Look to the East

growler

growler

Junior member
Location
Southam UK
Well Gandalf said it in the film (wasn’t in book) and I think another fella is going to come from the east a second time
Anyway I have got to as far east I am going to (this time) and now turning west before going south.
I set off last Saturday at 6pm from Southam a little town south of Coventry, and 23 hours later (all against my normal time travelling) I was in Brno (Czech Republic) 0.6km short of 1600kms, take off a hour for Chunnel and another for foreign time not bad for a couple old un’s
3 days camping north of Krakow(Poland) then it was across the border to Slovakia and to the Ukraine border, I found a little village with dubious access on a track so a quick photo and a quicker away (don’t fancy a holiday in the Donetsk region)
I am now just south of Eger Hungary
If any Laverda owners here, I will be at the Sidecar rally in Kiskunfelegyhaza from Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th (leaving for Serbia) come and say hi IMG_6309.jpegIMG_6126.jpeg
 
The Hungary International sidecar rally was very good, the Laverda and I won the farthest distance and with the only left hand sidecar attending and of course the only Laverda
I have now headed south and have visited Serbia, Croatia and now in Bosnia and Herzegovina
I will turn north again tomorrow
Right hand riding is bad for a left handed sidecar at the best of times but since Hungary the roads I use ( I rarely do big highways in normal travel) have ruts in tarmac were the lorries have pushed it down, so it’s either the bike or sidecar wheel riding on peak, then add in the camber, lots of scary sudden veering when either the bike or the sidecar try and overtake each other (when they shouldn’t)
Now wobbled along for 3200kms

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Great ride today only 250kms so could get into it. Lovely twisty roads started in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but then got even better in Croatia. With little or no other traffic I could use all the road, keeping the sidecar down on the crown of the camber and moving onto the wrong side of the road for left handers, I did over cook a few right handers and the rear brake was severely used to swing the sidecar round, throw in some hairpins and it was a good fun ride.
As always TomTom has other ideas to make sure it’s not all fun and just to test the outfits structure and my teeth, it sent us on a 10km corrugated and sometimes bedrock dirt road up and over one of the Papuk ranges, one vehicle passed me, an empty logging lorry going like the clappers. If it wasn’t for the shaking and the sidecar bottoming out on the piles of stones it was a nice route, thanks TomTom
Another border tomorrow, into Hungary again then it’s turn west and a few 400km+ days to get lhome
Look to the East

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Hi Growler ....... Just wondering how you prepare for such a trip , spares wise ............

Spare plugs , fuel lines , tubes , cables and so on ? ........... Spare ignition system :) ........ ?

Guess you`ve got a fair bit of space to carry stuff on the outfit ..........

I remember your " Global Laverda " series of reports in LVV some years back ......... Nice to see you`re still into it ................
 
I take it that's the Outfit that had issues crossing Oz years ago, fantastic to see it still going strong.
 
Vince said:
I take it that's the Outfit that had issues crossing Oz years ago, fantastic to see it still going strong.
Click to expand...
Hi Vince
Yes it’s still rattling along
It wasn’t an outfit when went round the world
Our issue in Oz was in Sidney (we’d already travelled from Darwin) after its first valve clearance adjustment since leaving England (45,000kms ago)
I was at Roy Johnston’s garage (would be very old now - lovely Corsa)
One shim would spin but not come off valve stem, we tried every type of ‘prizer’
In the end we tacked a bolt to shim and prized it off, it was burred
When we started it I could straight away hear a different sound (ringing) , Roy couldn’t hear it nor could ‘mechanic’ at Eades, he said it was clutch rattle!!!!!!
300kms later the valve we tacked to dropped
The bike still has in the second hand piston that was donated to me to rebuild
Forcycle sold me rest of parts at trade price (Eades wanted full wack)
 
rocketonarail said:
Hi Growler ....... Just wondering how you prepare for such a trip , spares wise ............

Spare plugs , fuel lines , tubes , cables and so on ? ........... Spare ignition system :) ........ ?

Guess you`ve got a fair bit of space to carry stuff on the outfit ..........

I remember your " Global Laverda " series of reports in LVV some years back ......... Nice to see you`re still into it ................
Click to expand...
Yes the sidecar allows plenty of room for spares and over the years more things have been added but no ignition system
It’s bearings, coil, cush rubbers, regulator, air filters, fuel taps (of course) , pipe then the normal things inner tubes, plugs, caps, nuts, bolts (always M7 for exhaust), wire etc
Couple of tips - take half worn spare brake pads (not new) as much easier to fit if needed and spare pins (I have modified to long M5 cap heads and nyloc nut) as they can shake out when old
Also rubber float bowl seals as new fuel makes them expand and if they pop out they don’t go back (tip to get them back to size and it worked once for me, boil them in water or leave them in hot sun, but this takes longer and you’ve drank all the beers)
 
chrisk said:
I travelled from Victoria to Eades to buy a set of Jota pistons, that weren’t ‘actually’ in stock when I got there, even though they said on the phone they were.

‘Full whack’ was $900 for a set 3C pistons ….. in 1990 😡
Click to expand...
Thus the moniker "Greedy Eadies"
 
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