Scooterotica

Er coaster yeah that is sort of what i expect when buying a product. As in it to be fit for purpose. Not really sure what your saying. If it had been you and you had gone under a lorry or someone you know had then i suspect your attitude would be somewhat different..

The front disc was brought from ScootRS and regardless of where they sourced it from the buck stops with them....His time will come...

An awful situation to go through glad to hear your reasonably ok sydduckett.
I see all sorts of metallic failures as there is always potential for metal fatigue in any situation where a component is subjected to cyclic loads. Recently there have been a few posts on component failures, Jackpots scooter springs to mind, and also a recent rear hub failure. I would strongly recommend that these parts be submitted for analysis to a reputable metallurgical consultant.
I’m certain they could narrow down the “root” cause of the failure, was it a catastrophic failure or did it fatigue overtime? Was it corrosion related or were there embedded stress points (see example) within the material from new etc or indeed was poor manufacturing a likly contributor?

noggin1969 wrote:

heres mine happened a few yrs back now but was told that they didn't use that type of calipar....strange that somebody must have swopped it in the post

If they are saying that they have never fitted non Nissin caliper components then they are fibbing. Below is a picture of a failed caliper taken from an early ScootRS disc brake. A very poor quality non Nissin one.

In fact, I seem to remember them selling the non Nissin version, side by side with the uprated Nissin version at a much cheaper price at one point.

CANbus wrote: Jackpots scooter springs to mind

In what way ?

jason frost wrote:

CANbus wrote: Jackpots scooter springs to mind

In what way ?

Yes Jason Frost, sorry I actually got Jackpot’s Scooter mixed up with this one http://www.forums.ilambretta.com/viewto ... 16&t=12726

What was the cause of the incident with Jackpot’s scooter by the way?

Speed Demon wrote: That doesn't have to be the case. Public liability insurance is just that: insurance. If you don't make a claim then the premiums can remain fairly reasonable. If your products fail regularly and people make lots of claims then the premiums will sky-rocket.

I think the insurance premium would be sky high if it included the sale of parts on an unproven provenance IF they could get cover at all

sydduckett wrote:Er coaster yeah that is sort of what i expect when buying a product. As in it to be fit for purpose. Not really sure what your saying. If it had been you and you had gone under a lorry or someone you know had then i suspect your attitude would be somewhat different..

The front disc was brought from ScootRS and regardless of where they sourced it from the buck stops with them....His time will come...

I wasn't having a go and I'm not excusing it Sid, you bought the part in god faith and it could have killed you All I'm saying is that there are alternatives out there which are of higher quality and even made in the UK but we're all drawn to far eastern products primarily because they are cheap. Unfortunaltely it seems they aren't always the bargains we thought

We have to face the fact that uprating the performance of old Lambrettas safely and reliably is probably beyond most peoples budgets, mine included

To give some perspective here, these levers are used on tens of thousands of scooters, as well as with disc kits made and sold by UK and German companies, etc. And on ScootRS kits. Personally, I've neither heard of, nor seen, a single lever breaking in all the years we've sold them. Nor, for that matter, other lever types we sell.

In this case, I'm told this item had been used for 3 months. At any point it could have been slightly hit/bent and cracked. Or not, but clearly it has nothing to do with Asia, nor is there a general quality concern.

As for an Asian company not caring, we replied to the 2 emails we received as following. The first said, "I've emailed 3 times, why no answer?" We replied the same day that it was the first email received, and asked what it was about. A 2nd email explained and said a photo was attached. We replied the same day and said no photo was attached, please send one. No email after that.

We also linked to our guarantee page as we were asked to pay for extra repairs to avoid publicity. But certainly we'd let people know ourselves if we had a concern, so not an issue for us. Extra repairs are not covered by a UK retailer if you are going too fast to stop after a front brake cable snaps, or if your new crank or piston seizes and you dump your scooter. Same with us. Unlike most shops, however, we clearly state our guarantee on our website so there are no misunderstandings and our site is set up so you cannot even checkout without reading and confirming you agree. So, again, no worse ordering from Asia.

Regarding calipers, since we secured a direct supply of Nissin many years ago, we have sold only Nissin. We have never told anyone we didn't try a different type prior to that, in fact we emailed all old disc customers after we changed and explained why and offered the new type at-cost. Note, that was long before even one of the old type ever cracked (subsequently I think I've only seen 2 on forums); we changed simply to improve the general quality as we were rebuilding all the others before using them. We left the offer open for over a year. That is from an Asian company. In the UK and Germany, however, you will still find these old type calipers being sold to this day by various retailers because cheaper, usually on sand cast hubs that are known to crack as well.

Hope it helps hearing direct from a company.

To be fair Randall - this doesn't look like the best casting ever from the visible cracks - and you can see that the hole is off centre.

You could assume that there is a remote possibility that Syd is lying and did damage the lever in some way before the accident, or even that the lever got snapped in an accident that was caused in some other way. There's a remote chance he's trying to have one over on you.

Alternatively you could assume that he might be telling the truth and that he has indeed been nearly killed using a product that you sold but did not manufacture. you might also assume that he's a little shaken up and pissed off at the damage.

Which do you think is more likely?

Now if I was in your position, what would I do:

1. Ignore all contact and hope he goes away. Wait for the abuse on the forums.

2. Respond by saying that everyone else uses these levers so there's unlikely to be a problem, hint that maybe I think he's a liar and might have already damaged the lever, and point him to an area of my web site where I point out that I accept no responsiblity for other damages incurred by use of my products. Wait for the abuse on the forums.

3. Ask to have the lever sent over - or even some photos of it - decide if it looks faulty or not. If it does look faulty say "I'm really sorry about that. I didn't make that part but I'll check the parts in stock and get on to my supplier to make sure this doesn't happen again. Without seeing the part I can't take responsibilty for the accident but I can see you've had a bad time and I'd like to help you out. Obviously I can't do anything about the paintwork from here but can I help you out with any parts to get the scoot back on the road." Hope then there won't be any abuse on the forums, but if there is I will honestly be able to say that I've done what I can to make it better for the guy, and to ensure that it doesn't happen again to comfort other users of that product.

Now if I had even the vaguest clue about PR, which would I choose???

Speed Demon wrote:Alternatively you could assume that he might be telling the truth and that he has indeed been nearly killed using a product that you sold but did not manufacture. you might also assume that he's a little shaken up and pissed off at the damage.

The thing to bear in mind here from Sefs point of view is he has recently completed this project (his first ever scooter build) and put his heart and soul into it and from a starting point of not knowing the basics to completing the scooter to a high standard witnessed by a lot of us on here and other forums and at times rediculed the guy pressed on with his master plan and with help from here the LCGB and stickys book he acheived it and it looks good to..

Now my point is he is very upset because as we all would feel..what a waste of my time an energy and money now.. I think the least that should happen is the lever should be checked maybe by an independent,

Andy.