JL3 Trauma!

[Scooterdude]

So here we are after 6.5 weeks after buying a new unpolished stainless JL3 off of some chancer on eBay, and having to send it back because of two large dents in the side plus a ping in the can and the can clamp bolt welded shut!
Anyway got my replacement today (£55 less than the chancer!) went to fit it... Stubb won't fit, ground away part of two cooling fins still won't fit....ground away sides of flange.... Still won't fit....found flange bent, sorted that and put it on.... Reassemble and cylinder cowel won't fit.... Cut section away and got it to fit... Calmed down, made a brew had a p155 and carried on, inside of pipe touches chain case... Made bracket fit and carried on..... Phone call from mate his escort shock had snapped at the top so went to rescue him with my leaky old lammy shock fitted it then carried on with the traumatic exhaust fit, lined everything up and fitted the can, cunningly made adjusters so I can raise and lower the foot boards so I don't have to chop em and they run perfectly with lower edge of side panels, only thing now is the exhaust looks like it will hit the side panel before the foot board! So got a portly friend coming tomorrow to bounce up and down on it so I can observe what's going on.

Why o why can't people make stuff that fits ffs? I can make their stuff fit so why the f@@k can't they??

You couldn't make it up could you?

[nellyboyo]

I feel your pain, Bought a pipe that looked like a Taffspeed copy from a very reputable dealer off ebay.
Came home 2 weeks later from work all excited and went to fit it. Rear section bracket support inches away. Spent hours cutting, grinding, welding , painting . Then realized what was sent bore no resemblance to what I received.
Way too late by then and I've no idea what I`ve got fitted. Looks like an amalgamation of an SSC and a JL ?
I should have checked against the pic before I fitted it I didn`t ...gggrrrr

On the plus side it seems to work OK

[EddieStone]

I'm very careful buying Lambretta stuff off eBay these days. It's become a dumping ground for stuff you can't sell elsewhere.

After receiving a carb with no jets or float bowl, one head with a helicoiled spark plug thread and a '175' head with 200 stud spacing I decided to just deal with dealers - they have a reputation to protect and know what they are sending.

[CPH Lambretta]

The first rule of scootering is "DON'T BUY ANYTHING OFF EBAY"
The second rule of scootering is "DON'T BUY ANYTHING OFF EBAY"
You can guess what the other rules are!
Ebay is a dumping ground for everyones shite, private or dealer.
If you want indian stuff then pay a couple of quid more and buy from someone like Scooter Restorations.
If everyone that owned a scooter stopped buying cheap parts on ebay the number of posts on forums would be cut by half

[10 inch Terror]

You can get some very rare parts at a reasonable price on eBay. I sell stuff I don't want or need on there and I wouldn't dump rubbish on other scooterists. Funnily enough Scooter Restorations and Scootopia ( amongst other good dealers ) have eBay accounts. To say don't buy from eBay is harsh on some good sellers.

[holty]

You can get some very rare parts at a reasonable price on eBay. I sell stuff I don't want or need on there and I wouldn't dump rubbish on other scooterists. Funnily enough Scooter Restorations and Scootopia ( amongst other good dealers ) have eBay accounts. To say don't buy from eBay is harsh on some good sellers.

i agree , ive bought and sold on ebay for a long time, for me feedback is the key, have they got lots of good feedback, if yes, then buy with confidence, they wont sell you rubbish unless they want negative feedback, if they have poor feedback, avoid them, works well for me, i have still had some crap, just got a refund.

[B-Race Tuning]

How many exhausts are made by scooter riding manufacturers? Many, but not all are designed by scooter dealers/ tuners, and most are then farmed out for manufacture, at a price, to cheap labour that don't give a sh%t. The most common made exhaust, and the second most common, are built to a minimum budget in faraway countries. If the original design is good/ sells, it WILL be copied, and sold at a cheaper price. I had a scoot in for dyno today sporting a new Taffy replica.... F@*k me, the quality compared to what we made is shockingly bad and WILL fail. But, it was from a reputable dealer, and at 1/2 the price of a "built" Taffy exhaust, not thrown together at a minimum cost/ maximum profit basis. Quality costs, in materials and experienced labour. The key word there being "Experienced". We all want good kit that fits, and is reliable. I don't give a monkeys, within a value-wise reason, what it costs provided it gives me or customers a "reliable" scooter. Yes, we make fast scoots, but that ain't no good if it breaks every 200 miles. I'm not tied to manufacturers/ dealers/ tuners, but each makes/ produces or sells some good stuff. From experience I use the good, I don't push anything that is sh*te, or badly made, and I don't go for the best discount/mark up ratio. If you're building for reliability NOT HP, you'll get FAST. You wouldn't buy a poundshop candle for your 50th wedding anniversary, buy quality with pedigree and you'll get the rewards. Buy once well,or buy cheap many times over, and break down regular!
And no, we are not yet back up making pipes YET, that were all made in house, by us, with british materials, who ride our scoots.

Oh, as a PS, check your internal diameters of the stingers and tailpipes are constant/ as "designed". I've come across some now that there is weld inside the stingers reducing effective diameter by a third! Read, 30%!!!! Holed piston anyone?
Buy cheap..............
Regards, Simon.

[Chris in Margate]

Now that is an excellent post.

[Scooterdude]

Buy cheap buy twice ?? Not cheap by a long shot but looks like I'll be buying twice! Went out last night first thing I noticed down pipe hits my bike lift as I roll the scooter off, not a good start..... Now we all see scooters with the footboard cut so the pipe clears it... Not mine mine misses the foot board but hits the bottom of my side panel (that cost a fortune to have painted) so today I will be taking the f@@king thing back off and putting my clubman back on ( I see Andy Francis is on holiday yet again) so can't contact him for answers.

[EddieStone]

You can get some very rare parts at a reasonable price on eBay. I sell stuff I don't want or need on there and I wouldn't dump rubbish on other scooterists. Funnily enough Scooter Restorations and Scootopia ( amongst other good dealers ) have eBay accounts. To say don't buy from eBay is harsh on some good sellers.

i agree , ive bought and sold on ebay for a long time, for me feedback is the key, have they got lots of good feedback, if yes, then buy with confidence, they wont sell you rubbish unless they want negative feedback, if they have poor feedback, avoid them, works well for me, i have still had some crap, just got a refund.

It's not that easy to leave negative feedback these days, especially with a trader. EBay pushes you to 'resolve' the issue. If I buy a carb with no jets, and is fundamentally useless, I want to warn other potential ebay buyers, not pay to send it back for a refund so it gets sold on to someone else while the seller keeps their 100% ebay record.

Anyway, enough about eBay, back to rubbish pipes.