Scooterotica

Nerdy Norm wrote:Riding along yesterday and this happened. Luckily I was approaching a junction and going slowly, a few minutes earlier and I was going around 50mph

Nasty! So what exactly happened then? The top,part broke in half or the damper rod snapped? Makes me wonder if it's worth me carrying on with my original 52 year old rear shock that is just starting to leak slightly. Think I may pick up a R1 shock for it off of eBay £75 or so.

Doom Patrol wrote:Enough to give you nightmares. There are Escorts and there are Escorts. Since they changed the design they seem to have no end of problems. I don't think anybody has problems with the old ones.

How do we get this info back to the manufacturer as they will want to know that their product is now failing and they will be losing customers?!

http://www.escortsgroup.com/brands-and- ... rbers.html

Might be worth a try just e.mailing them and see if it prompts any response. We'd probably need to show them pictures of a failed unit. Now I wonder where we'd find one of those....

Actually, this might be a better one...

http://www.escortsautoproducts.com/

Although, looking at their sites they don't exactly make it easy.

Just got round to properly surveying the damage. The panel is a bit pushed out from where the shock made a break for freedom, but seems to be holding on OK (why did it have to happen to my nice shiny S3 and not my tatty S2?!).

The shock itself has sheared clean through by the top plate:

Thanks for Escorts' contact details. I don't suppose it'll make any difference, but I've emailed informing them of the problem, and linking to this thread.

Mates BGM one snapped after going over a pothole at around 20mph on our way to France in May

Frightening thing was we had just been on the M25 10 minutes before it happened

Scooterdude wrote:..................... Think I may pick up a R1 shock for it off of eBay £75 or so.

Good though the R1's are, they are not without their own issues and will snap at the mounting eyes unless you use Teflon bushes with nyloc half nuts done up not much more than hand tight. Chiggy (lambretta Innovations) is your man for the bushes and half nuts

Which "design" of Escort shocks appear to be giving the problems?
Looking at the picture above and from memory I think that's the type I've got. Will check tomorrow.

If you tighten the nuts too tight so that the shocker can't move from side to side slightly then it can be part of the problem. The engine effectively has 3 mounting bushes, 2 are the silent blocks and the shocker is the 3rd. Worn silent blocks can be the real problem as excessive movement of the blocks put extra stress on the shocker and if it's solid then something has to give. It's better that the shocker breaks than the engine snapping at the silent block mount.

It's probably best with pictures, but basically I think the old type has the eye for the mounting directly welded to the top of the damper, whereas the new type has a shaft between the eye and the damper. It's this that's the problem.

These in actual fact...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lambretta-Rea ... SwrklVNk5B