wallaman
New member
- Location
- Arizona, USA
Hello. Just joined the group even as I am giving up Laverda ownership. Thought a quick intro would be good. Been riding now for a bit over 50 years. I worked in a couple of MC Shops in high school - late 60's/early 70's in Cleveland OH. Started road racing at the local track - Nelson Ledges, and did pretty well. They held a 24 hour race every year, and I ended up riding for the local Yamaha dealer's team. We ended up winning our class a couple years in a row. Enter Tom Lester of Lester Wheels fame. (Lester wheels were among the first aftermarket cast motorcycle wheels you could buy back then.) Tom's various businesses were all based around Cleveland and he was an avid motorsports enthusiast. After founding Lester Wheels, Tom decided he needed a racing team to help market his products and just to have fun. But he didn't want just any team, he wanted a factory race team. As I understood it, he went to all the majors and they turned him down, but Laverda agreed to set him up. He ended up with two Factory prepped 750 SFC's and decided to enter them in their first race - the 24 hours of Nelson!
So now Tom needed riders. He had seen me ride at various races at Nelson and asked if I would ride his new SFC's for him! Wow, what an opportunity! So that was my first Laverda experience! We had a few minor reliability issues during the race, but as I recall, we at least finished, which was an accomplishment in itself! But it was an amazing experience for me. I rode a few more races for Tom on the SFC's and we both got faster and faster. I then moved out west which made it hard to be around the race shop, and ultimately I moved on to racing other bikes and classes, but I will never forget my SFC experience! Had few Laverda's since then including the RGS I have in the For Sale section. Recently had to have another back surgery and finally reached the point where even putting the RGS on the center stand is a major effort with risk of (re)injury, so thinking it's time to move on to smaller toys. Oh well, it's been a great run!
Thanks.
Chuck S.
So now Tom needed riders. He had seen me ride at various races at Nelson and asked if I would ride his new SFC's for him! Wow, what an opportunity! So that was my first Laverda experience! We had a few minor reliability issues during the race, but as I recall, we at least finished, which was an accomplishment in itself! But it was an amazing experience for me. I rode a few more races for Tom on the SFC's and we both got faster and faster. I then moved out west which made it hard to be around the race shop, and ultimately I moved on to racing other bikes and classes, but I will never forget my SFC experience! Had few Laverda's since then including the RGS I have in the For Sale section. Recently had to have another back surgery and finally reached the point where even putting the RGS on the center stand is a major effort with risk of (re)injury, so thinking it's time to move on to smaller toys. Oh well, it's been a great run!
Thanks.
Chuck S.
but guessing someone took some.... Trying to remember, and pretty sure the first race at Nelson we were still on wire wheels. We definitely had mags for some of the later races. The way they made the Lester wheels was pretty modular. There were a number of different "Rim/Spoke/Center" castings and a number of different "Hub" castings that were machined to fit various bikes. (They had an AMAZING machine shop!! Lester's main business was die casting for the automotive industry back then.) They basically married the Hub casting to the Rim/Spoke/Center casting and welded the two together and finished machined the assembly. While it wasn't ever advertised (at least I never saw it), they would also do custom rim widths so you could run wider tires by cutting the outer "hoop" sections off a couple of rim castings at different "depths" , and rewelding the widest pieces together, then machining the inside (tube side) surfaces to shape again. They left the outside welds undressed. I had a set of BMW rims that they widened for me that I ran on a racer in the early 80's. When I later sold the bike, the guy who bought it complained that I had somehow "butchered" the wheels because he saw the welds and there was "no way!" he would ride on them. Wishing I still had them as they are like hens teeth today! Guessing there may still be some Laverda Lesters out there somewhere.
