Long term Laverda owner - Practical Sportsbike mag feature

R

rucksack

New member
Location
UK
Hello all.

Posting with my work hat on today: one of our regular features, 'The Real Long Termers' concerns those that have owned their bike for more than the usual 2-3 years/a few thousand miles that most leisure riders tend to keep a bike for before wanting a change. So I'm looking for the riders who've put many tens of thousands of miles on a bike over a number of years, and worked through the bugs, fixes, improvements, best tyre choice and so on – the knowledge that only comes with committed long term ownership. We've had riders who've covered six-figure mileages, owned bikes from new in the 1980s and so on, but generally speaking anyone with more than 25,000 miles and/or ten years of ownership is worth a chat. We'll need pictures from you, past and present, and my technical editor Alan will call for a chat at your convenience.

Drop me a line if you'd like to get in touch – chris.newbigging@pspb.co.uk

Many thanks.
CN
 
rucksack said:
Hello all.

Posting with my work hat on today: one of our regular features, 'The Real Long Termers' concerns those that have owned their bike for more than the usual 2-3 years/a few thousand miles that most leisure riders tend to keep a bike for before wanting a change. So I'm looking for the riders who've put many tens of thousands of miles on a bike over a number of years, and worked through the bugs, fixes, improvements, best tyre choice and so on – the knowledge that only comes with committed long term ownership. We've had riders who've covered six-figure mileages, owned bikes from new in the 1980s and so on, but generally speaking anyone with more than 25,000 miles and/or ten years of ownership is worth a chat. We'll need pictures from you, past and present, and my technical editor Alan will call for a chat at your convenience.

Drop me a line if you'd like to get in touch – chris.newbigging@pspb.co.uk

Many thanks.
CN
Click to expand...
That description fits quite a few here I should think. A lot of us aren't in the UK though.
I did 5000 miles on a 750 Laverda this summer alone.

Paul
 
Paul Marx said:
That description fits quite a few here I should think. A lot of us aren't in the UK though.
I did 5000 miles on a 750 Laverda this summer alone.

Paul
Click to expand...
Location is not an issue, we’ve had overseas contributions for this before, as we use the owner’s own photography archive to illustrate the story, so it’s a simple matter of picking the best method to talk. Phone, email, Zoom, Teams…

Any 70s-on model is of interest, though I’d be particularly interested to see if anyone has racked up a lot of miles on a Zane bike, given the reputation they tend to have for being brittle. I’ve not heard of any successfully put to regular and prolonged use, but I’m happy to put right if anyone has cracked it.
 
rucksack said:
Hello all.

Posting with my work hat on today: one of our regular features, 'The Real Long Termers' concerns those that have owned their bike for more than the usual 2-3 years/a few thousand miles that most leisure riders tend to keep a bike for before wanting a change. So I'm looking for the riders who've put many tens of thousands of miles on a bike over a number of years, and worked through the bugs, fixes, improvements, best tyre choice and so on – the knowledge that only comes with committed long term ownership. We've had riders who've covered six-figure mileages, owned bikes from new in the 1980s and so on, but generally speaking anyone with more than 25,000 miles and/or ten years of ownership is worth a chat. We'll need pictures from you, past and present, and my technical editor Alan will call for a chat at your convenience.

Drop me a line if you'd like to get in touch – chris.newbigging@pspb.co.uk

Many thanks.
CN
Click to expand...
I, probably, qualify, more than forty-five years on.
 
Had to be a bloody good hamburger but yes, ridden big kays for no particular reason.
Most of my 'fixes' and 'work arounds' have been aimed at keeping the bike on the road, not performance enhancing or to preserve originality.
When it's your sole mode of transport it's a matter of ride, clean and inspect on Saturday, repair on Sunday and ride to work on Monday.
 
Most of us would qualify for his articles, but I reckon like myself more of us should have had cameras through those times. It is great seeing everyones pics from way back. Even today, if your phone or computer dies you lose photos, unless you have them stored on some server that you hope continues to exist.
 
maybe me as well, its now 49 years into Laverda ownership and 42 continuous years riding TOG (1200TS) for (much) more than the 230,000 recorded km's

hell I even did LeJOG in under 16 hours and have ridden the bike to Breganze more times than I can now recall, maybe 20 out of 25 visits plus raced it in '86 and '87

CLEM
ps where are you Nick B?
 
I like the focus on long term bikes that are actually ridden regularly.
(Length of ownership means very little)
Plenty of candidates as noted in above examples👍
 
Thank you to those who've got in touch, we have some strong leads on triple owners. I should point out the feature is open to any bike from 1970 forwards, for those of you who might have non Laverdas to pile miles on, too. The weirder the better. I'm eagerly awaited the day a 100,000-mile Gilera CX125 drops in my inbox...
 
rucksack said:
Thank you to those who've got in touch, we have some strong leads on triple owners. I should point out the feature is open to any bike from 1970 forwards, for those of you who might have non Laverdas to pile miles on, too. The weirder the better. I'm eagerly awaited the day a 100,000-mile Gilera CX125 drops in my inbox...
Click to expand...
I'll send you a mail then. One cannot let the unsuspecting public imagine that Laverda only made fickle, high maintenance triples.
Paul
 
"(Length of ownership means very little)"
you are not wrong there, I inherited my 1935 Sunbeam when I was 13 years old, the year was 1965, at that time, it had done about 19,700 mles from new, I rode it 5 miles in 1980, 100 miles in 2000, then about 40 miles a year until 2015 and not since, mileage is now 20,130 ish it was last taxed in 1949 and has never had an MOT in its life, and now it doesnt need one, or a tax disc. So long term ownership means nothing, Bought new by my uncle, who lived with his brother (my dad) and the family until his death in 1965, was laid up for the years 1939 until 1945 (uncle was one of the soldiers who didnt get home after Dunkirk and was POW'd for five years and survived, because he could mend clocks, one of my proudest posetions is the Veglia clock that he repoaired during WW11 and the owner didnt survive to se it returned
 
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