Fastest Confirmed Speed on a Laverda

Luckily there’s no 20 mph limits around where I live, normal is 30 mph, with a Commando, it’s happy in 4th gear (top gear) at 35 mph so a set it and forget it engine from 35-85 mph.
 
The Sock said:
In another Bike magazine article, from long ago, they demonstrated it's better to be lucky than be good:

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I did suffer from repressed Angst crossing into Switzerland on the SFC with the 2/1.
As long as you pay the vignette, no problem.
We crossed Switzerland 10 or so of us 6 years back on British iron apart from myself, no worry either.
The problem in the very near future, there and elsewhere will be emission regulations.
Paul
 
rocketonarail said:
Thank Christ for that ....... Sorry that`s the situation for you though .........

To try to find out more about the situation in the UK , I searched and found that the police can seize a vehicle if it is un taxed , un insured etc ........ The courts can order a vehicle to be seized if the charge is reckless or dangerous driving , rather than straightforward speeding , I suppose ........ So if you`re caught doing 170 mph down the B4127 , then you would be considered reckless and dangerous I guess , and risk having your vehicle seized .......

Anything over 30 mph above the posted limit is considered the most serious level of speeding , but would`nt necessarily result in a driving ban , for example , ( although it almost certainly would ) , and a case of straightforward speeding is unlikely to result in your vehicle being seized ( As far as I can understand it .... ) ...... Unless you were caught doing something completely stupid , and were then charged with reckless or dangerous .......

If a vehicle is seized , it is then sold on ...... Fines , court costs , and so on , are deducted from the proceeds , and the remaining balance ( if there is one ) , paid back to you ......

In an episode of 44 Teeth , the intrepid duo were stopped by the police in Switzerland for exceeding the speed limit ..... a camera stationed just after a tunnel a mile or so back up the road had caught one of them ( the other had got away with it as his number plate had been obscured by a car ) .......
The fine was an on the spot 4000 euros , and an instant driving ban ...... If he had been caught doing a couple of kph more , the bike would have been seized as well ....... Luckily they had a back up van to transport bike and rider to the Italian border .......

In a Bike magazine guide to Europe , they once said if your bike is loud , if you are doing , or even thinking about , doing anything illegal , or if you don`t vote Tory ........ then avoid Switzerland at all costs ...... ( Nice countryside though ... ) ........
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No worries, riding Laverda's with different cans for 20 years in the Geneva area...
 
1200 JOTA said:
that's what I like about the Commando too ... and gives HD riders pause when they top at 4000 and you go to 8000
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Well, my 850 redlines at 5900rpm, I thin the 750’s redline to 7000 rpm. The 850’s have a lazy state of tune, casual, pretty well signs off 500 rpm before redline , but enormous torque virtually off idle.
 
rocketonarail said:
!76 - 178 mph it was then ....... I`m going by memory ( always a dangerous thing ) ...... That`s why I sometimes preface with " I seem to recall " , and finish with " I may be wrong " , as a let out clause ........ The V6 was almost 20 mph faster than the Hondas , which would put them at 158 / 159 mph ( but I may be wrong .... ) .........

I`m still sure I saw 186 mph quoted in Bike magazine , but as the Team Bike visits to the Bol seemed to be one great piss - up from start to finish , then maybe they exaggerated / got it wrong as well ........

There was an account during one visit when Team Bike found themselves in disagreement with a French ( private ) Kawasaki team , which ended in a bout of fisticuffs ....... Ad rep Tom Stewart managed to avoid trouble by disguising himself as a bush .........
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Guzzi V8 recorded 178mph at the Belgian GP 1957.. supposedly did 186mph at Mira test in France…fuckin ding- dong!
 
I believe Ray Shone claimed 158mph for his team’s space frame at Spa a good few years back, and the M&T triple was claimed to be a 180mph ‘terror’.
My ‘out of the crate’ SFC1000 didn’t quite max out on the M1 near Hinckley in 1987, in a ‘duel’ with a Suzuki RG500, due to fuel starvation. I was two up with luggage (not that me and the missus weigh much more than your average Laverda owner 😜) and was indicating a fair bit over 140mph by the time I decided I had proved a point to the Suzuki rider and his passenger. 🙂
I took the bike to the TT later in 1987 where it was run flat out on several sections of the mountain course. However, they didn’t have the speed checks on the Sulby straight or at the grandstand in those days, so although I can’t evidence that it had a genuine 140mph+ performance, I’m fairly sure it did.
However, I do know the Corsa, owned by Ray Peacock, that I raced at the TT in 1985 was a genuine 140mph+ bike.
But neither of those are the quickest triples I have ridden/raced. I’m sure Andy Bartlett’s TT1 repro is much quicker/faster.
 
Vince said:
There was a test of 2 Laverdas in one of the Pom bike mags Classic Bike or Performance bike where they just cracked 150mph or 241kph confirmed at Bunting, that testing place they all used back then, not some widely wobbling highly inaccurate bike speedo. I guess the V6 is the big daddy for the fastest Laverda ever. Dont, remember the number but it is really big. The next club ride coming up is in a really remote place with some big open fast roads with zero traffic or Kangaroos where I saw an alleged 180kph on my Phone GPS mounted on the dash for a scary quick glance a few years back. We have a Land Speed meet once a year on a Salt Lake in South Oz. That's my fantasy one day.
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Here you go Vince, I managed to get a copy of the article, from that I've just bought the magazine. June 1990 performance bikes.

You were pretty much on the nail.
 

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One of the brothers featured in that Performance Bike Article popped up on one of the Facebook pages discussing Rob's speed runs. It's a small Laverda World out there.
 
Back in 1999 Andy Wagner and his girlfriend Renata were pootling along the M53 motorway on the Wirral at about 140 mph on an RGS and 3C respectively. They were obliviously unaware of the police car that had been following them for 5 miles.

Andy & Renata pulled off at the junction for Thornton Waugh and stopped because they were unsure which way to go for the ILOC rally. The following police car screamed to a halt in front of them, and had already called for back up.

It was at that point that A & R's ability to speak English completely vanished (Renata is near fluent and Andy's English back then was pretty good). Back up arrived, they couldn't speak German either. Lots of pointing and gesturing of what the problem was led to a policeman enquiring of A&R what they should do...

Renata, dressed in a tight fitting 2 piece leather suit, pointed her bum towards them and said "you spank me".

A&R were given a police escort to the rally site, and told not to be speeding again!

Next day whilst I was doing 130 ish on my Jota behind Andy on a stretch of dual carriageway approaching a roundabout when Renata flew by me at well over 140.

Happy days.
 
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One time I was riding my Jota on the autostrada Venezia ver Milano at 160 kph when I noticed a Carabinieri car coming up behind me, I eased off the gas and they eased up alongside me, gesticulating...

Gesticulation was a hand twisting and cupping of an ear. OK, they are were wanting musica... I dropped a gear and gave the Jota full throttle.

Massively grinning Carabinieri.

:D
 
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