One day there was an ad about a Sarolea for sale in a little village near Vara, in the west of Sweden. It was an older gentleman who was going to sell his 350 Sarolea. He had also one 600 with side wagon The price was just what I could pay without trying to lower. Anyway he was not willing to do it. In my eyes the old "lady" was a beauty. Well prepared. It was love at the first glance and the price Skr 23000 was not too much. I went home in order to, as people say in business, give it a thought. Although I knew I was hooked. I called Alf Eng 2 days later and said I want to buy it and I will come down next weekend to finish the deal. It didn't become this way because Alf phoned and said he was ill. I went next week. I rented a van in Fagersta from the Mitsubishi dealer. To be such a big car it consumed very little diesel. Alf was waiting for me. He had told me that there was no battery and no petrol. These ought to for an ordinary buyer has warned for leaking petrol tank and a bad generator. But I was lucky it was no problem. Now the compulsory coffee drinking started during talking about everything but Sarolea. Usual with myself as main speaker. Why cannot people try to ad  conversation subjects. I had bought battery and petrol and wished Alf to start the bike and demonstrate it. Alf got the engine running and drove a turn which showed that he had driven motorcycles many times. Then the engine stopped and I didn't got the opportunity to try. The bike had been insured through MCV. I am member in MCHK. Because of this I had to take a new insurance and get it controlled again by Kenth in Lisjö. During this time I had an ordinary insurance. I took the photos myself had them copied in my photo printer to photo quality according to all MCHK rules. Kenth wrote that it was an older renovation. That means nothing special. This happened on the 30th of June 2005. Now my life with Sarolea could start.

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Sarolea 350 1951 Overviews

You should know that it is not so much more to write about my contact with Sarolea if note the mechanical works now are starting.
After surfing on internet and contact to MCHK in Stockholm I soon found that information for this mark is very rare. I got some paper from MCHK and other from a 600 Sarolea. I also phoned telephone calls to well known Sarolea owners, asking about different things like function and experiences and so on. It showed though that any deep specialist experience are they not willing to share. No one can give an answer in a specific question. Usually it is much hm hm and it always ends up with  "Ask him. He might know". In meetings they can talk for hours about their MC mark.
As a counterbalance to this my article will describe Sarolea 350 components and how I handle the bike. With pictures and text. Here you might find useful hints, as a saving angle, for many Sarolea owners in trouble to read and look how I handle my Sarolea.
But first some talk about overviews.

The bike has the first generation of front absorber. It showed up to be empty of oil. I filled of course 2.5 dl in each leg. Preferably automat gearbox oil. They were leaking heavily. Lucky enough all was out before the road safety control. See further about changing o-rings in fork legs. By curiosity I controlled the valve system. Valve cover was lifted. See further about valve system.

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The gearbox is the design of Sarolea and is used for all their different models from 350 to 600. Therefore it has a robust design. It will serve the bike for a long time if it is handled in the right way. I was forced to dismantle it because of some noise in the third gear. I  must say that such a simple mounting of gearbox in frame can be so difficult to take away. See further about dismounting and open the gearbox.
The first series of rear springs might be ok. A little hard to see chain tensioner. Almost not possible to handle. Generally I must say that there were not any good design for parts like tool box and battery holder. There are lots of emergency solutions.
The electrical snake's nest in head lamp for example. By the way the mounting of  is easy. Look further und valve system.
As you now understand this website is about my Sarolea and how I fix things that I found not so good.
For next chapter click in the table of contents.
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