"How it all began" or "Can you be re-infected again and again?

[henwilv]

Jacques, just what is that color on your RGS. Think it looks very nice especially with the wheels done to match

Henry

 

[Laverdalothar]

Hi Jacques,

will do, promised... needs some scanning, so it takes time. But I will!

Hi Andy,

No, there is no connection between the long 32mm pipes. I asked exactly that to the exhaust builder and he smiled and said: "Believe me - you don't need it. If it's welded as it should be, there should not be an issue."

And up to now, he is right! Except one welding, everything holds together ever since the system was mounted. BTW: that is a nother nice story...:

I was in Italy 2004 with the Jota and on the last 20 Kilometers before reaching the Lago di Ledro (close to the Garda-lake), the exhaust became louder and louder. At the hotel, I checked it and found the right angled part at the rear end of the "colector" (or "junction box" if you will) had broken off but was still stuck in the Jota pipe.

Just around the corner was a gas station and typically, they have a garage and - a welder. I drove over to them after having stored my luggage in the hotel and asked if they could weld it. Interesting conversation followed...

"Hello sir, I have a problem with my bike. The exhaust broke off and I would need someone to weld it back on. Do you have someone beeing able to weld it?"

"Ah.... scusi??"  ???

"welding... exhaust... broken...welding, capice?" pointing on the bike

"Ah... what? ???

I showed them the broken pipe and then they understood - sort of...:

"Ah - Fascetta!" (which means clamp)

"No - welding... possibile?"

"No...no welding... fascetta??"

I shoke my head and asked if they knew someone who could weld this. They told me (mix of english, german and italian) to drive down to Riva. There is a Scooter Shop, they would be able to weld it. Great I thought and drove down to Riva, found the Roller shop and asked the mechanic the same as before. The reaction was a D?ja vu...:

"Ah - una fascetta!"

"No - please - no fascetta - welding! Possibile?"

"Ah...noooo.... fascetta si, welding - no...."

OK I thought, fascetta is better than nothing and bought a (way to big...) clamp and tried to fix the exhaust with it - which did not really work...

On the way back to the hotel, I passed another gas-station and stoped for asking them if they maybe can weld it. What can I say - I do not repeat the same conversation the third time, but honestly, they also offered me a clamp..!!!!  

After showing them that I had already one and it did not work, they told me to continue on that road for 500 meters, right side there is a Citroen-dealer and right side of that dealer, there is a little Bike shop. For sure they would be able to help. Some light at the end of the tunnel!! ;-)

I found the Motorbike shop and stoped by. Stefano, the owner was a very untypical Italian: roughly 2 meters high, very sportive, light blond - he looked more like a viking than an italian and - he spoke some words german and a very good english!!  

I showed him the issue and before I could ask if he can fix it he said: "Naa - you can't fix that with a fascetta. You need to weld it!"   That's what I said, wasn't it??? Thanks god, at least ONE person that understands me...

Ok - we put the bike on the lift, waited a bit until it got cold and dismounted the "junction box". He said he can not weld it, BUT just next door, the Citroen shop, they have some good welders (experiance rules, eh?   ).

So we stepped over to the Citroen shop and right into their garage. Stefano exchanged some words in Italian with one of the guys (he did not look very happy...) and off they went to a small place at the backside of the garage. I followed and out of the italian conversation I understood some words. Right when the guy had mounted the collector into a bench vice, he recogniced it's three pipes. Surprised he looked to Stefano and asked: "Tre cilindri?" Stefano: "Si. Una Laverda", Guy: "Aaah... una Laverda....siii... molto raro! Una mille?" I steped in and said: "Mille due cento." First time the guy looked at me and smiled... I think, he tried even harder to make it a very proper job then...  

When we went back to Stefano's shop, the guy and 3 others from the workshop, which the welder had told something about a "Laverda molto raro" in Stefano's shop followed Stefano and me...

While we were mounting the collector, they stood around asking questions about the bike. One of them seamed to have some knowledge as he right away spotted the Suzuki rims on my bike... When everything was mounted and fixed, I asked Stefano what I have to pay and he said: 45?. I was totally surprised, as he invested roughly 1 1/2 hours of time plus the welder had to be paid etc. etc. I gave him 60 and still thought that was very cheap...

When we came back from Stefan's office, the 4 guys were still standing around my bike. I knew right away what they were waiting for - and I fulfilled their desires with every cylinder I had with me...

sisisisisisisisi-rooooaaaaaarroaooooaaaaarrrrrbrambrambramrooooarrrr..... 6 men smiling moronic, brain activity reset to zero, endorphin level exceeding the scale... Boys and their toys...

Since then, I allways have a "fascetta" with me - just to show I have it already and it does not work...  

 

[a14rgs]

Great stories Lothar - keep 'em coming! 

Alan

 

[Laverdalothar]

Lothar,
did the bike companies not engineer a dip in the powerband there deliberately as that was where the noise testing was done?

Sorry Grant, oversaw this question... You are right - and wrong... You are right, this is how they do it today. But remember, in the 70's when the bikes were built and sold, the noise regulations were not a problem (at least not in Germany...). I can get almost completely open Jota cans registered for my bike in Germany without getting problems - and they are emitting 110dB...

I simply think that the "bad" is how we call the design today. 30 years ago, it was state of the technology... 

 

[Laverdalothar]

Great stories Lothar - keep 'em coming! 

Alan

Glad you like it. It is as much fun for me to think of all the things I have done or were lucky enough to go through. Even if some of them were wrong ways, I learned so much out of it. 20 years ago I knew nothing of an engine except that it needs oil and gas to run. All I know about engines, suspension etc. I learned through my Laverda-Experiances. I am so thankfull I had the chance. If I had bought me a newer Jap bike, I think all I would know today is how to screw on a new windshield or exchange the exhaust against a louder one... 

 

[redfox]

Hi Lothar,
Believe you me, a japscrap can break down too.
Once I drove to France, to stay in the les Voges for some time, and on the way there, my buzuki burst it's wirenet into open fire...  ??? Dead rectifier. I dragged the bike for many kilometers along some narrow mountain roads, up and down for the whole night, and finally in the morning I saw a roadsign pointing the direction to Geradmer.
More pulling of the loaded motorcycle, and the rising sun made me sweat even more. Okay, off went the jacket, only wearing a tshirt. More than enough to keep warm... After a couple og hours, a frenchman passed me in his car, and noticed I had trouble. He asked me where I was going, and I told him to Geradmer. Oh, he said, that's in the opposite direction. I said: But the roadsign pointed this way? And he answered: Yes, but everyone around here knows it's wrong and don't take notice of the sign... Grrrrr.... He drove my luggage to the house where I was supposed to stay, and made sure I got the motorcycle there too. Nice fellow. After a little sleep and a bath, I went to a restaurant to have a good meal, and while eating and watching the numerous ducs and others blasting through this little mountaintown, I suddenly heard a rather dull: "flut flut flut". I thought: That can only be a hoepka cbx750f. It turned out to be some friends from Denmark, who came from pouring rain in Spain, passing by on an early return to Denmark. I invited them to stay for two weeks, and borrowed their bike to get spares from a nearby town plus a local superU (supermarket).
Another time on another busiki, I crossed through Copenhagen to get to The Little Mermaid, and exactly on the centrum square in front of the Town Hall, my monoshock on the rear broke in two. A very strange and spongy lowrider, but managed to drive slowly to the harbour to get my icecream, and back to my workshop.
But these experiences just makes it all the more fun to think about afterwards.

Cheers,
Jacques 

 

[redfox]

Hi Henry,
Well I had my RGS in a special very bright but not selfiluminating yellow, and I happened to like it very much. Some may not like it, but I do, and I kept that colour all the time I had the bike. First it's sprayed white, and then 3 layers of this special yellow, and then clear coat for a deeper shine. I guarantee you it will be seen by others using the road.
In the end I got a little tired of everything sprayed in that colour, but didn't change it before I sold it to try and find a SFC1000, my favourite bike (you may just barely have noticed that).
I like the fact that sometimes some people dare and try a different colour out of the ordinary, but for now, my SFC1000 will be red. Many others I know who have a SFC1000 paint it other colours, so soon I am the only one in DK left with a red one. I like that, so that it doesn't float around the streets with red SFC1000's.

The pics show my former RGS as being the ultimate first to test a newly laid asphalt toad. MMmmmm, totally new road, something a Laverda likes    The last one is me in a hurry.
Cheers,
Jacques 

 

[henwilv]

I like it, too. However I am going to do mine green, but not the wheels.
Henry

 

[redfox]

Hi Henry,
Yeah, keep the wheels another colour.
What shade of green will it be?

Cheers,
Jacques 

 

[Laverdalothar]

well - maybe I can help out on choosing the color...

Part XI - The SFC Story...

As said, in late 1999/beginning of 2000 I had the chance to aquire a long term desired bike, an 1000SFC (or more correct so, a RGS 1000SFC). I liked the style of the bike over the RGS which I felt did not really look sportive. Allthough the SFC has the same weight I think, it looks way lighter and way more agil. And - it is the last modell of the 120? Series, just like my Jota (ND) is the last modell of the 180? Tripples (ignoring the 1200TS...).

As I was so used to change things on a bike only when I drop it, I finally did it also to the SFC...  :

Again on a lousy raining day, I was driving home from biker-meeting just around the corner. Tyres were not warm (and they were still Metzelers...  ) and on the slippery roads after 4 weeks of no rain and rain now, the rearwheel tried to get in competition with the front one and - won...  :-[

The bike looked awfull, it was really like someone had cut my arms and legs off. I physically felt the pain it must have had and - believe it or not - I appologized to her for having droped her...  :-[

I had to leave her on the pavement when my wife picked me up (again...) so I could drive back with the trailer. When I returned to the bike, a little note was sticking to it. "I'll buy it if you want. Call xxxxx-xxxxx." First thing I wanted to do is to throw the note away, angry as I was. I would NEVER EVER sell it, I would built it up, no matter what it costs!

So I did.

However, I called the guy just to let him know how pissed I was about his note! It turned out to be that he was living not very far from me and was having a 1000SFC, too. He did not want to brake my bike, just thought also to build it up again so he has two. That said kept me from shouting at him and after a while I recognized, that we were chatting already for 2 hours on the phone. Unbelievable... months later, we met several times and had a good trip together to the Simbach-Meeting in 2003... ;-) But back to the SFC...

I allways thought that the red does not really work well with the gold. However, changing the Frame-color was no option for me, as it meant a total stripp of the bike, which I was not willing to do at that time. So - it had to be a different color for the fairing, tank and seat. . I allways loved dark green metallic and when I once came to my car-dealer, there was a Volkswagen Golf (Rabbit) Cabrio (Convertable) in classicgreen perleffect, which I took a note of the color code (LC6U) and gave it to my painter

And after a while...:

However, the Keihin Idea moved into my head again, and so I bought me another set off ebay, got it modified again by Topham and - as it really worked shit! - drove to a friend of Stephen Tophem to get it sorted. Detlef tried really hard to get the banger running, but after a week or so, he called me to discuss the situation:

"No matter what I do, there is a BIG drop of power in midrange!"
"have you changed the needle position?"
"Sure! That is not my first bike I set up!"
"Ups- sorry... have you tried different ignition curves?"
"Sure I did! I think more it is an exhaust issue... Do you have a different system?"

Mmhh - I did not, but as I had good contacts to OCT, I could borrow a system from them, a stainless-steel copy of the RGS system. That mounted, the problem - was the same!

Detlef was still sure it is the exhaust system. OCT told me that there is an exhaust specialist that makes hand made systems, a company called SR-Racing (www.sr-racing.de). I contacted them and after some discussions and estimates about the price, I brought the hole bike to them for a special Exhaust system...

Read next: Part XII - @ SR-Racing!

 

[drdesmo]

Lothar .
That is a magnificent 1000SFC. May be the prettiest I've ever seen-just f*****g spectacular.

 

[Laverdalothar]

Thanks, I must say I am a little bit proud of it... I think the green (which is from a Volkswagen from mid 80's - so "contemporary" if you will) fits the bike very good and any time I go into the garage, it is not the first thing my eyes catch but it is the thing they last the longest on...

Imagine what the sales numbers would have been with this color sheme...  :-[

Laverda prefered the red, Uwe Witt (who bought and sold most of the 1000SFC and who was a major part of the design) was more for the "John Player Special"-Design, hence the black "classic" SFC's, which - I think - were all just repainted for Uwe.

It is somewhat funny that the company that had beginning of the 70's the largest number of available color's for the bikes had end of the 80's the lowest number: RGS just 2 (red and silver), SFC just 2 (red and - due to Uwe Witt - black). I think that was already a sign of the upcomming end, but that is the wrong thread for such thoughts... 

 

[Laverdalothar]

Part 12 - at SR-Racing

as said before, SR-Racing was recomendet to me for fixing the Exhaust issue. This time it was not just a the collector (but also...), it was also the can that was to small (allthough I found it to be looking quiet big...).

Sepp, the owner of SR-Racing, is what I would call a typical bavarian character: quiet self assure (almost to a point where you could feel he is arrogant, which he is not!), very streight, not communicating very much - unless you touch a point in his heart where the emotions start to boil (hopefully you touch the positive part, as otherwise he for sure would throw you out of the shop. Simply a character you either love or hate, which is based I felt on missing aknowledgement of his achievements in the press and customer base. You feel he had a hard time to build up the company and make his name and brand known against competitors like Acrapovic, Termignoni, Devil and the likes. I recognised that quiet early and gave him the chance to present his company and achievements to me, which was not only impressing and interesting but also built a basis for us two on which we could talk. Somehow we found a good base I felt and it seamed he liked me quiet much, so did I vice versa.

He told me about some projects he was working on, one was a BMW 1200 Motor in a cart (yes, really!!!) which he was working on for an arabic customer, one was the new F800 BMW which he had the prototype exhaust made for (all F800 sold after 2005 have an exhaust system that is based on his design!). The reason why BMW chose him was the fact that he had tested their K1200 (the 4 cylinder in-line motor bike) and found it to have 30 HP and roughly 10Nm less than the catalogue claimed and he had built a system for a customer that showed impressingly just 1 HP over the officel number (which is 31HP more than the original Exhaust let out...) and an impressive 25Nm than the factory claimed the motor should have. He published that result in a bike magazine and the day it was published, BMW called him and asked for an appointment...

"First I thought they would make their lawyers slice me in pieces, but then I realized: it was not the lawyer calling me, it was BMW R&D. So - I took that as a positiv sign and made the appointment."

The result of that meeting was the contract for the F800 he said. Big respect for BMW for recognizing their lack of knowledge there and outsourcing the development to a specialist! Not every company would have done that, many would just have bought one system, cut it open, examine it and would have tried to copy what they found...  :-\

Sepp and his wife, an attractive woman in her early 40's, are not only running the shop, they are both also participating in amateur racing and - may I say - with some success: he won the big bike class with his Kawa (I think it is a 900 or 1000ccm race bike), his wife was secound on her 600 Kawa, both in the same year: 2000...

But back to the Laverda.. 

I talked to Sepp about what I would expect and what I would like the exhaust to look like etc. and he agreed he will make it best possible, I should give him 2 weeks, which I did. I left the bike and trailer with him, reminding him several times that the clutch actuation system is very fragil and suffers from the dyno-testing where you pull the clutch lever at highest RPM to measure the loss of the gearbox and chain etc.. I requested him NOT to do that, I would be more than happy just with backwheel power. He agreed on that and off I went.

Just one week later, I got a call from him telling me that he is working on the bike and has reached already 100HP (95 was the max with the old system). He had removed the airbox, as it was taking away roughly 3HP and also some midrange torque (!!!!!!!) and is running the bike with open bellmouthes now. He needs some more fiddeling and will test some different cans but is quiet sure to reach a result above 100HP shortly. I was so happy, you could not tell!! At least until he called me to tell me he can not continue, as there is no clutch power anymore and the slave was pissing fluid out constantly.

"Sepp - did you pull clutch at high revs?"
"Sure - how else should I measure the real power of the bike?"
"Sepp - didn't I tell you NOT to do that?"
"Not sure - did you?"
"YES!!"
"What ever. Pick up the bike and fix it if you can, I can not work on a broken bike!"
"Well - I can come down to you and fix it at your place if you let me. How far are we away from the final result?"
"No problem, just come down and fix it. I was just about to test two other cans to see if they work better. BTW: midrange is way to rich! You need to set the carbs, too!"
"OK - I come down on Wednesday and will stay until Thursday. Do you think we get it completed so I can get back home on Friday or maybe Thursday night?"
"No problem."

So - I went down to SR-Racing with two new O-Rings in my pocket, a new slave piston, some new steel-balls for the piston and between the push rods etc. and fixed the bike early in the morning the next day. The piston was completely damaged and the rods were welded together. YERK!! However, after roughly 4 hours (had to take off the primary cover, as the left push-rod did not want to come out and had the steel-ball welded to it...), I got it fixed and we could re-assemble the bike and put it back onto the dyno. See the video:

SFC 1000 dyno run

Unfortunately, the clutch slave was damaged on the same run again, so I had to get some new pushrods the next day to fix the bike again, as we needed to drop the needles and make the next run.

The bike put out some impressive figures...: roughly 104 HP and 94Nm with a maximum of 8.500 revs, about 10% more than standard. Not to bad... We had one run where we reved it to 9.000 and it put out 110HP. Unfortunately I do not have a copy of that one, but here is the one we used for the T?V-registration of the exhaust...:

However, there was still a slight drop in torque in midrange which I know today is caused by a still to rich setting: the bike consumed 10 Liters/100Km where it should run with a maximum of 6,5 or so.

I am currently on the way of adjusting the carbs again with my Lambda-Tester on the road and found already that except the main jet (which I had taken down to 145, which is to low!), the complete bike runs to rich until 7.800 revs, then it directly goes into lean. Will fix this the next days hopefully and enjoy the run then - the sound is really tempting... (almost like a Porsche...)

*Next: the Zan? virus striked me down...*

 

[henwilv]

Hi Henry,
Yeah, keep the wheels another colour.
What shade of green will it be?
Jacques 

Think the wheels will stay silver, tho could go orange at a later date along with the sliders, after I've thought about it for a long time.
As for the green, I am trying to decide between Mazda 'Spirited Green' and Ford (Fiesta) 'Squeeze' which is a bit akin to the metallic green of some Guzzi 750 Ss back in the early 70s.
Both these colors have a vibrance that sort of leaps out at you a bit. I hate dead colors!

Henry

 

[stevio laverda]

is that the light green metallic----similar to Lamborghini  early 70s    ----Miura  I think

 

[redfox]

Speaking of Miura's, I prefer the orange and silver livery with golden Campagnolo magnesium wheels. Stunning car, as can be seen here on a picture I took 2 years ago here in Copenhagen.
Anyway, I also like that light green metal colour on the old izzug V7.
Okay, back to thread.

Cheers,
Jacques 

 

[henwilv]

is that the light green metallic----similar to Lamborghini  early 70s    ----Miura   I think

Certainly similar, perhaps a bit stronger especially the Mazda green. I'm leaning in the direction Ford at the moment.

Henry

 

[redfox]

Lothar,
That just goes to show how good the corsa engine really was made.  8)

Hmm, something happened here. Suddenly I got a star more and came to ride a 250cc. So can I buy it now Lothar? 
While you think it over, I'll pop to bed and dream of all things Laverda...

Cheers,
Jacques 

 

[Laverdalothar]

Hi Jacques,

yes, well spotted: the result has no Motor tuning in it yet, it is only the Keihins and the Exhaust. Imagine that...



But I promise, I will make the motor run even better when it is opened the first time. It makes some serious noise currently so I guess I will have to grap some money and turn up at someone close by to fix it...  :-\

 

[redfox]

Hi Lothar,
Auch, what kind of noise????  :-\
(you know I have something with those noises)

Cheer up,
Jacques