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A good friend and MRC member asked me about my experiences with the chain idler I'd bought from Italy earlier this year https://www.morinispecial.it/index.php? ... e_vignette My experiences might be useful to other riders of the off-road Lambertini engined bikes so I'm posting the experiences here.

My current off-road bike is the drum-braked Kanguro X. I've used a generic roller I bought from a seller on eBay around 2020 which has survived 4 years and about 8000km. I fitted this one in September together with a new rear chain (530 non O/X-ring) and have ridden about 800km with them so far, and of those I've had a replacement engine from an X2 and a new front sprocket for the last 600km. There was a lot of noise particularly on the overrun (when closing the throttle) which I found hard to place - was it from the replacement engine+new front sprocket or something else?

The plastic surface hasn't worn materially in the 800km I've used this replacement idler wheel and is still relatively unmarked. It looks like it'll last years and 1000's of kms.

Today I've replaced the bearing fitted to the chain idler roller - it is the 6300-2RS (10mmx25mmx11mm) and also I've replaced bearings I'd used to fill the gaps either side of this bearing. These spacer bearings are 6900's (generally used for skateboard wheels from what I gather) and I also have an M10 stainless-steel washer on the outer side of each of these spacer bearings. There's now much less noise (I've video recordings of before and after) I'll know more once I've completed the Exeter Trail this weekend (which includes riding to and from the event) around 800 km all being well.

I'll update this post in the coming weeks/months.

Hi, how did the roller work out? I’ve been trying to fathom out what a noise on my bike was - suspect it’s the original looking chain wheel - seems pretty loose fitting so not sure the spacers are fitted.
Thought I would check before I started ordering bits from Italy!
Thanks,
Simon

Staylor126 wrote: ↑04 Mar 2025 20:43 Hi, how did the roller work out? I’ve been trying to fathom out what a noise on my bike was - suspect it’s the original looking chain wheel - seems pretty loose fitting so not sure the spacers are fitted.
Thought I would check before I started ordering bits from Italy!
Thanks,
Simon

The new bearings helped reduce the noise when I rode the bike to, during, and back from the Exeter Trial the first week of Jan 2025. I've not ridden that bike since that first week as I'm mainly riding my baby 250 2C in terms of Morinis, and a couple of other non Morini bikes. (I also had a motorbike stolen at the end of Jan from my local railway station where the thieves cleanly cut through the 'gold standard' Oxford disc U lock and broke the steering lock mount off before disappearing with the bike.)

The Kanguro will be out again for further riding at some point in the coming month or two.

I'd suggest you might want to try a UK supplier of idler wheels first as they're less expensive and you can use M8 top-hat spacers to suit the idler wheels commonly available. If you're more determined you could machine some from scratch and fit high quality sealed bearings and make your own spacers. For me, the Italian spacer is good enough and as I had it delivered within Italy while I was visiting I didn't end up with high shipping costs or delays.

From my notes (Coguaro)
Chain roller 52x26mm
Bearing is 35x11 10 mm bolt

I made a chain slider (by brute force ) from a block of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene. No wear after 2 years. Production cost locally was not cost effective unless a large volume run.