DANGEROUS SUSPENSION CONVERSIONS

[frank sanderson]

There are now several outboard suspension conversions being openly sold based around the conversion we originated for our high powered motorcycle and auto engined lambretta conversions that we have been selling for many years . These may look similair but I assure you they are not the same We have produced hundreds of these conversions and I am honestly worried that there is serious danger of fatal injury arising from the practice of welding lower suspension mounts to anything other than Italian or Spanish trailing links . After testing in the workshop we refuse point blank to weld to anything else and have even gone to the trouble and expense of producing special cast links that take a 12 mm stud to replace this process .As we are a buisness we have to make sure that everything is fit for use so we do not get sued and believe me we would not weld to any indian links regardless of manufacturer SIL or not. We as a company have to have in excess of £5,000000.00 in product liability and faullty workmanship insurance cover in place in order to legally do this type of work for sale to the consumer so trust me on this one. We have even stopped selling a self fit kit as such due to concerns that even though we tell people they cannot weld to anything other than Italian or Spanish links they disregard our warning and do so.We now only sell suspension kits to customers that we have had the studs welded to there links by us ,as we are that concerned about these safety issues. I have not mentioned anything regarding this before as people that want to experiment with there own lambrettas have every right to do so ,as any risk should be confined to themselves and any pillion passenger they carry (unless they collide with some other road user or pedestrian) But once anything is sold on for profit it is a different situation and the seller becomes responsible for the result of any mishap.
I would also not trust a tig weld on anything other than a std type damper mount attached to any trailing link as the weld is only around the periphary of the stud that is welded to the link, we originaly tig welded the studs on when were developing the suspension kit we now sell and found that in testing before we put them on open sale the stud could break off even an Italian or spanish link under light loads if only tig welded. There are many other aspects of these other suspension conversions that in some cases cost even more than our original one now does that we would consider make them unsafe for road use
I am honestly not posting this as any kind of dig or advert for our work all the things I have posted are fact and safety oriented based on our experience in developing this type of suspension .

[Dryballs]

I would also not trust a tig weld on anything other than a std type damper mount attached to any trailing link as the weld is only around the periphary of the stud that is welded to the link, we originaly tig welded the studs on when were developing the suspension kit we now sell and found that in testing before we put them on open sale the stud could break off even an Italian or spanish link under light loads if only tig welded. There are many other aspects of these other suspension conversions that in some cases cost even more than our original one now does that we would consider make them unsafe for road use

Purely out of curiosity, how would you weld it? I would have thought tig would have been pretty good at penetrating through?

My welding experience extends only to gas and mig. Tig is something I have been aspriring to learn lately but I wasnt aware of its drawbacks

[mnpes]

Top Marks Frank ~ Safety before the Wallet

[frank sanderson]

In reply to as how do we weld it we use a mig welder but it is an industrial one and can generate enough heat in the weld to completely fuse both the link and the stud so that they virtualy one piece we weld from the centre of the stud outward so that the whole of the base of the 12 mm stud which is about 20 mm wide by 8 mm thick is completely welded.
It is one thing to look at someones work and think you have copied it but the devils in the detail. This is the case with the shock units used they may look the same but they are not, we make several modifications to the shocks before they are suitable for use, there is only one unit that we use for our basic chrome shock kit that is the correct length, spring rate and only after modification has been done. our top stud design is one thing that some of the copys kits dont use using only button head bolts that are fully threaded these are neither strong enough or suitable due to threads being all the way through the eye of the shock and the weld on brkt this in effect gives a weak point at the base of each thread in the V and an actual stud thickness of less than 10 mm as well as not allowing the top fixing to align correctly.
Any way you pays your money and you take the chance ours actualy cost less than the copys in some cases even when we do the welding for the customer.

[WINTERMODEL150]

Spot on and great advise Frank

Dean

[caspa2006]

Frank mate you are right remember mine that SCOOTER ROCKS did, he twisted the forks
for me they looked great but were bent out of line he never checked them also he just used
a bolt for the top mounts and the bottom spacer was the wrong size to, so in the end I paid
twice once for rip off rocks, and then again to frank to make them right also when using
a bolt for the top mounts the catch the front bud guard so I had to have that trimmed and
reshaped to, never again I will go direct to Frank

you can see the pen mark where I had to reshape the mudguard