Factory RGS 1000 Executive info and hello from California

After 13 years of owning 180 triples I bought my first 120 Laverda, a 120 Jota.
Hated it, wouldn't handle, felt loose, all over the place.
I blamed the rubber mounted engine for lack of rigidity.
Then after about 6 months something happened.
I realised the main reason it was getting in a knot going into corners was that it had much less engine braking than a 180 motor. I had been using engine braking to partially control entry speed and the 120 sort of whistled in, then I was using the front brake harder and later than usual.
Once I modified my approach into corners everything settled down.
It then became one of the best handling Laverdas I have ever owned.
 
Paul LeClair said:
...when I chatted with Roger Slater he was insistent with me that there would be a colour code for original factory paint colour marked somewhere on the bike, but he couldn't remember where or what it looked like. So throwing that out there for the wider Laverda community, is there a paint colour code on the bike somewhere? That is completely outside my experience, I have never seen/noticed one, on any Laverda triple..
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Have never noticed one, on any Laverda.

No note of colour codes in the RGS riders' handbook either, if it was noted somewhere, I'd expect it to be here.  Perhaps the U.S. destined bikes were marked in such a manner, maybe one of the many stickers contained the information, european bikes weren't plastered in idiot safety stickers... :D

Don't particularly like the 120 Jotas, never got to grips with the handling quirks.  Great fan of the RGS though, completely different kettle of fish!

piet
 
Hello from Norway :D I am selling my 1000 Laverda RGS Executive. I just got an email from Lloyd. He asked of the frame number of the bike. Lloyd said I had to refer me to this forum. The Frame number is LAV1000RGS2200.

I am selling my Laverda for approximately 90,000 NOK. That is about 14,700 U.S. dollars. If you have any questions please contact me at erwin.janz@gmail.com. Contact me for pictures!
 
Hello Erwin,

Thank you for your reply and information.

I need to make a correction for you - I put the reference to the laverda forum for you to know the context of my request - not to make you give information to the forum - but thank you anyway.

Your sale was already included in the 'for sale' section of the forum and is how I got your e-mail contact.

Cheers, Lloyd
 
Hi Grant,

if your engine does not have a braking power, I would seriously check it through. Either it has no compression or the carbs don't shut when you close  throttle... The 1000 SFC even blocks the rear wheel when I shift down before a corner (and that with BT012SS on it, which are VERY sticky...).

The 120? Jotas have a seriously different geometry it seems to me (maybe not much on the paper, but on the road... :o ). I rode several and none of them I liked. When I exchanged my Jota with Willy Werndl's 120? Jota on the last meeting at him (he ran out of gas on the tour and I had to refill his bike from my bikes tank), we both were totally smashed how different the two bikes handled. His was more like a train, almost impossible to get into corners without serious (!!) amount of force while mine almost fell into corners without any kind of force. Thinking of the corner was already turning into it. He was totally amazed and tried to figure the differences.

That said, the comparison included some upgrades on my bike, which seem to have influenced the handling and made up for at least 50% of the different riding-feeling. These were:

K&J Swing arm
YSS Rear shocks (slightly longer)
GSX-R rims
BT012SS tires
fork brace

However, I think a similar modified 120? Jota will never handle as precise as a 180?. The frame design is for fixed engine mounts and the engine is a stabilizing factor on this frame concept (the two lower frame rales are way to long unsupported on the 120?...). losen some nuts on the 180? engine mounts and you will see what difference it makes...  ;)

 
Lothar, the 120 has less engine braking than a 180. Period.
Nothing wrong with the 120 engine I had.
It was not a great difference, just enough to throw my riding style out of kilter.
A slight adjustment to corner entry and all was good again.

Once I had sussed that it handled at least as well as any 180 I had owned. Although POP may be vastly different.
I don't think there were any seriously different geometry changes.
They all wiggle when I ride them, so it's all a moot point.
I couldn't say a 180 handled precisely, not with a straight face anyway...  :D :D :D
The 120 and all my 180s handled miles better than my first Corsa ever did. I have only done a handful of km on my latest one, but that now wears GSXR wheels, big radials and Maxton forks and YSS shocks.
 
Hi Grant,

only thing I can say is that I rode 2 different 120 Jotas and they were both handling like a tank. Owner of the first one was Jost H. (Piet knows him and his bike) and although Jost weights way less than me, is way more experienced and a far better rider than me, Uphill Monte Grappe he was completely out of sight for almost 2 minutes... We exchanged the bikes and afterwards we both understood why... At this point in time, my Jota was almost standard.

Same was with Willy's 120?. It took my full body weight (and that is REALY much...  :-[ ) to force that beast into corners. Impossible to ride for me on longer runs.

I know though, that two 180? Jotas won't handle the same, too. Really depends on the setup and slight differences make a big difference in riding experience, thats for sure. I suppose that was the same with your first Corsa...  ;)
 
I tried everything I could with the Corsa.
3 different sets of tyres, different sizes, different pressures.
Different shocks, progressive fork springs, different weight and quantities of fork oil.
Handled acceptably (as they all do) at 75%commitment, but above that absolutely no trust in what the front wheel was doing. If I had pushed it harder I would have been picking it out of a hedge.
At the same time I bought a blue 1200. Night and day handling difference.
Eager to lean, trust in the front wheel. Back on the Corsa, burst sofa again.
I measured all the critical dimensions of the 2 bikes side by side using crank centre as a datum point.
The Corsa front wheel was almost 2cm further forward, and it's rear wheel about the same further rearward. Swingarm pivot point was slightly further back too.
Engine sat a bit lower than the 1200's too.
All of this proved to me that the RGS geometry is more sedate, laid back, less sporty than a 180 frame. Longer wheelbase, more raked out.
The 120 Jota has (I assume) similar dimensions to the 180 frame it is based on. Once I used a bit more trail braking into corners it handled bellisimo.
Each to their own.
Who knows what set up differences between bikes, even the same model, riding styles etc.
 
Grant said:
I tried everything I could with the Corsa.
3 different sets of tyres, different sizes, different pressures.
Different shocks, progressive fork springs, different weight and quantities of fork oil.
Handled acceptably (as they all do) at 75%commitment, but above that absolutely no trust in what the front wheel was doing. If I had pushed it harder I would have been picking it out of a hedge.
At the same time I bought a blue 1200. Night and day handling difference.
Eager to lean, trust in the front wheel. Back on the Corsa, burst sofa again.
I measured all the critical dimensions of the 2 bikes side by side using crank centre as a datum point.
The Corsa front wheel was almost 2cm further forward, and it's rear wheel about the same further rearward. Swingarm pivot point was slightly further back too.
Engine sat a bit lower than the 1200's too.
All of this proved to me that the RGS geometry is more sedate, laid back, less sporty than a 180 frame. Longer wheelbase, more raked out.
The 120 Jota has (I assume) similar dimensions to the 180 frame it is based on. Once I used a bit more trail braking into corners it handled bellisimo.
Each to their own.
Who knows what set up differences between bikes, even the same model, riding styles etc.
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  ... or if the steering head bearings were absolutely fucked and the forks were'nt working properly... I worked on your old Corsa for its new owner immediately after it came out of Slaters. Once we fixed the chassis maladies the bar tight cams and poorly set up carbs the bike was a peach. Sort the basics first then a value judgement can be made of the machine. Otherwise its like saying the tea tastes rank when really its only the milk thats off.



  Keith
 
And what chassis maladies were these?
I had not touched the cams in my tenure. Just checked the gaps.
Say what you want, and you will, it was not as confidence inspiring as the 1200, which in turn was par for the course of all the 180s I have owned.
I don't think tight cams and out of adjustment carbs would make the front end lack feel.
 
sfcpiet said:
Just on the side, Lothar, Willis' 120 is RGS based... started life as a RGA afaIk. :D

piet
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really? not sure what he did to it (maybe overtight stearing head bearings as suggested earlier?! Felt a bit alike...). Have you ridden it? though styling was OK to me, the bike felt really ugly...
 
Yes, I've ridden the pig...  don't like a single ounce of it.  Doesn't ride, doesn't handle, looks 'orrible to my eye, uncomfortable as the top of a power pole.  Maybe I just need to put on an extra 40 kilos, but then I definitely won't reach the bars anymore.  Wrong in so many ways.  Only thing that works fairly well is the engine.

piet
 
sfcpiet said:
Yes, I've ridden the pig...  don't like a single ounce of it.  Doesn't ride, doesn't handle, looks 'orrible to my eye, uncomfortable as the top of a power pole.  Maybe I just need to put on an extra 40 kilos, but then I definitely won't reach the bars anymore.  Wrong in so many ways.  Only thing that works fairly well is the engine.

piet
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:D perfect description  :D But I can assure you, even with more than 40 kilos more than you, I could reach the handle bars... depends where you put the weight... :-[
 
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