LML star: Green Lanes & Byways

[purplebargeken]

Will have to dig out my parka and two tone suit. Those were the days!

[Fabergé Greggs]

Overnight zip tie worked a treat and now the lever feels great. That just leaves the eternal question:

 

Y DOES THAT WORK?

[Jerzy Woking]

Word of warning JTS-I had a Triumph 955 (well, work did) with spongy front brake. Must have bled it 20 times but still spongy. Tying the lever up overnight got it back to how it should have been. Until about the 3rd application when the lever would come back to the bars. Scary! Didn't have to find a solution as it went into limp mode and the cost of a replacement ECU was more than the shitheap was worth.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Word of warning JTS-I had a Triumph 955 (well, work did) with spongy front brake. Must have bled it 20 times but still spongy. Tying the lever up overnight got it back to how it should have been. Until about the 3rd application when the lever would come back to the bars. Scary! Didn't have to find a solution as it went into limp mode and the cost of a replacement ECU was more than the shitheap was worth.

Heck! Thanks for the caution. For something that’s so simple bleeding is so voodoo.

[andy18s]

Overnight zip tie worked a treat and now the lever feels great. That just leaves the eternal question:

 

Y DOES THAT WORK?

There will have been an air bubble sitting somewhere that has shifted whilst under pressure

Some stuff even needs the caliper taken off and held above the master cylinder to bleed..

Ktm,looking at you.

[purplebargeken]

I haven't been looking at LML scooters in Rochdale (via eBay), no, not all all. The white one with front rack and whitewalls looks lovely. Oh bugger. 

[Fabergé Greggs]

Puncture! Tyre was pretty knackered after a year of commuting anyway so no great shakes. Couldn't find any visible punctures from the outside, so I reckon that the state of the rim has probably punctured the tube from the inside. This wheel is from my old Vespa so it's unknown age, but a scooter place put that tyre on a year ago. Some state huh?

 

 

The faff of tubes and corroding steel rims has convinced me to shell out £70 on another alloy tubeless one comme ça. Safety first, right?

 

I've been meaning to do the rear pads for ages but the rear hub nut is crazy tight, meaning I've been pondering spending obscene amounts of money on an impact wrench for ages. After several failed attempts, today with a glamorous assistant jamming the rear brakes on, and using an old part of a roof rack as a 5 ft breaker bar I managed to crack the fucker. The next two hours went like this:

 

10 seconds Remove hub 

10 Seconds to ping the pad circlip into eternity. FUCK!

2 Mins on the phone to the swanky vintage Vespa place nearby, luckily there was someone in.

5 Mins to pack up tools 

15 Mins to drive to Vespa place in Daf

30 Mins chatting about building an engine for this that would put out approx 3 times the power (I've been pondering this for a while).

15 Mins to drive home

5 mins to unpack tools

2 mins to change pads. 

 

Hub cleaned up nicely, back plate had some slight signs of oil so I'll have to keep an eye on that. Anyway, it's back together and feeling much nicer. 

 

[purplebargeken]

Front brake still okay?

[Fabergé Greggs]

Front brake still okay?

Yeah works well. Still feels a tiny bit sticky and grabby on occasion so I may have to replace the master cylinder too. Maybe I’m just fussy..

[purplebargeken]

Probably not a bad idea mate, I guess it isn't pricey.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Ah flip. I had a suspicion that the rear hub is a bit oval as it pulses a bit as you come to a standstill, but the new rear pads have way more bite and seem to make it more noticeable. New rear hub time I suppose...

[purplebargeken]

Getting the hub skimmed is also an option, it just depends on price I guess.

[Fabergé Greggs]

If you really keep this pegged then the speedo hovers around 60. I always wondered what that actually is in real life, so today I GPS’d it, and held it on WOT for a good 5 miles on a flat bit of road.. the result?

 

Always seems to be a bit perkier once it’s had a long thrash, after all that stop start carbon build up nonsense.

[purplebargeken]

Good enough.

[Fabergé Greggs]

I'm just home after riding this to Devon and back, avoiding dual carriageways. It was a blissful, blissful thing to do even though I can't feel my feet, face or hands. I think I might take public transport to work tomorrow just for a rest. 

 

The journey back took 11 hours with a couple of coffee breaks. I took the woolwich ferry because it seemed the right thing to do even though it added another hour or so. 

 

 

[Cavcraft]

Hey, that's brilliant fair play to you. How do you find the seat, is it pretty comfortable? 

[Fabergé Greggs]

Hey, that's brilliant fair play to you. How do you find the seat, is it pretty comfortable? 

 

I got one of the newer sculpted seats second hand from the 'bay even though its modern looks offend me. It's way comfier though. Naturally I got a sore arse but it wasn't bad enough to mar the good times. 

[purplebargeken]

Brilliant!

[purplebargeken]

How is that front brake.

 

I found a breaker bar I had bought a couple of years ago but had forgotten about completely. Doh!

[Fabergé Greggs]

How is that front brake.

 

I found a breaker bar I had bought a couple of years ago but had forgotten about completely. Doh!

It’s good! Somehow the notchiness disappeared.. front wheel bearing seems to have developed a bit of a drone though

[Fabergé Greggs]

This is still merrily racking up the miles and happily farting out that tasty blue smoke that we all know and love. 

 

Bear with me here though: Having broken my way through a succession of cheap eBay phone holders, I'm getting serious and committing to a ram mount. 

 

 

 

It struck me that the neatest way to mount a ram 1" ball would just be to find a spare master cylinder cap and drill a hole in the top for the ball. 

 

Is that ok? A master cylinder reservoir isn't under pressure is it? So as long as it's sealed with a washer it shouldn't leak or am I being a flipping idiot? 

[purplebargeken]

I would err on the side of not doing that. Just because I don't know if it would mess it all up in some way or not. 

 

Probably a good reason why no-one has done that before (possibly).

[Fabergé Greggs]

Exactly. It’s unchartered territory and there’s a fine line between genius and madness.

 

Sadly it’s probably neither genius nor mad, just unadvisable in a boring way.

[purplebargeken]

I guess it would either go remarkably well, or you'll end up removing an Addison Lee taxi from your front wheel.

 

I do hope for the first one mate. 

[somewhatfoolish]

Daub plenty of sealant on the hole and the thread as you assemble it(a decent seal is more likely if you drill and tap the lid but it should probably work ok without) and let it set up before exposing to brake fluid. If that doesn't seal it maybe try araldite or similar, making sure everything is clean and dry first.

 

How thick is the lid? If it's on the flimsy side it might be better to knock up a bracket to sit on top of the lid and use longer screws into the screw holes on the M/c.

[DodgeRover]

Daub plenty of sealant on the hole and the thread as you assemble it(a decent seal is more likely if you drill and tap the lid but it should probably work ok without) and let it set up before exposing to brake fluid. If that doesn't seal it maybe try araldite or similar, making sure everything is clean and dry first.

 

How thick is the lid? If it's on the flimsy side it might be better to knock up a bracket to sit on top of the lid and use longer screws into the screw holes on the M/c.

The new bracket with longer screws sounds like a sensible plan

[Fabergé Greggs]

You’re all right of course. The correct thing exists already it’s just that it’s £30.

 

Thirty pounds!

[Dave_Q]

So can you make your own version of that?

 

Buy the threaded ball, attach to a bit of plate with holes in the right place then find out the diameter, pitch and length you need for the bolts, they should be pennies. Could use mild steel sheet or even a bit of wood for the plate?

 

I wouldn't drill through the cap, on bike ones I have seen before there's a sort of weird gasket membrane thing that goes between the lid and the fluid, I think it takes up the air gap so you still have brakes when leaned over. So I wouldn't want to interfere just in case.

[chompy_snake]

You’re all right of course. The correct thing exists already it’s just that it’s £30.

 

Thirty pounds!

Is that some kind of sick sex toy???

[purplebargeken]

Yes, there is a membrane thinking about it now.