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Any Strada owners out there? I need some info on the rear wheel set-up. My Strada had been run for a long time without the top hat spacer between the cush drive and hub, which left the wheel loose and floating around, leading to wear on everything. Not knowing the thickness of the top hat spacer, I have measured the width of all the wheel components, added them all up, subtracted the sum from the distance across the swinging arm and machined a spacer to suit. However, although everything fits, it is obvious that my spacer is too wide, as the wheel is sitting over to the left in the swinging arm.

Here is the question: does the Strada have a spacer on the left side, next to the brake plate? If not then the problem must be due to the wear that I have on both sides of the brake plate, which means that I'll have to progressively reduce the width of my new spacer, while adding a spacer next to the brake plate.........

There is no spacer between the brake plate and the swinging arm on a Strada.
I think the top hat spacer between the RH wheel bearing and the cush hub was originally 26mm diameter with a bore of 15mm.
One end was machined down to 20mm to enter the bearing, for a distance of 11mm, leaving another 11mm unmachined. Total length 22mm.
Depending on the wear, and where it occurs, it is sometimes possible to replace the 6202 wheel bearing, which is 11mm wide, with a 4202 bearing, which is 14mm wide, but watch that the brake shoes contact the rubbing area on the hub if fitted to the LHS.

Jon

Thanks Jon. My hub is already fitted with 4202 bearings, which came as a surprise, and I'm assuming that they were original fitment on the hub that is fitted (which could be from any number of bikes) because the bearing housings are machined to the correct depth.

Well, I've ended up with a 3.5 mm spacer between the swinging arm and the brake plate, which gives me a wheel that is central in the swinging arm. The right- hand spacer is 13.5 mm, which gives perfect chain alignment.

In the long run I'll look for an unworn brake plate. How could anyone have ridden for as long as the PO with a loose rear wheel? Long enough to wear ridges in the wheel spindle! Laurie Richardson supplied a beautiful replacement.

Duccout wrote:<snip> How could anyone have ridden for as long as the PO with a loose rear wheel? Long enough to wear ridges in the wheel spindle! Laurie Richardson supplied a beautiful replacement.

(As I'm sure you're aware, Colin ...)

Spanish-sourced bikes do have a reputation for manifesting unreal amounts of previous owner abuse . So yours is no exception to the rule .
(The wheel spacers in my Vento were equally destroyed/missing ...)

P.s Thanks for the reminder about Laurie Richardson. He'd kinda gone off my radar, but he's an excellent fellow for little pieces of specialist engineering.

I suppose that I'd forgotten just how ham-fisted some owners can be, as since I was a teenager I've either owned new, or nearly new bikes, so this has come as a shock. Add in the effects of sand everywhere, like all the cables, Speedo drive, swinging arm pivot and forks all semi-seized with a sort of Sandy, rusty goo, then it has been interesting! Even the tank is lined with it, and I don't know yet if this is down to a tank sealer, or whether it is just muck in the tank.

I am very familiar with Laurie Richardsons work, but did you buy the standard rear wheel spindle, or did he make you a special one?
The standard rear wheel spindle is about 230mm long, compared to the Forza/Strada length of 298mm.

Jon

Laurie made me up a special one, nuts and all. Clever guy.