1975 3C Front brake master cyl.

Titanium Todd

Titanium Todd

New member
Location
California
Greetings to all you Laverdaphiles and Cognoscenti . New guy here . Well , old guy with a new ( to me ) bike .
I just got a 1975 3C , my first Laverda . I've been looking for one for 30 years . They are thin on the ground here . So.Cal. USA
Has about 20K miles on it , looks great and runs great . BUT , the front brakes leave something to be desired !
Great brakes ! Plenty of stopping power ! And they feel absolutely WOODEN ! Kinda like my old Honda 1971 CB750 , or anything
else from that era .
Do any of you good folks have a recommendation for a better master cylinder for this bike ? One that will give me some "feel " ?
Also , I would like to go with a radial M/C . The stock one butts right up against the speedo , severely limiting the lovely adjustable bars.
I know that according to hydraulic theory that a slightly smaller bore master would give some feel , I'm just not sure of how much smaller .
Any advice would be greatly appreciated . Thanks, Todd.
 
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I bought a 74 750 SF2 that has similar Brembo brakes that had the same wooden feeling. I bought an updated Brembo m/c, caliper rebuild kit and new brake lines from Bevel Heaven in CA that transformed the brakes. Also get EBC organic brake pads for the iron rotors. The ultimate fix would be 4 pot Brembo calipers and Brembo floating rotors, but the rivet counters here would disagree since they don,t believe in modern upgrades.
 
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It would be a shame to lose the original look of your 3C. Braking feel is greatly improved if all rubber components are replaced with new. That means caliper seals, (and pistons if they are the original chromed rather than the later dark grey PTFE coated items). Similarly, fit an overhaul kit for the PS15 m/c. Finally decent quality organic pads and braided lines will provide good braking feel.
 
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TeddyG said:
I bought a 74 750 SF2 that has similar Brembo brakes that had the same wooden feeling. I bought an updated Brembo m/c, caliper rebuild kit and new brake lines from Bevel Heaven in CA that transformed the brakes. Also get EBC organic brake pads for the iron rotors. The ultimate fix would be 4 pot Brembo calipers and Brembo floating rotors, but the rivet counters here would disagree since they don,t believe in modern upgrades.
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Thanks Teddy . Got the rebuild kits , bike has braided stainless lines , new pads are on the way & I pay NO attention to rivet counters .:rolleyes:
 
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Rob said:
It would be a shame to lose the original look of your 3C. Braking feel is greatly improved if all rubber components are replaced with new. That means caliper seals, (and pistons if they are the original chromed rather than the later dark grey PTFE coated items). Similarly, fit an overhaul kit for the PS15 m/c. Finally decent quality organic pads and braided lines will provide good braking feel.
Click to expand...
Thanks Rob. Got the rebuild kits , bike has braided stainless lines , new pads are on the way , and the pistons are the grey ones .
 
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My 750SF2 has F08 Brembo calipers and came with original Brembo cylindrical reservoir m/c that initially gave no lever modulation and vague braking- I almost rear ended a car the first time I rode it. The updated Brembo rectangular reservoir with new direct lines (I ditched the splitter) totally improved the brakes. As a comparison, my Aprilia Tuono has radially mounted 4 pot Brembo calipers w/ floating rotors, and the Laverda's brakes are now closer in comparison.

I recently saw a Jota for sale that had Brembo 4 pots from a BMW.

Bevel Heaven also sells Dell Orto rebuild kits w/ instructions, and Steve Allen is an expert w/ them.

I have no affiliation w/ him, I'm just a satisfied customer.
 
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With plenty of good used m/cyls from Jap bikes available at excellent prices, the hard part is knowing which ones have 14mm bores? GSX-R750 searches bring up about 30 different types over the years! And if going to a radial the bore sizes seem to be considerably larger - is that due to the nature of their pivot and operation? Bit of a minefield.
 
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piranha-bro2 said:
With plenty of good used m/cyls from Jap bikes available at excellent prices, the hard part is knowing which ones have 14mm bores? GSX-R750 searches bring up about 30 different types over the years! And if going to a radial the bore sizes seem to be considerably larger - is that due to the nature of their pivot and operation? Bit of a minefield.
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Yes , it is a bit of a minefield ! I've been doing research for a couple of weeks now and it seems like all the radial m/cyls have bigger bores
and the adjustable ones don't go low enough. Either 16mm , or for smaller bikes with one caliper the biggest I've found is 12mm max .
Still looking . But I have faith , I'll overcome the problem eventually , I always do .
 
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Only ever saw one of those in person, a female member of the Girls Ride Out bike club. As horrible as those bikes are, there's better than the usual Varago most in that club rode. The exceptions were the couple of GSXR ladies who were bloody quick, one who won the OZ 125cc GP championship blew my but well away.
 
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