sideshow
Hero member
Ok , so rather than hijacking the "what have you done with your Laverda " feed, I will start this Topic on my Jota.
It all started a few years back when I saw a 1200 built with bright Orange SFC fairings. I was quite taken by it, and it was for sale. I called the owner and explained I was away for work, and I would be back on the weekend cash in hand to buy the bike, he accepted, and then promptly sold the bike to someone else. That lead me to buy my 1956 wide framed Norton Domi racer with a big bore Atlas engine in it. But I could never get the Laverda out of my mind. I have never been one for keeping bikes standard, so it would not have bothered me that the 1200 that I saw wasn't standard either.
Last year, I decided it was time to build a bike, in the sense I would buy something with good bones, and change it to how I wanted to look. I came across a BMW R90, well priced, but I couldn't bring myself to change the bike from what it was , there are so many chopped BMW'S out there, and so i wanted something different, by chance the guy had a Laverda 500, he said a guy he knew had 10 or 12 of them, but he didn't like to sell.
I made an appointment to see the guy, he ended up having several rooms in an old village house, with over 100 bikes in it, mostly european bikes , but also 12 Vf 1000's !
It was true there were 12 Laverda in the room I first walked into, The owner let me alone for an hour to look at his collection and after talking for about 3 hours he asked me which Laverda I would choose if I could have one. I chose two, My burgundy Jota, and a black 1200. The Burgundy Jota was badly painted burgundy over the original orange paint. My wife was with me, and she was a saint, being very patient .
A long story short , it took about 4 weeks to do the deal, it was more of an interview really, to see if I was the right sort of person to buy from his collection of barn finds, he warned me he was a collector and not a seller.... to this day thats true, he won't sell many more from the collection. He says once he has passed away then they can be sold.
So I finally bought the Jota, and with my wife's encouragement the 1200, she still wants me to get more !
I want to say, Im not experienced with engines, Im good with Carbs, as I raced two stroke 250 production racers in a past life, and was constantly playing with the reed valves and jets . But I have never done anything more than very basic maintenance , so I knew given the Laverda was quite special , I knew straight of the bat, I needed to find someone good to rebuild the engine for me. The rest I would handle myself via sourcing parts and building things for the bike.
The Jota is a Spanish Jota, so nothing to do with the Slater ones, Its from 1980, had 36000Km on the clock, hadn't been started in over 25 years. It was a complete bike, matching numbers, but a complete mess as well, with the wiring loom more like a birds nest, broken bits here and there. Most people would call it a parts bike, I knew it for what it was to me , a bike I could do a resto mod on, without feeling guilty of changing something that was too nice to change .
I dont shy away from a challenge, and because of my work, its in my nature to make what I cant find when I need parts, or think something could be better.
Some may say its just an endless list of parts being procured, and bolted on, and that its not that special... well we all have different skill sets, and some of us can do more than others , and some less. What it really is , is me building my bike the way I want it, having some of my talented friends join in when their skill sets cover something I cant do, and to have a great time doing this project.
Already I have had some pretty cool adventures finding new and old , modern and vintage parts for the Jota , and its turning into something pretty special.
We have 5 kids from 8-18, they all come in and out of the shed and look and ask questions, loads of friends have dropped by, plenty of Espresso, rum and beer has been drank with them in the shed, while they all hang out on the sofa, listening to music, and some people even join in. Its become quite a social place to be. Even the 8 and 9 year olds come and hang out, drawing pictures of how they want the jota to look, and what colour it should be , and showing their disappointment that it will be a single seat, and not have two seats so they can join in on the ride...and the 8 and 9 year olds are girls!
So if you are interested please jump on in on the journey, i will put up new posts frequently as work and family time allow. I will also ask for a lot of advice, which may be inane and boring or probably has been asked a 1000 times before , but I will appreciate all advise given, as I do already from the people on the forum that have helped out a lot so far.
the first photo is my 1200 and the Jota in a red box , in a line of other Laverda. The other photos are of the bike on its first day in my shed....
It all started a few years back when I saw a 1200 built with bright Orange SFC fairings. I was quite taken by it, and it was for sale. I called the owner and explained I was away for work, and I would be back on the weekend cash in hand to buy the bike, he accepted, and then promptly sold the bike to someone else. That lead me to buy my 1956 wide framed Norton Domi racer with a big bore Atlas engine in it. But I could never get the Laverda out of my mind. I have never been one for keeping bikes standard, so it would not have bothered me that the 1200 that I saw wasn't standard either.
Last year, I decided it was time to build a bike, in the sense I would buy something with good bones, and change it to how I wanted to look. I came across a BMW R90, well priced, but I couldn't bring myself to change the bike from what it was , there are so many chopped BMW'S out there, and so i wanted something different, by chance the guy had a Laverda 500, he said a guy he knew had 10 or 12 of them, but he didn't like to sell.
I made an appointment to see the guy, he ended up having several rooms in an old village house, with over 100 bikes in it, mostly european bikes , but also 12 Vf 1000's !
It was true there were 12 Laverda in the room I first walked into, The owner let me alone for an hour to look at his collection and after talking for about 3 hours he asked me which Laverda I would choose if I could have one. I chose two, My burgundy Jota, and a black 1200. The Burgundy Jota was badly painted burgundy over the original orange paint. My wife was with me, and she was a saint, being very patient .
A long story short , it took about 4 weeks to do the deal, it was more of an interview really, to see if I was the right sort of person to buy from his collection of barn finds, he warned me he was a collector and not a seller.... to this day thats true, he won't sell many more from the collection. He says once he has passed away then they can be sold.
So I finally bought the Jota, and with my wife's encouragement the 1200, she still wants me to get more !
I want to say, Im not experienced with engines, Im good with Carbs, as I raced two stroke 250 production racers in a past life, and was constantly playing with the reed valves and jets . But I have never done anything more than very basic maintenance , so I knew given the Laverda was quite special , I knew straight of the bat, I needed to find someone good to rebuild the engine for me. The rest I would handle myself via sourcing parts and building things for the bike.
The Jota is a Spanish Jota, so nothing to do with the Slater ones, Its from 1980, had 36000Km on the clock, hadn't been started in over 25 years. It was a complete bike, matching numbers, but a complete mess as well, with the wiring loom more like a birds nest, broken bits here and there. Most people would call it a parts bike, I knew it for what it was to me , a bike I could do a resto mod on, without feeling guilty of changing something that was too nice to change .
I dont shy away from a challenge, and because of my work, its in my nature to make what I cant find when I need parts, or think something could be better.
Some may say its just an endless list of parts being procured, and bolted on, and that its not that special... well we all have different skill sets, and some of us can do more than others , and some less. What it really is , is me building my bike the way I want it, having some of my talented friends join in when their skill sets cover something I cant do, and to have a great time doing this project.
Already I have had some pretty cool adventures finding new and old , modern and vintage parts for the Jota , and its turning into something pretty special.
We have 5 kids from 8-18, they all come in and out of the shed and look and ask questions, loads of friends have dropped by, plenty of Espresso, rum and beer has been drank with them in the shed, while they all hang out on the sofa, listening to music, and some people even join in. Its become quite a social place to be. Even the 8 and 9 year olds come and hang out, drawing pictures of how they want the jota to look, and what colour it should be , and showing their disappointment that it will be a single seat, and not have two seats so they can join in on the ride...and the 8 and 9 year olds are girls!
So if you are interested please jump on in on the journey, i will put up new posts frequently as work and family time allow. I will also ask for a lot of advice, which may be inane and boring or probably has been asked a 1000 times before , but I will appreciate all advise given, as I do already from the people on the forum that have helped out a lot so far.
the first photo is my 1200 and the Jota in a red box , in a line of other Laverda. The other photos are of the bike on its first day in my shed....
I love that the kids are in on it. Mine know I spend countless hours building my SFQ but aren't really into spending time out in the shed with me. Mine has a single seat half-fitted, but neither of them have expressed disappointment that they can't go on the back! My 15yo son is convinced I'm and uncontrollable speed demon anyway and thinks I'd do 160 down our sidestreet with him on the back!
