You don't 'alf see some badly maintained bikes, out there! Hopefully, not Laverdas.

Common sense dictates that any service item that cannot easily be visually inspected should be made of the very best materials. No alloy sprockets or cheap chains, please and they should still be taken apart and looked over periodically.
 
at one time Slaters were selling plastic rear chain sprockets (wheel end) these were found by Roger in USA, and sent back to Richard, and were very popular over there, in the UK they were a disaster, I have been told on more than one occassion that the Peter Furlong chaincase for Laverda's is a RRPITA and that the genuine factory item (not the same thing) was even worse. Consequently I have never bought or used one for TOG, but I would have liked liked to, it goes very well with what I (generally) do on TOG, but it has to be said, the last long run I did was Denmark in August and in more than 2200 miles I never did lube the chain, it was fine, but there was not a drop of rain all weekend, this makes a huge difference, the only time I ever knew that water can wash off (very sticky) oil from anything is the rain on a rear chain.
CLEM
 
My experience of a Laverda chaincase doesn't see me rushing to find and fit one.
Great idea, but the lack of cooling air saw all the Duckhams boiled chain grease flung off in double quick time. Mebbe a better idea with a modern O-ring chain but I'm not minded to fit one of the ugly devices.
 
I remember the plastic rear sprockets in the 1970's. They were very popular and even the Kawasaki police bikes here in California used them. They were claimed to last longer than a steel sprocket. I never ran one on my bike as they cost more so don't know if the really did last longer.

Then a few years later you did not see them anymore and everyone went back to steel sprockets.

As for seeing bikes today with a chain and sprocket ready to fail, it is very common. We don't have a MOT or inspections of any kind for bikes here and most riders do really assume that a O ring chain is maintenance free for the life of the bike. I have had bikes pass me at 80 mph with the chain being the loudest part of the bike!
 
1200ts said:
I remember the plastic rear sprockets in the 1970's. They were very popular and even the Kawasaki police bikes here in California used them. They were claimed to last longer than a steel sprocket. I never ran one on my bike as they cost more so don't know if the really did last longer.

Then a few years later you did not see them anymore and everyone went back to steel sprockets.

As for seeing bikes today with a chain and sprocket ready to fail, it is very common. We don't have a MOT or inspections of any kind for bikes here and most riders do really assume that a O ring chain is maintenance for the life of the bike. I have had bikes pass me at 80 mph with the chain being the loudest part of the bike!
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I remember those plastic sprockets in magazine ads, and later on they were offered with plastic/nylon ?? centers with an alloy ring of teeth. I have never met anyone that used them, but with advances in synthetics and plastic why not?
 
pf1 said:
I've got a JPX one and I'm going to use it on one of my bikes. Paul says they are French and therefore ok.
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JPX ??

I have seen some plastic spockets in the 70th mainly in France, but as they are not used today they would not have been the best choice…
 
andre g said:
JPX ??

I have seen some plastic spockets in the 70th mainly in France, but as they are not used today they would not have been the best choice…
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JPX sprockets were nylon and used in endurance racing.
Eric Offenstadts' company. A serious reference.
If the nylon sprockets were ok for the Japauto Hondas wiping the floor in racing with Laverda, they should be ok for us.

Can't resist a pic of Eric Offenstadts beautiful BUT.

D2-492-97-19.jpg


Paul
 
Paul Marx said:
JPX sprockets were nylon and used in endurance racing.
Eric Offenstadts' company. A serious reference.
If the nylon sprockets were ok for the Japauto Hondas wiping the floor in racing with Laverda, they should be ok for us.

Can't resist a pic of Eric Offenstadts beautiful BUT.

D2-492-97-19.jpg


Paul
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Like the bike but it does nor answer my question, JPX is acronym, what‘s it for?
 
Exmoor beast said:
What shaft drive bike was it?
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Don`t laugh , but it was a Yamaha T80 ( Yamaha`s take on the C90 ....... I`m beginning to wish I hadn`t mentioned this now ...... ) .......

Maybe I was being a little harsh on shaft drive ......... There must be plenty of GS`s and Pans which have been to the moon and back mileage wise with no trouble ..... As Mr Alzero says , quality build and materials count , plus the option of being able to lube , grease and inspect without too much hassle ... ? ............ The little T80 had none of these , I don`t think you could even get inside the rear hub if I remember correctly .......... and I did thrash it around a bit , taking it up to Slaters on 150 mile round trips for Mirage spares ( which would always cause Richard some amusement when I rolled up on it ) , and buzzing up and down the A4 with the throttle held wide open , just sitting there watching 60 mph scenery go by ..... It would lift the front wheel on full throttle gear changes from first to second as well , what with the auto clutch re-engaging abruptly ....... I kind of miss it ........

My thing with shaft drive , and it`s just a personal concern , is just that I don`t like the idea of not being able to easily see , or inspect , anything which is directly connected to the rear wheel .........
 
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rocketonarail said:
Don`t laugh , but it was a Yamaha T80 ( Yamaha`s take on the C90 ....... I`m beginning to wish I hadn`t mentioned this now ...... ) .......

Maybe I was being a little harsh on shaft drive ......... There must be plenty of GS`s and Pans which have been to the moon and back mileage wise with no trouble ..... As Mr Alzero says , quality build and materials count , plus the option of being able to lube , grease and inspect without too much hassle ... ? ............ The little T80 had none of these , I don`t think you could even get inside the rear hub if I remember correctly .......... and I did thrash it around a bit , taking it up to Slaters on 150 mile round trips for Mirage spares , and buzzing up and down the A4 with the throttle held wide open , just sitting there watching 60 mph scenery go by ..... It would lift the front wheel on full throttle gear changes from first to second as well , what with the auto clutch re-engaging abruptly ....... I kind of miss it ........

My thing with shaft drive , and it`s just a personal concern , is just that I don`t like the idea of not being able to easily see , or inspect , anything which is directly connected to the rear wheel .........
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I asked as I haven’t seen a shaft drive ever lock up- usually if anything goes it’s the pinion gear actually shears- it may be a fail safe mechanism. I used to do loads of V-Maxes and they could shear the pinion on lower geared US spec bikes. All bikes should be shaft- chains in the 21st century is madness.
 
Exmoor beast said:
I asked as I haven’t seen a shaft drive ever lock up- usually if anything goes it’s the pinion gear actually shears- it may be a fail safe mechanism. I used to do loads of V-Maxes and they could shear the pinion on lower geared US spec bikes. All bikes should be shaft- chains in the 21st century is madness.
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As you say , it was maybe just an exception , and I was just unlucky ........ but it was a shaft drive bike and the rear wheel most definitely locked up ........ It just put me off the idea of shaft drive , rightly or wrongly .......

As for shaft versus chain ........ When the Laverda triple first appeared , some testers reckoned it was crying out for shaft drive ......... but Piero said , in an interview with Dave Minton , that it would add weight to an already heavy bike , and ........ " It look so ..... so ...... " ....... and pulled an expression that Malcolm Tucker would describe as " Dot Cotton trying to lick piss off a stinging nettle ....... " .......

He also said you cannot race with shaft drive , which isn`t strictly true ....... but what he probably meant was that you cannot change overall gearing easily ..... and the V6 probably suffered in that respect , and also with shaft drive failure .... ( ahem ) , ......although it could be argued it was never primarily intended to be a race bike ....

......... During the Avon Roadrunner production series here in the UK in the late `seventies , a bloke called Malcolm Clube turns up with a MV Agusta Monza ( towed on a trailer attached to the back of his Rolls Royce ) .......... " Everyone here wants to see an MV race " he says ..........

Gets out on the track ....... " I don`t know , it won`t pull above 7000rpm ( about 110 mph in top ) .............. It`s shaft drive and I can`t change the gearing " .......

Moto Guzzi always seem to manage ok though ........
 
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rocketonarail said:
Don`t laugh , but it was a Yamaha T80 ( Yamaha`s take on the C90 ....... I`m beginning to wish I hadn`t mentioned this now ...... ) .......

Maybe I was being a little harsh on shaft drive ......... There must be plenty of GS`s and Pans which have been to the moon and back mileage wise with no trouble ..... As Mr Alzero says , quality build and materials count , plus the option of being able to lube , grease and inspect without too much hassle ... ? ............ The little T80 had none of these , I don`t think you could even get inside the rear hub if I remember correctly .......... and I did thrash it around a bit , taking it up to Slaters on 150 mile round trips for Mirage spares ( which would always cause Richard some amusement when I rolled up on it ) , and buzzing up and down the A4 with the throttle held wide open , just sitting there watching 60 mph scenery go by ..... It would lift the front wheel on full throttle gear changes from first to second as well , what with the auto clutch re-engaging abruptly ....... I kind of miss it ........

My thing with shaft drive , and it`s just a personal concern , is just that I don`t like the idea of not being able to easily see , or inspect , anything which is directly connected to the rear wheel .........
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Exciting times the '80's. Toodling along at 200 when my Guzzi MkIII CV joint bearing collapsed. All good. Did not die.
 
mauricejota7604 said:
Is that a painting??????
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Yes , or drawing , or illustration or whatever you want to call it ...... It`s from Classic Bike Guide magazine 2007 ........ Artist Nick Ward ........ it was a tongue in cheek monthly feature of what you might expect when going to view a bike from the classified ads ..... no such surprises now a days when everyone posts images on line ....... this particular one would have been described as " a bit scruffy , but very original " ....... When I said Pussy from Cleckheaton , I meant that it looks to me like a Panther sloper single , manufactured by Phelon and Moore in Yorkshire ............ nice piece of work .......
 
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