Parts from Boba

I heard from Mr. Vukomanovic, earlier this month.
He'd made my order but there was a fault with one component so requested more time to make another.
 
Still waiting for my sample tank (1000 SFC) to return after 6 or 7 years of unkept promises. Yes, I know he faced several health issues, but as he seem to be able to deliver parts to other people, I wonder what keeps him from returning my tank.

I am really frustrated with him (and I have an endless WhatsApp and e-mail chain to proof my point). I have remained patient and defended him even on several ocasions, but my patience has turned into a serious frustration with him and I am sorry, I can not recommend him anymore. He has been absolutely unreliable to me and nothing can excuse 6 or 7 years (I lost count to be honest) of constantly promissing me to return my tank but not doing so. The excuses reached from his existing health issues, financial issues, time issues, again health issues, Covid which closed the boarders, again time issues etc. He asked me 3 times for my address as he wanted to send off the tank "in a few days" - which last was in June 2022 and which never happened... He even did not answer on my last messages to him (August and November 2022), asking for the tracking number and the second one on how I could recommend him in the future when he is not even returning my tank after such long time and so many unkept promisses.

So - beware of what you do for business with him and don't send him any goods to be replicated, he most probably will never return them.

I know I will earn a storm of "how can you!" now, but it does not help to keep friendly when you get betrayed. And I know I am not the only one.

Sorry to air some frustration, but ask yourself: would you keep calm after 7 years?
 
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I had the same exact same situation with the late Lance “Rickey Racer” Weill: loaned him parts for reproduction and never saw them again. It really rankles to be shamelessly taken advantage of when you are acting in good faith. In my case it was the rubber butt pad that goes into the seat cover and the handlebar rubber pad for an Executive.
I also wonder now exactly what he put into my engine when he charged me for Axtell cams…… as you can see I am still annoyed about it over twenty years later!
 
I''m glad to hear Boba is still around doing carbon work but no excuse for Lothar's situation. Really bad form.
I would love to buy a SFC750 tank, it looking like I'll be making one myself now I have a option to borrow a mold.
Maybe you need to plan a holiday to Serbia Lother.
 
Alzero said:
I had the same exact same situation with the late Lance “Rickey Racer” Weill: loaned him parts for reproduction and never saw them again. It really rankles to be shamelessly taken advantage of when you are acting in good faith. In my case it was the rubber butt pad that goes into the seat cover and the handlebar rubber pad for an Executive.
I also wonder now exactly what he put into my engine when he charged me for Axtell cams…… as you can see I am still annoyed about it over twenty years later!
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Not so good Alzero, spoke with Lance a few times on the phone in the day, he was a person whom would attempt many things, too much as it would appear, mix of "promote" and technical toils, the former easy to say, the latter requires many more hours to live up to the words, can happen to many of us, myself at times. j
 
I wonder what happened to “The Spondon” that he was perpetually constructing in those days? It was quite a good looking machine in its half finished state when I saw it in the ‘90’s. He had an enormous shop in those days, not in the best part of LA, but still, making the rent every month must have been difficult. At that time he was also trying to sell replicas of the Harley he raced in the UK back when he was younger and thinner! IIRC, it had a featherbed frame and an alloy XR750 motor, but I could be remembering it incorrectly.
 
.... Lance in the day wanted me to make a special ignition for Keanu Reeves British ride, think a Norton, he was working on for Keanu. Think of the fame Lance extolled, all i heard was lots of work for a one off, fame does not bring in the biccies when your down the food chain.

Mores the pity of the fatal injury on his lathe that ultimately took Lances life. Characters are always missed, highs and lows. j
 
Ed's Spondon the bike that Lance (RR) built took to the track at Willow Springs at the 2005 North America Laverd Rally. It looked and sounded fantastic but it was running poorly, and fueling was way off, Ed said it was set up for Colorado Mountains altitudes of 5000+ feet. I have some photos of the bike I can dig out and share if anyone is interested, it was an intersting approach to improving the triples handling.
 
Was Ed the one who commissioned the Spondon build? Because that name in conjunction with Lance and Laverda sounds familiar. I may even have met an Ed briefly on one of my visits to the shop, then again, it was many years ago. I also vaguely recall Lance name dropping a Hollywood star (probably Keanu, but it could have been a Carridine brother) as well back then, as a new customer with a stock Laverda and a good income he was keen to impress!
 
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78jotadave said:
Give me a day or so to dig out the pictures and I will post them here. Ed was a contributor to the Forum for many years but have not seen him here for many years too. Sometimes people have other priorities, Ed had several Laverda.
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Who's Ed? for those of us not in the loop. Met Weil (didn't know who he was at the time but found out later) in the early 80's at the WSBK at Laguna Seca . Was on Ducati Island and saw a couple of RGS parked nearby and was checking them out when this fellow walks up and asked me if I ever heard of Laverda, I said yes I have one, a 1200. That got his attention and he asked where I was from and I said Calgary. He then wanted to know if I knew so and so and that he (so and so) owed him money, I said no don't know him. He wasn't too interested in my Laverda, just getting in contact with with so and so.
 
No Ed didnt order it, I think the original owner didn't proceed and Ed was offered it and bought it for less than you might think. It had just about everything money could buy incorporated into it at that time.
 
Ed Lutz and I stayed at Allan Chalk's place in Los Angeles during NALOC 2005. Allan had me flog the wheels off one of his Laverda's, a Jota, at Willow Springs. At Allan's encouragement I ran the poor thing (recently fully restored) as if I had stolen it. Lance Weil was announcing the "race" action on the loudspeaker from the track tower, when Ed went by me on the Spondon on the outside in a corner, made it look very easy, bloody hell. The Spondon really handles and is really quick, even when not set up properly at the time for lower altitudes. I returned the poor Jota to Allan Chalk with the pipes cooked purple, tires shredded, and oil weeping, Allan said he was thrilled to see it ridden as intended......

Allan just sold his long time and not quite finished Laverda endurance racer decades long project very recently, changing hands this week, highest possible performance motor built by Lance Weil.

One and only time I have ridden a Laverda 500 Montjuic was NALOC 2005, Ed also brought the Montjuic to Willow Springs and I did a couple of laps with it, twitchy and fast handling, and hellish loud......

True story - I offered to trade Ed my fully rebuilt 8000 series drum brake 1971 SFC 750 straight across for the Spondon and he turned me down.
 
I knew Lance Weil very well, having first met him in about 1975 when he was a Laverda, Ducati and MV Agusta dealer. On my daily trips to school I had to go by close to his shop and would often stop on my Yamaha RD250 and later a Triumph Bonneville.

Lance could be a great and very talented mechanic when he wanted to be. I think he liked Norton Commando's more then any other bike and made some very nice ones with lots of hand made parts. I saw the Ed Lutz bike many times as it was being constructed and was told the person paying for it lost interest and Ed bought it. It was in Cycle World magazine and they said it was the loudest bike they had ever tested. Lance said on a good day it made 107HP at the rear wheel.

All was well until his customers he had sold new Laverda's to got old and stopped riding their bikes. By then he was no longer a Ducati or MV dealer and Laverda was out of business. At that point he had few if any customers to support his business. As his bank account got low, he would do bad work to get the bike out the door as fast as possible to get paid. Once he had pissed off the few customers he had left, he closed his business and went to work for Cosmopolitan Motors in Pennsylvania. Sometime later he had an accident on his lathe and was sadly killed. He is missed as he was an expert on Laverda triples and could rebuild one with his eyes closed.

John of IIS, you are lucky you did not make a custom Norton ignition for him as you would have never been paid for it.

Here is the link to the article on the Ed Lutz bike. I wish I had bought it but was too poor to spend the money at the time.

magazine.cycleworld.com

The Lutz Laverda | Cycle World | APRIL 2000

magazine.cycleworld.com magazine.cycleworld.com
 
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Yeah - had extensive chats with Ed on the bike as it also features Keihin carbs IIRC, funnily in a weird arrangement (left 2 are mounted together, right one needed to be tilted a bit to the left due to the frame and so is a stand-alone carb - not easy to set up...).
 
only comment I have is I got ripped off by Lance Weil back in the day as ordered and paid for a bunch of pistons through him, was before I worked out I could buy them direct from Ross Racing Pistons for a fraction of his price
Never received a single piston from him and than he had his unfortunate accident which is really sad

But that loss of money was no where near the amount of money that we funded Boba with and never received anything that was promised
Total rip off, anyone that actually receives parts from Boba after paying up front, count yourselves extremely lucky
Arsehole owes us thousands of dollars worth of kit
 
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