Out and About on your Laverda.No bull,Just photos

RGSPhoenix said:
Enjoyed a cracking ride today through beautiful Welsh countryside on my way to the coast at Aberdyfi (or Aberdovey if you refuse to acknowledge the Welsh road signs!) Weather glorious and the RGS was exceedingly well behaved and didn't miss a beat all day. I love my Laverda! There, I've said it! What a bike, what a perfect sunny Sunday!
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Lovely looking bike and it was obviously registered by Slaters in the same batch as my first 500, NNP803Y. :)
 
Andy J said:
Lovely looking bike and it was obviously registered by Slaters in the same batch as my first 500, NNP803Y. :)
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Ah! Another piece of the puzzle when trying to put together the past history of our bikes. Thanks for that info. I managed to find the first owner of NNP802Y and I know that this bike was one of the first two imported into the UK by Slaters. The owner bought it unseen on the basis of the road test by Dave Minton and when he picked it up he was going straight to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on the 1st August 1982. As he explained in his email to me "I got them to hold fire on the registration so I could have a Y registration on 1st August. The other RGS was bought and registered on an X but NNP 802Y was the first one sold." So it appears the paperwork for your 500 was done, as you say, in the same batch. Thanks for taking the time to mention it Andy, always interested to discover these little nuggets of information which form part of the story. (y)
 
piranha-bro2 said:
What's the meaning of the X and Y rego? For us beyond Blightys borders.
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As here, Quentin:

In the past (pre '62) the Brits used to, simplistically, look at the year of registration as being the value guide on a used vehicle.
Hence, to get your full money's worth, you should take delivery of your new car on January 1st. This caused a very uneven distribution of sales, month by month, posing problems for manufacturers and car sales outlets.
The "solution" was to have an annual registration letter suffix, applied from 1st August. 'A', in 1963, 'B', in '64, etc.
When they ran out of suffix letters, in '82, they started prefix lettering 'A', in '83, etc.
That ran out in 2001. At which point, because the problem of the market being concentrated in year and letter, they went to a half-arsed number system, twice a year in March and August.
The non-intellectually challenged among us, admittedly a minority, would look at a vehicle's mileage, condition, service history, etc., and not imagine that a vehicle first registered on 31st December of one year was one year older than a similar vehicle first registered on 1st January of the next year.

As the great HL Mencken wrote, in 1926:
"No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."
 
The Sock said:
As here, Quentin:

In the past (pre '62) the Brits used to, simplistically, look at the year of registration as being the value guide on a used vehicle.
Hence, to get your full money's worth, you should take delivery of your new car on January 1st. This caused a very uneven distribution of sales, month by month, posing problems for manufacturers and car sales outlets.
The "solution" was to have an annual registration letter suffix, applied from 1st August. 'A', in 1963, 'B', in '64, etc.
When they ran out of suffix letters, in '82, they started prefix lettering 'A', in '83, etc.
That ran out in 2001. At which point, because the problem of the market being concentrated in year and letter, they went to a half-arsed number system, twice a year in March and August.
The non-intellectually challenged among us, admittedly a minority, would look at a vehicle's mileage, condition, service history, etc., and not imagine that a vehicle first registered on 31st December of one year was one year older than a similar vehicle first registered on 1st January of the next year.

As the great HL Mencken wrote, in 1926:
"No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."
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First world problem... :rolleyes:

piet
 
The Sock said:
As here, Quentin:

In the past (pre '62) the Brits used to, simplistically, look at the year of registration as being the value guide on a used vehicle.
Hence, to get your full money's worth, you should take delivery of your new car on January 1st. This caused a very uneven distribution of sales, month by month, posing problems for manufacturers and car sales outlets.
The "solution" was to have an annual registration letter suffix, applied from 1st August. 'A', in 1963, 'B', in '64, etc.
When they ran out of suffix letters, in '82, they started prefix lettering 'A', in '83, etc.
That ran out in 2001. At which point, because the problem of the market being concentrated in year and letter, they went to a half-arsed number system, twice a year in March and August.
The non-intellectually challenged among us, admittedly a minority, would look at a vehicle's mileage, condition, service history, etc., and not imagine that a vehicle first registered on 31st December of one year was one year older than a similar vehicle first registered on 1st January of the next year.

As the great HL Mencken wrote, in 1926:
"No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."
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In my first year at the shop I uncrated,built, PDI’d 52 motorcycles, all for August the bloody first! It was a nightmare logistically. Then they would all want 500 mile service the following week- you can’t tell them you’re fully booked. You couldn’t sell a new bike in June or July then after August there would be another “drought”. Two registrations a year spread things out for the trade. I remember making all the number plates at once and piling them up- we did have a customer come back as I had put the wrong plate on his bike- he only realised when he parked next to a bike with same number! I used to uncrate and build about four bikes a day as an apprentice, the Brazilian CG125 s came in a wooden crate and we were warned to check for snakes & spiders. Hondas came in steel crates that were bolted with zinc plated bolts with a captive washer - either 6mm or 8mm, which I kept. I’m still using them now!
 
I bought both of two new bikes in May and June respectively. Never understood why anyone would let half the summer go by, before they took delivery of a motorcycle. I took the suffix plate off my Laverda, 'cause I got tired of numpties being able to figure out how old it was.
First day with its new plate, parked at a cafe, I overheard one of the teenage bikers at the next table remark,
"I didn't know they'd been making Laverdas that long."

SOX 76 3.jpg
 
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At the time, when I purchased NNP803Y, it made sense to wait until 1 August to obtain the 'new' registration, but later on, with the advent of 'historic vehicle' status, it's become a nuisance of sorts as trying to explain the date of first registration is not an accurate reflection of the date of manufacture. In the case of my 500, the date of manufacture was probably 3 years earlier.
 
Well, I'm flummoxed - can't believe how complicated that is! Especially when there are far simpler and more logical ways to date a motor vehicle!! Like the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) in Australia. I've been observing the number plates here in Bali - often there isn't one, often there's one but the date on it is 2020 or some other obviously out of date reg. Newer looking scooters have dates like 2029. No idea howe it works - but that's not surprising - a total lack of road rules or obeyance of what you might expect to be a road rule is astonishing. But in 3 weeks of being here, not one accident (save a ferenghi on a hired scooter looking sheepish after dropping it at very low speed on gravelly bitumen - greenhorn mistake: DON'T grab a handful of front brake on loose surfaces!

Observing (and experiencing firsthand) the commonsense but unsupervised mode of getting around here c/w the extreme and ever-worsening nanny state approach in Australia is quite an eye-opener. Mind you, getting up to a speed beyond 80kph is rare.
 
The Sock said:
I bought both of two new bikes in May and June respectively. Never understood why anyone would let half the summer go by, before they took delivery of a motorcycle. I took the suffix plate off my Laverda, 'cause I got tired of numpties being able to figure out how old it was.
First day with its new plate, parked at a cafe, I overheard one of the teenage bikers at the next table remark,
"I didn't know they'd been making Laverdas that long."

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Great looking bike and a very snazzy number plate! OK, not entirely kosher (!) but nevertheless, it served to remind me of the other famous Sox on YouTube - Sox the biker dog. Many videos available but this is a heart-warming story of determination. Long live Sox!
 
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piranha-bro2 said:
Well, I'm flummoxed - can't believe how complicated that is! Especially when there are far simpler and more logical ways to date a motor vehicle!! Like the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) in Australia. I've been observing the number plates here in Bali - often there isn't one, often there's one but the date on it is 2020 or some other obviously out of date reg. Newer looking scooters have dates like 2029. No idea howe it works - but that's not surprising - a total lack of road rules or obeyance of what you might expect to be a road rule is astonishing. But in 3 weeks of being here, not one accident (save a ferenghi on a hired scooter looking sheepish after dropping it at very low speed on gravelly bitumen - greenhorn mistake: DON'T grab a handful of front brake on loose surfaces!

Observing (and experiencing firsthand) the commonsense but unsupervised mode of getting around here c/w the extreme and ever-worsening nanny state approach in Australia is quite an eye-opener. Mind you, getting up to a speed beyond 80kph is rare.
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This should keep you occupied for a while whilst you sip on a pina colada on the edge of the pool perving on the street….
The region code for Bali is DK
 

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Just swapped our two scooters for better ones. One handled like a tanker in a maelstrom, the other bounced like a kanga. New ones much better but a dodgy warped disc on one that will be replaced in an hour. They appreciated the input from a mechanic. meanwhile, what will I do??? Oh, the infinity pool might be the answer :cool:

Pemuteran luxe .jpg
 
rowdypat said:
This should keep you occupied for a while whilst you sip on a pina colada on the edge of the pool perving on the street….
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Majito is my go to poolside drink while perving in such places.

Ya know sometimes you verbalise something you were thinking…. in Malaysia was at a hotel pool, having a few majitos.

A dark haired German woman in a white bikini hopped in the pool. She got out up the steps right in front of the deck chair I was relaxing on.

The white bikini turned rather transparent wet, and her airstrip pubes drew my attention.

Which is when I thought ‘Whoa, check out the snatch on that’ …… to which she gave me ‘the look’ and told me to keep my dirty thoughts to myself!

All I could think was, surely I didn’t…..
 
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