TARGAline Lambretta shock absorber

I've had numerous Lambretta shocks over the years i.e. Bitubo, Taffspeed, R6, Escort etc. but my current shock leaked nasty oil/fluid all over the casing and back tyre outside the post office last week. Fundamentally all other shocks have failed in many ways leading to some interesting riding and cornering. So I purchased a TARGAline shock absorber from Stuart Owen at 100mphlambrettaclub (actually Supertune Ltd) which is destined for my touring GP250. BTW this is the most reliable Lambretta I have ever owned, ridden Lambrettas for 30+ years. It's reliable because I only use quality parts from reliable, trust-worthy UK dealers.

The West Midlands is 2.5 hours north from my gaff and being an Englishman, born in Aldershot, I'm inherently north-a-phobic (Tottenham Court Road is too far north for me!) However I was very impressed with Stuarts customer service, shop and workshop facilities, expertise and professional approach. I'd also had a previous recommendation from a seriously anorak, fussy fucker mate who has a TV200 fetish and only trusts Stuart to touch his extensive collection - praise indeed!

First impressions of the TARGAline shock were the incredible quality. Apparently it was specifically designed for Lambrettas (not ting-tong or converted motorcycle shite) so having a rear shock that was acting like it was made of cheese on my only running road scooter, I brought one on impulse. Not cheap @ £180, but cheaper than similar options and again obvious quality!

NOTE: I'm not a small gentleman and am forced to ride my GP250 at slow speeds on motorways when away with the Doris (over 60 mph gets me a punch in the kidneys and shouting/screaming/crying from behind) With all her crap make-up, clothes, shoes, hand-bags, duvet, pillows etc. strapped to my pride and joy the overall payload easily tips the scales at >200kg i.e. 16 stone and 10 stone respectively (on a good day) plus crap luggage. This probably explains the failures of other shock absorber systems!

So this is my first impression of the shock before fitting. First off it comes very well packaged in a plastic case, which has a convenient carry handle!

Unfortunately I don't speak Italian, if I did the packaging would make some sense which is one of the only gripes I have, along with a distinct lack of fitting instructions!

The kit contains two (2) C-spanners, an additional spring, three (3) collars and the shock itself. The inside of the packaging contains more detail, but is in Italian and a form of English that I'm not familiar with. Babelfish didn't help much, but it basically seems to be marketing crap anyway. That aside you can tell the quality of the system straight away - this is a serious work of art!

 

I like to think I'm pretty familiar with series III Lambretta's but called Stuart for more information as my last visit was so rushed that he didn't have time to explain the ins and outs for setting up the shock. 

The spare spring provided is no good for my application (fat and heavy) but is a nice touch and could be suitable for lighter riders and those wishing to tighten up the rear suspension for better rock hard handling characteristics and skipping across the tarmac through corners etc.

Luverly bit of kit

First thing I appreciated was that the head of the shock absorber simply unscrews and the supplied spacers are inserted to adjust the length of the shock - nice feature! You can see the three (3) supplied collars in the second pics below.

Unscrew me for adjustment. This is the top.

What other Lambretta shock does this?

As my Rapido 250 has no frame/carb clearance issues, I used the smaller collar and screwed the top back on.

Smallest collar fitted

Then simply adjust the rings to 20-30mm (1/2") and tighten up - that's it basically, so far! 

Few more pictures below showing the amount of adjustment you've got available and pictures of the indecipherable instructions.

Loadsa adjustment. The function of the brass adjuster valve at the bottom (which faces the rear of the scooter) is unknown. The so called instructions mentions it is adjustable (18 posizioni apparently)

What?

I'll be fitting the shock to my GP250 and have a 100+ mile round trip mid-week so a good road test. Will report back sometime after that, don't hold your breath though!

So far this has a Lloydy's Lambrettas rating of 8.5 out of 10 for quality. Lack of instructions let's it down but a quality product nonetheless. Expectations are high and I want to see a noticeable change for the better re: handling and comfort of the vibration-monster that is my GP Rapido 250!

Sloppy gearchange lets me down, time and time again

OK so the gear change on my Lambretta GP has had a harder time than most for the last 5-6 years for several reasons:

1. It has a hoofing great Grimeca master cylinder for the hydraulic clutch.
2. When in 4th gear and I give it the beans, it often jumps out of gear when the power band kicks in - very useful (I'm pretty sure this is related to the spring in the gear selector sliding dog, sure it was a Taffspeed one?)

The main issue with the gear change has been the pin that holds the gear wheel onto the clutch rod likes to drop out, leaving you unable to select any other gear than the one your currently in.

Very annoying, but a straight forward fix that I have performed on many occasions, most recently on a ride down to Goodwood for one of their breakfast clubs. I like the A286 but not when this problem leaves me wasting time to whip off the headset, try and locate the ping or bolt or bodge something together to get going, there and back!

I am inherently lazy but enough was enough so I sourced a new cast aluminium GP gear wheel which came with a throttle wheel (toss that in a box somewhere and get the excellent SLJ brass throttle). I also paid a visit to the magnificent emporium that is Margnor in Burpham, near Guildford. They have an enormous range of fantastic nuts and bolts so I spent much less than an fiver on several high-tensile M6 x 30 bolts (too long) with nylocs to secure the gear wheel to a new rod (4mm, not 5mm). TIP: Scooter Restorations have NOS innocenti shaft end bushes in black nylon, recommended. Picture shows the original plastic gearwheel, new aluminium version and associated nuts n'bolts.


As usual with anything Lambretta, fitting and setting everything up took a lot longer than anticipated. For starters although everything fitted when out of the scooter, in-situ absolutely nothing lined up and I couldn't get the bolt through, despite how many times I hit it! The problem seemed to be the various bushes involved which weren't providing enough space. I'll add that although I had a custom gear change handlebar mount for the clutch master cylinder, this only made the whole task slightly more painful.

Next step involved cutting 2mm off the handle bar end bushes with a small hacksaw, FFS! This made everything line up and I also fitted a couple of shims so the gear wheel wasn't rubbing against headset casing.

Then had the simple job of removing the clutch master cylinder, as I'd had to take off the hydraulic hose to get the gear change out to goof about with. Then found one of the master cylinder screws was stuck so used an impact driver to free this and replace. Then bleed the hydraulic clutch and adjust gear cables back and forth for 30 minutes so the stupid, fucking clutch master cylinder didn't hit the top of the leg shield and stop me turning left when in 4th fucking gear!

Anyway it's a nice cheap conversion that provides a solid gear change experience and a bit of piece of mind that there's one less thing that could possibly go wrong.

Bit of a faff - 4/10 Lloydy rating. Took 3 fucking hours FFS!

Unfortunately she stills jumps out of 4th when you really need the power, fucking thing!

MOT to sort this week, should be a doddle - she's running sweet.