1200 Mirage

Blimey,I thought I was the only one who stayed up this late!
That is interesting,as you say your bike must have been part of a batch of sort of pre official launch version of the Mirage.
Never knew they existed!
cheers,Tony.
 
Steve S ....
Yes I remember a story about the meeting to find a name for the 1200TI,the name Mirage was eventually decided upon,but not before a long discussion with all sorts of names being bandied about.
One guy,who obviously was starting to get fed up with all this stood up and said"I know-why don`t we call it the Fandango?".
Apparently Massimo leapt to his feet and said excitably"Yes thats it,Laverda Fandango,thats the name!".
He was eventually persuaded that perhaps that was not the best choice but........

 
steve s said:
:)
I was told by Slaters that their '77 mirage spec was the same as the jota but without the h/c pistons.
Factory built with slaters adding uk exhaust and decals.
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That's interesting - the 1200 was a very low comp motor, so fitting hot cams to it and open exhaust would have made SOME diff, but wouldn't have been what I call a balanced setup. Why wouldn't they raise the CR? Too expensive and too much labour involved?
 
I think fitting HC pistons completes the package really. I had a green Mirage years ago but was a little bit disappointed with the performance, it certainly drank fuel though compared to the 1000.
 
"I think fitting HC pistons completes the package really." In the ?70s plenty of people made the mistake of fitting "hot" cams to standard motors. Far more effective to fit higher comp pistons with standard cams on a street bike.
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
That's interesting - the 1200 was a very low comp motor, so fitting hot cams to it and open exhaust would have made SOME diff, but wouldn't have been what I call a balanced setup. Why wouldn't they raise the CR? Too expensive and too much labour involved?
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I cant comment  on jota performance as I've not compared but I've had plenty of modern  bikes 1 ltr up, the performance of my mirage suprised me, especially the top end power delivery.
I always describe it as my vintage bike with modern performance.  Although you have to plan ahead and grab a large handful of throttle.
 
Tippie said:
"I think fitting HC pistons completes the package really." In the ?70s plenty of people made the mistake of fitting "hot" cams to standard motors. Far more effective to fit higher comp pistons with standard cams on a street bike.
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Yes my 3C had HC pistons and A11 cams and I loved it.
 
rocketonarail said:
Blimey,I thought I was the only one who stayed up this late!
That is interesting,as you say your bike must have been part of a batch of sort of pre official launch version of the Mirage.
Never knew they existed!
cheers,Tony.
Click to expand...
I fell asleep last night in front of the telly, when I woke to go to bed I was wide awake for a couple of hours..

From what I understand (from slaters) bikes 01 to 04 where the test / pre production bikes, some one one this forum said at least one of those is still in existence.

My understanding is this bike was in the 1st production batch of around 20 1200s that went to Slaters in nov 77.

I think your point in an earlier post was that alot of 1200 's claim to be from 1977 when looking at the laverda register, some of which seem more like 78 production ?,  but again I don't know how many bikes they could make in a week in that last qtr of 77 ?

 
Tippie said:
"I think fitting HC pistons completes the package really." In the ?70s plenty of people made the mistake of fitting "hot" cams to standard motors. Far more effective to fit higher comp pistons with standard cams on a street bike.
Click to expand...
That's interesting  you would have thought laverda would have know better when they put the mirage spec bike together. They must have tried it both ways ?
 
I think the 1200 was conceived originally for the American market first and foremost,to compete with the likes of the Xs1100 and Z1300,the 3C and Jota were probably considered to sporty for most (not all) American tastes.The larger capacity and lower compression were intended to give performance similar to the 3C but with a softer delivery.Unleaded fuel was also being introduced at this time so the choice of a lower compression may have been as a result of that.
Slater advertising for the Mirage stated the intention was to provide a bike with the power of a Jota but with a long torque curve,not necessarily faster but much more flexible,retaining the low compression pistons and the more relaxed riding position being part and parcel of that.
Of course,it may have been less trouble just to leave the low comp.in place!
Slater did decide later to go balls out with the 1200 with the Formula Mirage which was advertised as having 10:1 pistons fitted.
 
... I think your point in an earlier post was that alot of 1200 's claim to be from 1977 when looking at the laverda register, some of which seem more like 78 production ?,  but again I don't know how many bikes they could make in a week in that last qtr of 77 ?


I'm watching these posts keenly as my bike definitely has NOV 1977 as it's build date on the steering head.

(Jota America 1200)
 
1200 JOTA said:
... I think your point in an earlier post was that alot of 1200 's claim to be from 1977 when looking at the laverda register, some of which seem more like 78 production ?,  but again I don't know how many bikes they could make in a week in that last qtr of 77 ?


I'm watching these posts keenly as my bike definitely has NOV 1977 as it's build date on the steering head.

(Jota America 1200)
Click to expand...
Thats interesting and backs up the register.

I would guess my bike was built around sept/ october to be delivered to slaters in november.

I took the carbs off my bike last week after its had a few years of in activity, once I get it back together I'll post some pics.
Cheers
 
a14rgs said:
Confirmed that it was built June/July 1977, so the reg suffix is correct.
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That's really interesting  thanks, so id guess it was built at the same time as mine being 2 numbers apart

You would have thought that if they where all ready made well before the paris launch,  why it was a long wait before slaters got their 1st batch in late november, but I'm sure many will understand the workings of laverda production better than me..
It would be interesting to know who the did the dating as they must have some great knowledge of laverda production to share.

Thanks again..


 
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