly I used a scaffolder's spirit level (they are magnetic) placed on the engine mount to get the frame perfectly vertical. The lens of the camera makes everything look a bit skew here. It isn't - the engine mount is perpendicular to the frame:



I had to modify the cross member to cater for the existing stengthening plate and welds:



After careful measurement and multiple checks here it is welded on by the front edge only:



Then I ran a final panel placement mock-up to check that everything fitted. You can see here everything fits straight and as expected:





Now I just need to take it to a professional to finish it off for me.

More on the frame

I mused yesterday that I might have two bikes welded together. This theory is based on the weld visible around the crossmembers and around the complete circumference of the main tube, and would also explain some anachronistic parts on the scoot.

There are of course other theories, and mulling it through overnight I now think the 'two bikes' theory is unlikely because of this:

1. If you're so bad at welding that you can't get the crossmembers on straight in either axis, how on earth would you manage to weld two frames together, dead straight?

2. There would be little incentive to do this kind of thing in India. As Dave Williams, author of The Indian Lambretta Guide says: "I cannot imagine a scenario in India (unlike here possibly) where two frames would need to be welded together....Remember that Lambys have no significant value in India so there would be no incentive..." This is a fair point.

3. It's more likely that the frame was showing signs of stress, perhaps even a fracture, that necessitated a stengthening plate top and bottom and a cirumferential weld.

Anyway, back to those crossmembers. Need to find a welder!

Frame problems

I knew things weren't quite straight on this scoot, but I thought this was limited to a sagging crossmember that might be bent back into place. Having removed the forks and now the legshields it has all become a little clearer:









They are off by a country mile, and I can't believe the legshields actually fitted. And they haven't bent, they've been welded like that:



There's also evidence that this might be two frames welded together. There are strengthening plates on the top and bottom of the tube (which apparently isn't that unusual), but there is a weld around the complete circumference of the main tube. Two bikes welded together would explain a lot - the early parts on a '77 scoot.

Whatever has happened, I know three things:

1. It's a mess, and I'll at least have to chop off the crossmembers and get new ones welded on properly. At the same time I'll get an expert welder's opinion on the main tube.
2. The frame is strong (and safe), as the bike has clearly been very heavily used over a long period on probably some shocking roads.
3. My key measurement from toolbox to steering cone is correct, and visually the main tube looks straight, but I'd still like to get this checked properly.