rocketonarail
Hero member
- Location
- Gloucestershire,England
I suppose there are a few of us left alive who purchased their Laverda from an Italian bike dealer rather than privately/eBay/ and so on.
I purchased my Mirage from Avon Bikes in Bristol in 1980.Before Avon Bikes, Fowlers of Bristol stocked Laverdas along with several other makes,being a large "supermarket" type dealer as they still are now.(Being situated at the time in Grosvenor Rd,St.Pauls,they were at the epicentre of the 1981 Bristol Riots,and the target of looting and vandalism so relocated to their present location).
I decided I would p/x my T160 Trident for a secondhand triple,no Jotas in stock at Avon Bikes but a couple of 1200`s,one being a green Mirage,the other being advertised as a Mirage Executive,which appeared to be a Mirage with a deep red paint finish (deeper than the standard 1200 option ) plus a pair of black pannier cases.I went for the green Mirage.
The proprietor of Avon Bikes ,who I will refer to as DK took my T160 in p/x (£850) against the Mirage at £2400.
The Mirage was 17 months old with 13089 miles on the clock.
A few days before I picked the bike up I visited the shop to sort a few things out and was told by DK was a fine machine it was-"Took it for a run to Chepstow and back last night,went great,I`m a rider/dealer son!".
I took a look at the odometer which still read 13089,the same as a week before,it was obvious the bike hadn`t even been off the centre stand,never mind to Chepstow and back.
Despite warning bells ringing I went ahead with the puchase.
Collected the bike a couple of days later and it stopped dead on the way home.Parked it by the side of the road on the side stand whereupon it promptly toppled over and smashed the front left indicator.
Walked back to the shop to explain what happened,DK seemed to be mystified by the whole business,the owner of City Road Motorcycles who happened to be there said"Your`re sure it`s not the kill switch?"
I decided to ignore this helpful advice and arranged with DK for collection and repair of the bike.
I then walked back to the bike,decided to look behind the side panel and found the fuse box hanging loose and when unscrewing the cover found the ignition fuse had come adrift.With this fixed I rode home.
Closer inspection revealed front pads almost down to the metal,and negative equity on four of the six cam clearances,even with the smallest shims in place.
I posted the head off to Cropredy Motorcycles who put that right.
Someone once described DK as a lovable rogue(not sure about the lovable bit) but I don`t harbour any bad feelings over it,just decided early on that if you want something doing properly it`s best to do it yourself-the bike went on to cover another 214,000 trouble free miles (apart from one engine rebuild,one set first oversize pistons and guides and quite a few clutch cables,gearchange return springs and CDI ignition coils).
I purchased my Mirage from Avon Bikes in Bristol in 1980.Before Avon Bikes, Fowlers of Bristol stocked Laverdas along with several other makes,being a large "supermarket" type dealer as they still are now.(Being situated at the time in Grosvenor Rd,St.Pauls,they were at the epicentre of the 1981 Bristol Riots,and the target of looting and vandalism so relocated to their present location).
I decided I would p/x my T160 Trident for a secondhand triple,no Jotas in stock at Avon Bikes but a couple of 1200`s,one being a green Mirage,the other being advertised as a Mirage Executive,which appeared to be a Mirage with a deep red paint finish (deeper than the standard 1200 option ) plus a pair of black pannier cases.I went for the green Mirage.
The proprietor of Avon Bikes ,who I will refer to as DK took my T160 in p/x (£850) against the Mirage at £2400.
The Mirage was 17 months old with 13089 miles on the clock.
A few days before I picked the bike up I visited the shop to sort a few things out and was told by DK was a fine machine it was-"Took it for a run to Chepstow and back last night,went great,I`m a rider/dealer son!".
I took a look at the odometer which still read 13089,the same as a week before,it was obvious the bike hadn`t even been off the centre stand,never mind to Chepstow and back.
Despite warning bells ringing I went ahead with the puchase.
Collected the bike a couple of days later and it stopped dead on the way home.Parked it by the side of the road on the side stand whereupon it promptly toppled over and smashed the front left indicator.
Walked back to the shop to explain what happened,DK seemed to be mystified by the whole business,the owner of City Road Motorcycles who happened to be there said"Your`re sure it`s not the kill switch?"
I decided to ignore this helpful advice and arranged with DK for collection and repair of the bike.
I then walked back to the bike,decided to look behind the side panel and found the fuse box hanging loose and when unscrewing the cover found the ignition fuse had come adrift.With this fixed I rode home.
Closer inspection revealed front pads almost down to the metal,and negative equity on four of the six cam clearances,even with the smallest shims in place.
I posted the head off to Cropredy Motorcycles who put that right.
Someone once described DK as a lovable rogue(not sure about the lovable bit) but I don`t harbour any bad feelings over it,just decided early on that if you want something doing properly it`s best to do it yourself-the bike went on to cover another 214,000 trouble free miles (apart from one engine rebuild,one set first oversize pistons and guides and quite a few clutch cables,gearchange return springs and CDI ignition coils).
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