Scooterotica

I was going to say that well I would would nt I ......

corrado wrote:

johnny LIS150 wrote:....Looks like there's enough room to get an open ended spanner in there to tighten the nut and get the ratchet spanner out.

Or why not just wiggle the ratchet spanner back on and tighten until there's enough clearance to get it off

Its one of the flip over to change direction types?

Bit of a long drawn out one but bear with me. 1985 and on £60 a week. Night before scooter race in Lydden Hill 300 miles away. Decided to race, but had no money. Borrow money from mates wife (kerching!) load up the Bond Bug... Yes I know, a Bond Bug towing race scooter. Ask a mate to finally tow the scooter as the bugs steering goes a bit wonky, whilst I tow the support trailer. which is really a Heath Robinson box on an old axle. Pay for mates petrol and food (kerching!)

Drive down overnight, get there about 4am. Wake up, practice goes ok. Change jetting for race. Where is needle clip? Must have dropped it on the floor. Put new one in ready for race. 1st race get 100 yards from start line and BANG. The main bearing had found the carb clip!

So the cost of 100 yards of race? Around £200 and 30 years of p155 take, every time a needle clip is mentioned. Took more than a month to recoup costs. That's not including, damage to scooter.

Still funny to remember it now and place blame on best mate who was also scooter builder, mechanic, team manager and fellow big mac eater. Still friends and riding scooters today. He's also still senior mechanical advisor, but now eats expensive steaks and drinks Costa coffee.

The moral of the story?

Buy needle clips in tens and make sure you cover the carb when titting around with fiddly b@5t@rd clips.

This one is before the era of mobile phones !!! A mate gets a call in the middle of the night from one of the lads. He's half asleep and listens to the tale of how the GP has blown up and he's waiting in the police station....can he drive down in his van and pick him and scooter up, still half asleep he agrees. He sets off from York to Swindon (over 200 miles) and gets to the police station in the early hours. After talking to the desk sergeant it becomes apparent that Pete is not there. Laughing the desk sergeant suggests it might have been Swinton police station.......a phone call confirms this !! He gets to Swinton picks up Pete and Lambretta..... a total round trip of over 400 miles.....York to Swinton is 70.....

not done exhaust up properly got so far down road and my new exhaust is scraping on the floor .

Took head cowling off my lovely SX150 when was 18 to stop it rattling .......just an extra bit of noisy metal to me .......and then wondered why I kept grinding to halt on the motorway .....how daft was that

corrado wrote:

johnny LIS150 wrote:

Looks like there's enough room to get an open ended spanner in there to tighten the nut and get the ratchet spanner out.

yes it does doesn't it but until the rachet clears the nut it won't turn back against the pawls. If the rachet cleared the nut the spanner would have come off wouldn't it

Comon folks this is a thread to post your cockups not to try solve others in hindsight

johnny LIS150 wrote:
yes it does doesn't it but until the rachet clears the nut it won't turn back against the pawls.

I knew there had to be a reason, I just couldn't think of it.

I stopped at a services in Warwick while riding from Wakefield to Exeter only for a van driver to point out that I had a set of mole grips hanging down under the scooter. I'd used the grips to pull the rear brake cable tighter then forgotten to release them. Doh!!