Earlier this year I was in the market for a new rear shock absorber for my GP. The Sebac (Italian??) that was on looked like it had seen better days and I didn't want another one as I wasn't overly impressed with the quality.
Not being a fan of Indian parts I didn't want to use an Escort shock (though general consensus was that they work better than the Sebac). The only others I saw for sale were the Gaz and the Taffspeed ones but I didn't want to spend £130 + and they looked a bit too trick for my liking, R1 & R6 shocks weren't in vogue at the time but again they look even tricker than the other two. Hmmm I thought, maybe I should try and get one made in this country but after contacting some UK bike shock manufacturers I was disappointed as they didn't appear to be interested. One of the companies I contacted was Hagon Products in Essex, some of the older riders will be familiar with Alf Hagon, a famous British speedway and grass tracker racer and the founder of the company, they specialise in supplying parts for classic British motorbikes and Harley's.
On the off chance I was visiting a friend not far away from their factory so decided that I call in and see them and show them a Lambretta shock to see if they had anything in their range that might be a suitable replacement. I got stuck in a huge traffic jam on the M25 and by the time I found their premises it was close on 6pm, and the last man leaving was putting the locks on the security shutters so I had a quick chat with him and it turned out he was the Managing Director. He was very helpful and said that if I supplied him with a shocker he'd take a look but thought it'd be unlikely that there would be anything suitable in their existing range.
As luck would have it I had a new Escort shock with me and left it with him and gave him my contact details. I hadn't heard anything from them after about a week so gave them a ring to see what they had to say. No luck, nothing suitable in their range so I asked if they'd make me a one off. It'd cost you a fortune, was the reply. The minimum quantity that they'd consider manufacturing was 100 units. I think they were just trying to scare me off (they were doing a great job of it too). After mulling it over for a few days I thought that maybe there was a market for a high quality product at the right price, after all the evidence is on the forum pages that we're all, in general, sick of poor quality parts, many that don't work, don't fit or have to be made to fit.
So, fast forward to the present, I've got 100 of them to sell. I've been using one on my Imola GP for a few months and done over 2,000 miles and it's worked very well. It's fairly standard looking, well apart from the chrome spring that is. It's not adjustable in height but the preload is adjustable and comes supplied with a C spanner to adjust it, but the spring is rated at about 220 lbs so those that had tried the shocker so far haven't felt the need to adjust it, maybe worthwhile if riding 2 up and loaded with rally gear.
Being UK made it comes with a 2 year warranty, (a novelty in the Lambretta world don't you think?) with the exception of the chrome plating on the spring, as UK weather isn't too friendly to chrome plate, though it is UK plating and of high quality. The bushes are replaceable and are very substantial. As I mentioned earlier, I have been using one on my Imola kitted series 3 but I haven't tested one on a TS1 kitted scooter yet but the general thought is that the alloy inlet manifold may catch on the frame with these kits but that's not a problem on normal series 2 & 3's.
