New member in Melbourne AUS with questions about a 73 GT

S

stevefzr

New member
Location
melbourne australia
Hi Folks, Thanks for adding me to the Forum. I live in Melbourne, Australia and have ridden bikes since I was 17. I've always been attracted to form over function, so while I used bikes as a means to commute from 1974 to 2008, I tended to choose bikes that weren't very sensible for fighting peak hour traffic in Australia's second largest city. That's why I bought and later sold a 750SF back in the 70s. I picked it purely based on how good it looked in the magazines. After 50 years and half that many bikes, I've finally bought another Laverda, a seized 73 GT project that someone started to restore 15+ years ago and then sat untouched for at least the last 10. I'm putting the finishing touches to bringing an 81 bmw R80G/S back to life after it sat under a house for more than 10 years, Plus I've got to finish an ironhead cafe racer, shovelhead FLTU, Suzi GN250 cafe racer using 250 ducati tin and seat and fix a Husky super motard leaking oil so I can sell them and concentrate on the bikes I plan to keep and use. Oh! and I'm doing a kitchen reno and selling a house; but after that I'll have time to start restoring the GT. I'll keep it as original as possible, but pragmatism will apply. It will be a bike to ride not to look at. I'm going to need you help. I've done a lot of research in the last two days since I picked it up, including picking some brains in the FB group, but I still need answers to these two questions:
1. Did all the GTs have a packrack, and if so, were there mounts on the top of the tank? My tank has no rack and no mounts. I'm wondering if someone ground off the mounts when they resprayed it of it came without a rack or mounts
2. Can you tell from the frame number (14896) what the original colour was?
3. (I know I said two questions, but I decided to split question 2 into two parts) Where can I find all the factory paint shcemes and colours for GTs? I have to choose one. Every GT picture I've found has a differect scheme. Some have stripes, some don't; some have pinstripes, most don't. My preference is for a Kandy (translucent over gold or silver) like most of the bikes in the early 70s, but so far I haven't seen any on Laverdas.

No doubt I'll have more questions once I start tearing it down

Regards

Steve C
 

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Don’t think original colour was recorded- have a go at the paint under a side pane/ under tank with wire wool-see if old paint still there. Mine was painted black but had original Metallic blue under panels / tank.Think stripes were for home market. Is engine number same? Seems to have early clocks/ headlamp for a ‘73- be a nice bike when you get it running.1769898784221.jpeg
 
Ian Falloon’s Laverda Bible has info on the GT, along w livery examples. It appears the tank luggage rack had brazed fittings, but some probably didn’t come w those, like many other Laverda inconsistencies.
 
Welcome, and looks like a good start for a nice bike!

I'm far from an expert and won't bother you with my bike in your thread, but long story short, my GT is a long time family piece and matched my fathers preferences -GT characteristics (low rev grunt/torque) and early S/SF tank, front mudguard and seat.
The S/SF tanks apparently have a problem with rust and leaking underneath the knee rubbers, so I had a leaky tank. I went looking for tanks, a good S/SF one is quite rare so expanded my search to all tanks so at least I could ride it and my shed does not smell of fuel all the time... (not to mention the dangers of fuel vapours...)
Anyway I found a GT tank with dents in original paint, it's a dark metallic red, later on some other popped up for sale too.

Based on that tiny sample size:
  • All tanks and complete GT's I've seen have the luggage rack. There are four threaded studs, the rack has four holes and domed nuts hold it in place. I can take some photo's if you're interested.
  • Of those still in original paint, red and black seem to be the majority, though I've seen white and dark-ish metallic red (my tank is dark metallic red) though some other colors may be known (Exmoor Beast's light blue metallic is really nice!) My father at one time had a darker metallic blue GT tank but I have no idea if that was ever repainted and he sold it many years ago so can't check.
  • The pin stripes seem like a factory option or something for specific model years, some have them, some not (I think those don't look good, by the way). I have photo's of how my bike looked just after my father bought it (second hand) and it was black with the white pinstripes in 1980, and had the luggage rack,I assume it came like that from the factory as it was 9 years old at the time, but who knows for sure...
  • I've looked high and low though the forum and internet, the consensus seems that the factory did not record what colour a bike left the factory in, but I'm gladly corrected!
  • The wider horizontal stripes I'm not sure, there are some examples around but they are usually restored so I don't know the what/why. There's currently a GT tank for sale in the Netherlands that has filler issues, has the rack, and has been repainted in blue with the wide horizontal stripe for whats that worth.
I have attached a picture of my bike for the colour, rack is obviously hidding underneath the tank bag. (The orange side panels were repainted to match the early SF tank which was orange) The metallic red really comes alive on a sunny day.

edit: found this on the forum. Shows the rack & attachment points.
E

Thread 'GT Gas Tank Restoration'

See pics. Bought w/ other parts used. Took a gamble on the tank. The long tubes came out. Ok the petcocks are off but the filters are stuck in the tank. Don't want to strip the plastic threads on filters to petcocks...any suggestions??? Then there are numerous tank restoration posts on youtube. I want to try & do it again w/out damage to knee pads. One post says white vinegar.
Last pic shows my hose over tach cable for a good fit but didn't work. Everythings in place but not connecting.
 

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jko_78 said:
Welcome, and looks like a good start for a nice bike!

I'm far from an expert and won't bother you with my bike in your thread, but long story short, my GT is a long time family piece and matched my fathers preferences -GT characteristics (low rev grunt/torque) and early S/SF tank, front mudguard and seat.
The S/SF tanks apparently have a problem with rust and leaking underneath the knee rubbers, so I had a leaky tank. I went looking for tanks, a good S/SF one is quite rare so expanded my search to all tanks so at least I could ride it and my shed does not smell of fuel all the time... (not to mention the dangers of fuel vapours...)
Anyway I found a GT tank with dents in original paint, it's a dark metallic red, later on some other popped up for sale too.

Based on that tiny sample size:
  • All tanks and complete GT's I've seen have the luggage rack. There are four threaded studs, the rack has four holes and domed nuts hold it in place. I can take some photo's if you're interested.
  • Of those still in original paint, red and black seem to be the majority, though I've seen white and dark-ish metallic red (my tank is dark metallic red) though some other colors may be known (Exmoor Beast's light blue metallic is really nice!) My father at one time had a darker metallic blue GT tank but I have no idea if that was ever repainted and he sold it many years ago so can't check.
  • The pin stripes seem like a factory option or something for specific model years, some have them, some not (I think those don't look good, by the way). I have photo's of how my bike looked just after my father bought it (second hand) and it was black with the white pinstripes in 1980, and had the luggage rack,I assume it came like that from the factory as it was 9 years old at the time, but who knows for sure...
  • I've looked high and low though the forum and internet, the consensus seems that the factory did not record what colour a bike left the factory in, but I'm gladly corrected!
  • The wider horizontal stripes I'm not sure, there are some examples around but they are usually restored so I don't know the what/why. There's currently a GT tank for sale in the Netherlands that has filler issues, has the rack, and has been repainted in blue with the wide horizontal stripe for whats that worth.
I have attached a picture of my bike for the colour, rack is obviously hidding underneath the tank bag. (The orange side panels were repainted to match the early SF tank which was orange) The metallic red really comes alive on a sunny day.

edit: found this on the forum. Shows the rack & attachment points.
E

Thread 'GT Gas Tank Restoration'

See pics. Bought w/ other parts used. Took a gamble on the tank. The long tubes came out. Ok the petcocks are off but the filters are stuck in the tank. Don't want to strip the plastic threads on filters to petcocks...any suggestions??? Then there are numerous tank restoration posts on youtube. I want to try & do it again w/out damage to knee pads. One post says white vinegar.
Last pic shows my hose over tach cable for a good fit but didn't work. Everythings in place but not connecting.
Click to expand...
Maybe with an endoscope in the tank I can see if it was modified to remove the rack mounts. I think I'm happy not to have the rack, so it probably doesn't make a big difference. Given the lack of records of original schemes, I'll just pick something I like. It'll probably be white with stripes or black. For black to look good all the chrome has to look perfect, but I'm planning to get it all redone anyway
 
Exmoor beast said:
Mine was black and looked rubbish- any colour but black! Stripey looks cool but there are loads of groovy 70 ‘s metallics that the factory used that all look cool. I love the metallic silver that Paul Marx painted his “S” - but don’t tell him I like it!
Click to expand...
Black only works if it's super glossy and clean and all the chrome is perfect. I am interested in what metallics the factory used. Were they a Kandy like Honda had on the 750s and Kawasaki in the z900s? They'd be my first choice. Otherwise I might do a Kandymmetallic anyway.
 
Shajota said:
Well I love em!
Ergonomics are great for long back roads touring, not everyone just wants to nip down the cafe.................;)
View attachment 102244
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Love your shire road workers.

SB after the brown house (downhill from the sawmill) they fixed the road that almost killed the brown house residents with
B doubles outa control and sliding on there side towards the house!

They fixed the road 500mt from where the problem is.

God bless their cotton socks 🤣
 
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