Modify and be damned

When we lived on the boat we had a wet tender and a dry one. I put a windscreen, hand guards, a wicker tail box and a brown seat cover on the dry one. I thought it looked pretty good, but there’s no accounting for taste!5D216380-AA9F-4A77-9714-8664DF0EEE7B.jpeg
 
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Paul Marx said:
Well Lothar, when I read your comments about how your standard Laverda bikes try to kill you, it makes me marvel at the fact that so many people who raced, or still are racing standard or near standard Laverda motorcycles with great success, managed to survive.
Paul
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Funny - you are contradicting your own points now...: further above you wrote that no-one would consider racing Laverdas without heavy modification - now you say they do and are heavily successful? So the frame IS actually strong enough??

Ask yourself why Laverda itself invented the SFC over the SF, raced it with 3 discs where the SF2 still had a drum brake and more different components than you could count, the triple space frame racers with raised engines contrary to the standard bikes... How much does the RGS TT1 have to do with a normal RGS (not even the frame is the same, it's made of different material), they used 36mm carbs where the corsa bikes only got 32, used different exhaust, different forks, different rear shocks, had slick-tires on them and so on and so on... No changes? Really?? ;)
And if there was no need to upgrade a standard Laverda - why did Laverda do it then? Why did they change to Marzocchi instead of Ceriani, only for money? Why did they go from drum brakes to discs (I know they have been forced by the Ministry of Transportation as Piero has stated several time). Why did they go to wider rims on the cast wheel models, why swimming discs instead of fixed ones (which on the rear even broke several times). Why did they change the angle of the rear shocks etc. etc.? All perfect and no development needed? Sure...

If you try to ride a SF(0) as I do it with my Jota (within legal rules on open roads), the SF will kill you once a serious situation apears (car crossing your way and you need to do an emergency stop). That happened to me 3 times until I sold it. The Jota did similar things, some might have been avoidable with more modern tires like the Contis or BT's available today, but that was 30 years ago and all you had were Metzeler. The SF though had modern tires, so not 100% sure just different tires would have avoided the crashes I had with the Jota.
At the end, they are my bikes and I do with them what I want. If some day they need to be sold, either the buyer likes the modifications or can go back, all parts available from the shelf and no unchangeable modifications done... ;)
 
I suppose a case of comparing apples with pears?
The SFC, space frame and TT1 were developed for endurance and Formula racing so to be competitive you had to make the changes. A lot of bikes were raced in production race trim, so a lot fewer legitimate changes made, (albeit a few not legit mods were undoubtedly also made occasionally) and apart from PK’s infamous crash at the TT, when he broke his neck, I think most riders survived.
However, it’s true development (generally) improves the breed.
 
Correct me if I’m wrong.
The SFC, twins, were produced as a saleable race bike after the factory modified the road version SF and raced them.

And then built them to be road registered, probably as a number of people asked the question.

And perhaps the V6 was destined for the same.

I remember as a keen salesman of Italian manufactured machinery, I was asked if our supplier could build a machine to xyz specs. I contacted the factory, to which they replied “It is possible”

So I priced the machines accordingly (fucken expensive) and fuck me, the customer gave me an order. I contacted the manufacturer asking for a firm price.

They declined to quote.

I rang and asked why.

In typical Italian diplomacy the reply “Yes we said it would be possible, but just because it is possible, doesn’t mean we would”

If the modifications meant a good number of sales, ‘possible’ could have been turned into a yes. And I presume, with that logic, the SFC became available.

Modify and be damned? Not necessarily.
 
Improvements were constantly made to the Laverda street models as well as to the race models, too (S, SF, SF1, SF2, SF3, 3C, 3CL, Jota, Jota 120, RGS etc.). Keep in mind, you could order different cams, different heads etc. - what at the end was a Slater Jota? Nothing else as a street version with factory pre-installed tuning components (higher compression, 4C cams, all designed and delivered by the factory...) and a different exhaust, designed/supplied by Slaters. So - if the factory wouldn't have wanted you to modify or did believe they built the best possible bike - why did they develop the bike over time and did offer a lot of tuning parts (and may that be said: not only to race-teams...), why did they even deliver different models depending on the market (and by request of the local distributor)? Also some of the race modifications endet up in the street bikes like bigger heads/valves etc.

Sulzbacher, Cico and some more seem also not to have liked very much what the factory did (and even did successfully, what the factory did not want to offer, such as 40mm carbs on the top bike of Cico...). My bike's modifications started of with Cico's ideas in the back of my mind (1200ccm, higher compression, SFC-head, 4C cams, 40mm carbs). As my bike was actually built by Cico one day (but did not have to many of these modifications when I got it but just the exterior, such as the fairing and seat), it was a natural consequence for me to follow his route when I found the bike to be lacking handling, power and many more...
I have a hard time to believe that people at that time took a street bike, took the turn signals and mirrors off, taped the headlight and went on race-tracks. I think most of those bikes have been modified, partly heavily before going on the track. If I see what it took Gijs with his Laverdas to be successfull and what modifications went into these bikes, my bikes really feel original... :oops:;)
 
Laverdalothar said:
Improvements were constantly made to the Laverda street models as well as to the race models, too (S, SF, SF1, SF2, SF3, 3C, 3CL, Jota, Jota 120, RGS etc.). Keep in mind, you could order different cams, different heads etc. - what at the end was a Slater Jota? Nothing else as a street version with factory pre-installed tuning components (higher compression, 4C cams, all designed and delivered by the factory...) and a different exhaust, designed/supplied by Slaters. So - if the factory wouldn't have wanted you to modify or did believe they built the best possible bike - why did they develop the bike over time and did offer a lot of tuning parts (and may that be said: not only to race-teams...), why did they even deliver different models depending on the market (and by request of the local distributor)? Also some of the race modifications endet up in the street bikes like bigger heads/valves etc.

Sulzbacher, Cico and some more seem also not to have liked very much what the factory did (and even did successfully, what the factory did not want to offer, such as 40mm carbs on the top bike of Cico...). My bike's modifications started of with Cico's ideas in the back of my mind (1200ccm, higher compression, SFC-head, 4C cams, 40mm carbs). As my bike was actually built by Cico one day (but did not have to many of these modifications when I got it but just the exterior, such as the fairing and seat), it was a natural consequence for me to follow his route when I found the bike to be lacking handling, power and many more...
I have a hard time to believe that people at that time took a street bike, took the turn signals and mirrors off, taped the headlight and went on race-tracks. I think most of those bikes have been modified, partly heavily before going on the track. If I see what it took Gijs with his Laverdas to be successfull and what modifications went into these bikes, my bikes really feel original... :oops:;)
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Believe it or not Lothar, but many racers did just that back in the 70’s and 80’s and probably still today.
 
Cosi said:
Wrong, They raced tiddlers long before that…
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Alfonso+Gualtiero+Giro+D%2527Italia+1954.jpg
 
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