I'm told Russell Motors still have some NOS girder fork links in stock..

I'm interested to know if any forum members have bought any and if so did anyone measure the spindles to determine the accuracy/tolerance of them before fitting..?..Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Last time I ordered some, some were Indian repro ones and the rest were genuine.

email (option): davmax@ntlworld.com

I also had a set. They were painted in that strange green colour and the spindles were badly machined. Oval/tapered and unnecessarily scored. I've gone back to my originals which were far less mall formed than the new ones.

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

A close up picture of them would satisfy my curiosity.

Here they are Douglas. To me, they look like they have been machined with a blunt tool? When I measured them with a micrometer, they are not very accurate at all, being oval or tapered or both.
On inspection of my original links, (which have had a couple of the spindles replaced in the past by Jake Robins), I found they were far less out of true than these new ones. My friend John made me new bushes and we simply reamed each bush to suit.
So desperate was I to get my forks correct that I sent them (with my original links) to Dave Plumb. He returned them, saying that, any wear in them is so minimal that it just wasn't worth doing anything to them.

I was talking to Les (Russells) one day in his shop. He told me that his Dad had starting getting stuff made in India years ago by a chap he referred to as 'Granddad'. Granddad retired/died and his kids took over, then their kids took over and each time the quality has got worse, and he hardly gets anything from them now. Ron

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PS One day I'll get the quality of the steel used to make these links checked and then get new spindles fitted.......One day!

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Hi

I heard the m20 links are forged, making them difficult to reproduce,
so would these indian ones be forged also?
or should i say 'forgeries' ha ha

I have put new spindles in these links for both my bikes and they served me well for many miles. I used steel what we call "staal 40" in Holland.

Henk

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

I remember a friend of mine bought nos spindles some 30 years ago.
He complained they were very roughly made. Could have been very early indian stuff, but also maybe originally BSA ?

A friend of mine bought new old stock from Russell's in London and these were clearly original and these were very rough also. Almost like a file you would use for woodworking.

Henk

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

Maybe these ones of mine are BSA. Les's brother Geoff said they were. Maybe I'm too hasty in doubting him Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Well they were only meant to last a couple of days in the battlefield!

Ron, yours look like originals, the way to tell is that the spigots were brazed in on the Indian ones and they were painted in a sort of metallic green

email (option): davmax@ntlworld.com

Hey Ron. Allow me to relieve you of those crappy Indian made links,look way nicer than some of mine !

email (option): Fuzzyempire@hotmail.com

Henk,
can you discribe how you did it ?
They should all be exactly 90 degrees.
(Dave Plumb used to repair these also, if i'm right)