Lambretta

1968 Li125 S

Getting it Running III

Once the bike was running I took for a longer ride and noticed the steering had a strange weaving aspect to it. Whenever I turned in one direction I would find it would weave to the other. Lambrettas have a badly designed headset to fork connection that can make the headset turn separately from the steering stem when a single bolt gets loose so I decided to investigate before driving further.

It turns out that there are 3 bolts which hold a triangular headstock to the cast aluminum headset casting. This, in turn, clamps to the top of the fork tube. I found that the one of the cast aluminum bolt hole flanges had broken from the headset where the steering lock is located. I searched around for a 2nd hand headset bottom and found them everywhere...but for over $110.

Instead I brought the existing headset to Weiss Welding in San Francisco and they did a beautiful job welding the broken part back into place for about a quarter of the price of a 2nd hand headset.

The only problem was that the welding was also necessary on the steering lock cutout and the lock could no longer fit due to the left over weld as shown below left.

With a little filing with a round file I was able to take the lock opening back to fit the steering lock correctly. Whenever I get around to painting this bike the repair will be invisible. The bike now runs in a nice straight line without any weaving. It ain't the fastest thing on the block (especially with two people)...but that should change once the TS1 is added.

Next Section -->