Rear shock spring

Before I can begin my R1/R6 shock conversion I needed to powder coat my spring (dust is on the spring in the photo. The paint is perfect). Powder coat is some tough paint and will handle the small pebbles and such hitting it as I clock 65 mph down the road.

I elected to go with the color black since that is how it would have come out of the factory back in 1962. Looking stock is important, even if you have mild mods, in my opinion.

I paid $12.50 to my mentor and friend Christopher Markley to powder it. He has a business for restoring scoots and small displacement motorcycles, called Moto-Rapido. He does excellent work and has worked a lot on my wife's Vespa VSC, including rebuilding the engine.

Just a reminder . . . there will be little to no work done on this Lambretta until Fall/Winter of 2008 as my priority is to complete my wife's 1967 Vespa SS180's restoration first.

Lesson learned:One side on the shock was NOT powder coated and I asked Christopher why that was the case. Here is the answer I got:

"You beat me to the e-mail. Put those ends facing down. When powder coating, you can suspend the part on wires or let it stand on its own if it has a flat surface. Regardless, wherever it touches, no powder. Seems on the springs that shortly after installation, the powder or paint if you use paint will quickly wear away as the spring seat grinds around against the shock spring support. So I opted to not suspend the parts on wires, since the suspension points would have been on a visible surface of the spring. This way, they look pretty and the part without powder would have lost its coating anyway in use. If you're worried about it, a smear of thick axle grease where the springs meet the shock could postpone corrosion, but it is inevitable at those mating points eventually."

Need a title?

My Lambretta did not come with a title as many barn yard finds don't or maybe you lost your title -- and now you need one. That's an easy fix at $80.

Look into International Title Service. They're the most frequently used service for old motorcycles and cars.

In a nutshell what you do is sell your bike to them and they resell it back to you with a clean title.

Easy as 1-2-3.

Alternative ways can be found on Scoot.net's Wiki.

Of course these approaches are for the USA.

Lesson Learned from Posting on BBS:
*sigh* ITS and Broadway don't provide actual titles. They charge to provide you with paperwork which enables you to title a vehicle in your home state.

You are still responsible for paying your states' fees for tax, tags, and title above and beyond what you pay any titling company for their "service".

Some states don't accept paperwork from out-of-state titling services, so caveat emptor before spending money with ITS or Broadway. Most state have a process for obtaining a title for a vehicle that doesn't otherwise have one, which is usually cheaper and quicker than using an out-of-state titling service, which is why that FAQ is on scoot.net.

Enjoy,
John M. Stafford