When I rode to France in 2017, my Lambretta picked up a bit of an issue with the front end. When I got home I decided to take a closer look and strip the forks for a service (which doesn’t happen as often as it maybe should).

I didn’t fancy dropping the forks out completely as I don’t have a strong enough bench to hold them, so it involves trying to balance them and unless you have a friend to help, a third hand.

This is where the Fork Compressor from K2 Custom Classics comes in. Firstly it’s small. Secondly, forks can be stripped in situ. It works by clamping the unit to the fork leg and a bolt that runs through the unit with a U shaped piece at the bottom that fits over the spring. When you tighten the night the bolt rises compressing the spring. It’s as simple as that.

If you’re worried about scratching the paint. You can overcome this by wrapping some insulation tape around the area where the clamp fits before fitting the compressor.

It didn’t take long to strip the forks. The diagnosis was collapsed fork link buffers. So forks rebuilt handling was back as it should have been.

You can get the compressor from k2 Customs Classics