Bearing in mind

Have got as far as dry building 1 st wheel and found no bearing in kit , phoned traction world and said modification on some kits on new batch was wondering why change halfway through new batch?

Hi Busman

I guess there are really two questions that need answering here. The first is the one you’ve asked directly about why some customers have received wheel bushes with their Kit 1 and others haven’t. The second question is why the change?

I want to answer the second question first, but I want to change the emphasis of the answer. That is, we have increased the diameter of the front wheel journal from 22mm to 29mm and as a consequence have dispensed with the bush. We have done this to increase the strength of the axle. It’s quite rare to hear of a front axle breaking, but nevertheless, it has happened. The changes needed to the casting pattern and the increased costs of the castings were minimal. This coupled with the fact that the steel hub and the SGI (spheroidal graphite iron) used for the axle casting represented a good bearing combination, allowed us to see the change as a positive improvement.

We had several previously machined front axles in stock. As the change was seen as marginal rather than imperative we decided to dispatch these first and implement the change with the next batch of axles. We certainly didn’t want to see the ‘old’ axles end up in the scrap bin!

Regards

Steve

It must have been one hell of a wheelie to break a front axle! especially with rubber tyres on or was it the first RTA involving a miniature steam engine............................