What did you do to or for or with your Laverda today?

Popped down to The Hollyville Cafe for breakfast.
Some sort of Porsche thing going on at Brands Hatch, judging by the number of Turbo, GT3 and RS 911s we saw heading in. Rode back through the wonderful scent of Castrol R, wafting from the circuit.
Hollyville Cafe 2023 09 03 01.JPG


Drained the sump and clutchcase oil, when I got back.
This seems a whole lot easier than removing my gearcase cover. Simple to make up out piece of aluminium sheet.

Oil Change Plate.JPG
 
Anything that makes oil changes easier and less messy is a great idea, EG that hole and conduit mod I did to my Atlas. What with the 1500k intervals required, love your mod.
 
Cooler failed about three weeks back dumping 2l of engine oil on bike, road and myself resulting in myself and bike being enveloped in a cloud of oil smoke at next red lights much to the amusement / horror of other road users!

Later found that the inlet pipe had come adrift from cooler body / matrix due to failure in brazed (?) join. Seems a quality issue.

Inlet tube (10mm) projects deep into cooler matrix and is more or less held square to body as tube passes through numerous quite close clearance holes at each plate of the matrix. Tube has a 12mm ring that I suppose is designed to make sure tube is at the correct height in body and has a reasonable area for brazing to body. However the ring on the inlet tube was not square to tube, hence body.

Cooler was a new item with 3500km, had recently ridden extensively over cobblestones which may not have helped. Bought two new coolers from Autodoc, one made by Ridex (make of failed item), other by Praesco. Inspected the ring / tube alignment and both good, but otherwise the Ridex item was ‚better‘ looking overall than Praesco item. So Ridex item was painted and installed. 1000 km later all still good.

in future I might not paint any replacement as I wonder if the etch primer may have also affected integrity of ring / body braze. I doubt it, but?

I plan to modify an aluminium AN6 weld boss for fitting over a shortened tube (5-10mm projection) and probably retained to body by JB weld epoxy as brazing would be tricky for me. AN6 gives a secure, leak tight hose joint with low fitting load and would transfer hose loading from tube / body join to larger area boss / body join so hopefully preventing a similar failure in future.

The cooler is as original and from the Citroen 2CV, etc.. Autodoc offer examples from 5 or 6 manufacturers.

IMG_2795.jpegIMG_2796.jpeg
 
First scrub-a-dub-dub for the beast. From filthy road warrior to pinup - guarded by the wild dingo-boy, Charlie :cool:

Very impressed with the ceramic on the headers - looked brown from baked on dirty road and rain residue but came off with a soft sponge, toothbrush and pressure washer. Ready to get filthy again!
 

Attachments

  • Carlo & the Clean Q.jpg
    Carlo & the Clean Q.jpg
    106.4 KB · Views: 80
It’s indicative of how modern the styling of the engine was despite the belt driven generator. It all looks contemporary and of a whole. If Laverda reopened selling copies they would make money! Of course there are many reasons why they could not, but still……

I want one, badly!
 
laverda180 said:
Cooler failed about three weeks back dumping 2l of engine oil on bike, road and myself resulting in myself and bike being enveloped in a cloud of oil smoke at next red lights much to the amusement / horror of other road users!

Later found that the inlet pipe had come adrift from cooler body / matrix due to failure in brazed (?) join. Seems a quality issue.

Inlet tube (10mm) projects deep into cooler matrix and is more or less held square to body as tube passes through numerous quite close clearance holes at each plate of the matrix. Tube has a 12mm ring that I suppose is designed to make sure tube is at the correct height in body and has a reasonable area for brazing to body. However the ring on the inlet tube was not square to tube, hence body.

Cooler was a new item with 3500km, had recently ridden extensively over cobblestones which may not have helped. Bought two new coolers from Autodoc, one made by Ridex (make of failed item), other by Praesco. Inspected the ring / tube alignment and both good, but otherwise the Ridex item was ‚better‘ looking overall than Praesco item. So Ridex item was painted and installed. 1000 km later all still good.

in future I might not paint any replacement as I wonder if the etch primer may have also affected integrity of ring / body braze. I doubt it, but?

I plan to modify an aluminium AN6 weld boss for fitting over a shortened tube (5-10mm projection) and probably retained to body by JB weld epoxy as brazing would be tricky for me. AN6 gives a secure, leak tight hose joint with low fitting load and would transfer hose loading from tube / body join to larger area boss / body join so hopefully preventing a similar failure in future.

The cooler is as original and from the Citroen 2CV, etc.. Autodoc offer examples from 5 or 6 manufacturers.

View attachment 85266View attachment 85267
Click to expand...
2CV one did the same to me ☹️
 
Finished the total strip and rebuild of Monty ready for racing again.. 12 months of hard graft, lots of new internal and external bits, very pleased with the result. Bit of help from my friends along the way, including a mod to foot pegs for a little more room, fresh paint as well. Very pleased to be ready for Qld State Titles in a couple of weeks.

:cool:
 

Attachments

  • Ready to go.jpg
    Ready to go.jpg
    68.4 KB · Views: 37
  • Rear view.jpg
    Rear view.jpg
    66.5 KB · Views: 37
  • Monty linkage.jpg
    Monty linkage.jpg
    33.6 KB · Views: 37
Took my Mk3 Atlas for a ride (in the back of my van) to London. Too hot and spent far too long getting through roadworks and various other bits of congestion. Won't be repeating that again in a hurry. 🥵 (n)🤬
 
A few days ago...

Got all dressed up in the leathers, in 30+ degrees, wheeled the bike out of the garage, felt the rear tyre was a bit soft. Tried to pump it up, but foot pump broke, so used bicycle hand pump - still in leathers, still in 30 odd degrees. Sweating like a pig. Jeez it's hot.

Helmet on, pressed the 'go' button. Nothing. Bollocks! Lot's of volts at the battery, but nothing. Suspect a connection within headlamp spaghetti - headlamp out, still wearing half of riding kit. Blood beginning to boil.

Side panel off, culprit found. Fixed the errant solenoid feed cable. Still in half leathers. Pressed the button and she turned over nicely.

Now I'm far too hot - wheeled bike back into garage, took off riding kit and grabbed a cold one from the fridge :) Game over. Trip out abandoned. Maybe next time....

IMG_20230911_155142.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top