My New Project

  • Thread starter Thread starter Grant
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Grant said:
I have never seen or even heard before you said it that there was a batch of blue Mirages.
The TS Mirage came much later with the silver with red stripes and handlebar fairing.
Before that they were just the 1200T.
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Sorry I got the ts and the t mixed up
But the first mirage's where blue..
 
I can only assume Slaters made a few of them in blue until the green ones were ready from the factory.
Never seen or heard of them in blue until you said.
I'll ask Richard Slater about them next time I speak to him.
 
Grant said:
I can only assume Slaters made a few of them in blue until the green ones were ready from the factory.
Never seen or heard of them in blue until you said.
I'll ask Richard Slater about them next time I speak to him.
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The first blue ones where actually imported as mirage's. It was not Slater mods to a standard bike After the first batch they decided the mirage needed an identity and after a meeting in Italy with all the importers, green was decided to be the colour for the mirage.
I had a long conversation with Richard on the subject which gave me quite a background,  my dating later clearly states 'imported as mirage in November 1977' which agrees with what he told me.
You are doing a nice job on yours by the way..
Cheers steve
 
Does that mean my blue 1200 no:1008 was actually a Mirage and had the 4c cams removed and A11's installed because that's what they had when I bought it new. Don't really think that would be the case.
 
I'll be speaking to Richard on Monday about this.
Back in the day I had an early blue 1200 (can't recall the frame number) with Cerianis, decals instead of tank badges etc and I had to fit 4Cs to it as it was wearing A11s.
The key thing here is you say the 'first' blue 1200s.
My guess is less than a handful but I will try to get to the bottom of it next week.

I don't doubt what you say, just that I'm surprised i wasn't aware of it before as I had followed progression of the 1200s with interest in the late 70s.
 
Ghostbuster said:
Does that mean my blue 1200 no:1008 was actually a Mirage and had the 4c cams removed and A11's installed because that's what they had when I bought it new. Don't really think that would be the case.
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Now I did say that first batch were all blue ...
 
Grant said:
I'll be speaking to Richard on Monday about this.
Back in the day I had an early blue 1200 (can't recall the frame number) with Cerianis, decals instead of tank badges etc and I had t fit 4Cs to it as it was wearing A11s.
The key thing here i you say the 'first' blue 1200s.
My guess is less than a handful but I will try to get to the bottom of it next week.

I don't doubt what you say, just that I'm surprised i wasn't aware of it before as I had followed progression of the 1200s with interest in the late 70s.
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I'm sure your right about the less than a handful of mirage's in that first batch,  that's the impression I got from richard.
My view was the same as yours regards early mirage's, I had my bike for 10years before I thought to check the history. I thought it was a 1200t with stickers until Richard enlightened me
Cheers
 
He said it was too complicated to explain by email, so I'd better sit down with pen and paper when I call him.  :D
 
Spoke with Richard Slater. A handful of red or blue 1200T bikes were converted to Mirage spec before the factory started producing them in green at Slater's request. In fact he gave the factory free choice on the colour and they chose green.

This is the same strategy as when they developed the Slater Jota. It was too easy for unscrupulous sellers to slap on some decals and Jota silencers to a standard bike and sell it as a Jota or Mirage as most of the upgrades were out of sight.
Hence the change in 77 to sliver Jota, and gold in 78.

Anyway, back at the ranch, there has been some small progress on 007.
I rebuilt the instrument console with new or restored parts, and built up the cush drive with new bearings, sprocket and lock tab washers.
The crank is on it's way back after a full rebuild, and the crank cases should be here in a couple of weeks.
I'll get the wheels and yokes back tomorrow from the powder coater, and hope to get the tyres fitted next week.

2019-01-18 12.28.51 by Grant Duguid, on Flickr

2019-01-18 11.22.17 by Grant Duguid, on Flickr

DSCN8486 by Grant Duguid, on Flickr
 
No!
I had one and it had no logos.
I remember being disappointed as my previous 3C had the logos.
My guess is they used up the remaining clocks (with logos) at the start of 1200 production.
I don't remember the chassis number of my old 1200 but it was the very early type with tank decals, Cerianis, shaved primary cover etc.
 
rivetcounters?
When I ride my Laverdas I try to follow and to met the grey belt in front of me. I do not have time to look at any logo. :D
Andre
 
Grant said:
Spoke with Richard Slater. A handful of red or blue 1200T bikes were converted to Mirage spec before the factory started producing them in green at Slater's request. In fact he gave the factory free choice on the colour and they chose green.

This is the same strategy as when they developed the Slater Jota. It was too easy for unscrupulous sellers to slap on some decals and Jota silencers to a standard bike and sell it as a Jota or Mirage as most of the upgrades were out of sight.
Hence the change in 77 to sliver Jota, and gold in 78.
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Thanks for the feedback.. it seems you may have a slightly different story to what he told me.
When I spoke to Richard he had the full list of all the bikes in that first batch in front of him,  he said they where all blue. and that the mirages where not converted to mirage spec but factory built.. he confirmed that on my dating certificate.

More on topic did he confirm if your bike was in his first batch ?
Thanks  Steve
 
I have no interest in wanting it to be a first batch Mirage.
It was not a UK bike anyway.

They learned their lesson when they fitted pistons and cams to out of the crate bikes ex factory to make early Jotas and soon asked the factory to make the changes. So when it came to the Mirage they got the factory to do it from the start, and second batch were in green, a colour chosen by the factory.
 
Grant said:
I have no interest in wanting it to be a first batch Mirage.
It was not a UK bike anyway.

They learned their lesson when they fitted pistons and cams to out of the crate bikes ex factory to make early Jotas and soon asked the factory to make the changes. So when it came to the Mirage they got the factory to do it from the start, and second batch were in green, a colour chosen by the factory.
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Thanks for the clarification Grant,
Much appreciated.
I was aware you knew your bike  was not a mirage..

I was only stating that a few of that 1st batch, (which there was a good chance of yours is one of them) included some factory mirage's.


It was around 10 years ago when I rang Richard. I had to ring back at a set time a few days later when he had the import papers in front of him for the 1st batch.
I was on the phone with him for nearly half an hour, he gave me the early history of the uk bikes and told me about the meeting they held in Italy for the UK dealers to agree to a unique colour for the mirage going forward. That meeting was at the end of '77.

Anyway sorry for any confusion...
Cheers steve
 
Grant said:
No!
I had one and it had no logos.
I remember being disappointed as my previous 3C had the logos.
My guess is they used up the remaining clocks (with logos) at the start of 1200 production.
I don't remember the chassis number of my old 1200 but it was the very early type with tank decals, Cerianis, shaved primary cover etc.
Click to expand...

For info, mine ( 1005) came with logos Grant. So your right it must have been just very early ones with the logo ?
 
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