Re: What did you do to or for or with your Laverda today?

Made a tour with my wife and the RGS to visit my relatives for the nephew's birthday. Yesterday 200 km in nice wheather on twisty roads and today back the same but on wet roads with some heavy rain, took my 3 hrs :D
Andre
 
Changed out the main air jets and main fuel jets on the RGS and then went for a test run... getting closer no more bog on WOT or stuttering ( except now for the rev limiter ) and no more of the engine wanting to speed up when rolling back off WOT.

Oh and fixed the wiring and made a custom battery holder sans spare spark plug holder for the Jota ...
 
I haven't ridden the Jota for at least 6 months because of my knee surgery. It's a nice spring day here so I thought I'd bite the bullet and give it a try. Got all togged up in my riding gear, wheeled the bike out of the garage, hit the starter, it cranked over a couple of times before battery gave up.

The battery is a Deka EXT-16 which has done service in various bikes. I think this is the first time it's ever failed to start a bike. I was trying to recall when I bought the Deka. I know it was in my Ducati for a number of years before I even owned a Laverda. I've had the Ducati since 1990, and one of the first things I did with it was fit a new battery. Surely it couldn't be that battery, could it? So I took the battery out of the Jota, turned it upside down and checked the date mark on the bottom. Sure enough, it's dated August 1990. That's 26 years! The poor old thing needs to go to the battery retirement home. I'm mightily impressed. I reckon I'll be buying Deka batteries from now on.

I won't be chucking the old Deka out even now. It's been on a float charger and still has full volts, but is struggling to deliver cranking amps. It'll see a few more years service as a power supply for bench testing circuits etc. It might make it to 30 years!

26 years must be some kind of record. Has anyone had a battery last longer than that?
 
I bought  Scientific Calculator in 1975 when I started doing The Building Certificate Course and have never changed the battery, its still the same battery 41 years later and its done a hell of a lot of work over the years.
 
The Deka battery I put in the ol' Beemer about 1 1/2 years ago is looking tired already.  It still starts the bike, but the volts drop very quickly when its parked even for a few days.  I've got to keep it on the trickle charger all the time.  I think this is the last Deka for me.
 
Today Paul came over to assemble his new race bike to a rolling chassis so we cloned the 1st Spaceframe
one is off touring for the next few weeks getting the speciality stuff done and the 2nd one stays as the mock up chassis for more machining and design stuff
our wild Birds seemed impressed




 
lawrence said:
The Deka battery I put in the ol' Beemer about 1 1/2 years ago is looking tired already.  It still starts the bike, but the volts drop very quickly when its parked even for a few days.  I've got to keep it on the trickle charger all the time.  I think this is the last Deka for me.
Click to expand...

Have you checked to see if you have a battery drain somewhere?
Might not be the fault of the battery itself.
 
Well two or three years ago Grant delivered me this:

Y7v3ML.jpg


And due to the race bike being indisposed I have recently progressed the SF to this:

NDFJV7.jpg


roVWVh.jpg


The engine has been split and soda blasted but I'm enduring a huge amount of grief from engine builders.

Robin  :)

 
Well done thus far certainly looking a lot fresher than the tired old before photo... Love the colour,,,,,
oh and there seems to  something not quite right with the front axle me thinks but will have to let a rivet counter figure it out ???
hope the dude doing your engine is being meticulous and that is the reason tis taking so long
 
Brett said:
Well done thus far certainly looking a lot fresher than the tired old before photo... Love the colour,,,,,
oh and there seems to  something not quite right with the front axle me thinks but will have to let a rivet counter figure it out ???
hope the dude doing your engine is being meticulous and that is the reason tis taking so long
Click to expand...

That would be the axel through from the " wrong" side. I'm not too bother eat her way, it's only the first soft build.
Engine wise, I ordered Pistons in November and waited six months then the barrels are sitting under the desk of the second engine builder with nothing being done. I'll put it all together myself, just need the #%^**%!!*#% barrels boring/ honing/replacing when they say they will!

Robin.  :(
 
been out tonight to a meeting at the Steam railway station Toddington- about 400 bikes there - no wonder i saw none on the way - Joan the only Laverda there but met a few who have had them in the past - beautiful warm evening - great ride back lights on !!!!    8)
 
Washed the RGS after the rainy trip last WE and will go to the Technorama at Hildesheim on Suturday to meet Jens. Wheather will be fine.
Andre
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top