Well I bought a og repop Surflex basket long ago. At first I bought a banded one, but the guts wouldn't fit in so I exchanged it for a stock one purchased at Hot Rod Scooter Parts, who bought out Scooter Parts Direct when they closed. Cleaned it up with a wire brush. Had my buddy Derek G. bring it to his machinist friend who trimmed metal at thousandths of an inch to spec with a high-end commercial digital machine so the plates and the corks could move freely.
As you can see the fit is perfect.
The holes between the stock backplate and repop Surflex basket line up way better than the original basket.
Remember this problem? Yah, the grooves in the brass ring that concerned Tom G. a few years ago?
Joe Deason, of Bellomoto.com, explained the clutch grinding sound like this, "Lots of tiny imperfections really!, I installed and pulled off that clutch and test ride it about a dozen times literally!
But the right tolerances of the needle bearings and lapping the heavy grooves out of the brass locking ring really made the difference!, plus soaking the clutch plates in ATF and hand filing the "dog ears" on the upper clutch plate made this ss180 pull away from the dock like a Cruz ship!
After all these years I am just so dang excited to have the grinding sound of the clutch resolved. It looks like it was many little things combined together.
I haven't seen nor ridden the bike yet as Joe is still tackling an electrical issue on the front headlight for me.
