As part of Casa Performance’s veritable tsunami of new products (40 this year) let me introduce the X44 ‘OTT’ Chain Guide.
This is a new product that is close to my heart because it is based on a design I came up with a couple of years ago. It is intended to solve one of the problems of the first generation of pull-down Lambretta chain tensioners from Germany. The issue with these is that the guide position is fixed by a countersunk screw which often ends up behind the chain and is therefore very hard to adjust accurately.
I came up with the idea of a fixed carrier that bolted to the engine with the adjustment taking place via easily accessible bolts on a guide that was fixed above the chain.
PROS
- Simpler, more durable fixing.
- Simpler adjustment.
- Bigger range of adjustment to cover more chain and sprocket combinations.
CONS
- If you want to remove the chain you must first remove the guide and therefore lose adjustment.
The first evolution of this idea was produced by Readspeed. Jerome’s interpretation was considerably more complicated than my original but it does have the advantage of including a guide for the lower chain run which no other pull-down guide includes.
The Casa Performance OTT (‘Over The Top’) guide is much simpler and therefore cheaper to produce. The carrier fixes to the engine with one captive screw and one counter-sunk screw and you should never need to remove it after it is fitted. It has the advantage of both pull-down or push-up operation depending on chain length.
The OTT guide was developed over a matter of hours from a drawing to a physical example by Lorenzo at RLC. He designed the parts in CAD before printing them on the in-house 3D printer. It only took a few dimensional adjustments to come up with a version that was ready to prototype and then put into production.
Before release the OTT guide was tested for 2,000km in a development engine with no problems. ScooterLab.UK will also be testing one this year in the engines of our semi-tame racers Barrie Braithwaite and Kirk St-Moritz. Look out for a chain-guide comparison in the future on SLUK.
The OTT Chain guide costs €40 (approx £31.50) and is available from here.
Sticky
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