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

Quick little Friday afternoon strop through the hills, before they get congested with pushies, tourists and other undesirables over the weekend ;)
 
Paul Marx said:
Rode to and from work, as usual.
Bike is definitely its cooler self since 55 pilots are in.
Takes a few km to settle down.
50 pilots in next weekend.
Paul
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New #50 pilots finally arrived for the SF1 I've recently re-rebuilt (no, not a typo, but a long story  >:D). Also fitted new choke jet o-rings and carby drain gaskets. Reset the mixture screws to 1 1/2 checked the static timing with a strobe (was about 5 deg retarded. Anyways, carburation is 1000 times better than with the previous #60s. Runs headers straight into Staintune Conti copies. Try the #50s Paul - but from your posts you have other issues.

Piet, do you mean fit the original underslung junction box that scrapes with spirited riding??? never! On this one I had the headers bent and tucked up as far as they can go with out fouling the gear and brake levers. Clearance is excellent. And engine breathes beautifully (and Red, big green Unifilters work a treat - as does the crank web you provided).

Rang the owner to say he could finally collect it - only been 17 years since he last rode it He told me he's broken his ankle and that I should ride it and enjoy it for a month or so. Took it out to have have the front tyre replaced (rear was done for roadworthy cert), then the sunshine got to me and I headed up through the Dandenongs (twisty mountain roads) and Reefton Spur (twistier, mostly-quiet-except-on-weekdays mountain road, where many overenthusiastic riders have unfortunately lost their lives) and had an absolute hoot - even with the drum front brake (I don't like them!!!). Back home via Blacks Spur (twisty mountain road). I'd forgotten how nicely a good SF can travel with significant briskness on a windy road. Very impressed with the Metzeler Lazertecs (aka ME33s).

Can't believe how many bikes use that road now, not just on weekend. There were still riders coming back and it was late arvo. In all these twisty road sections I came up behind 3 (THREE) sedans that looked very suspiciously like unmarked police cars - one wasn't but I didn't take any chances ... 80kph limit! I'm told they patrol these regular black spots frequently now, so bad is the weekend carnage.

Now to get my own much modified SF out there!!! But not on weekends ...
Quentino
 
Well, that post is very appropriate Quentin.
Put 50 iddles and 145 mains in this afternoon. The 55 iddlers were still fouling plugs. No time to test today. Will try that tomorrow.
Makes the machine very cold blooded when cold. Will see what gives tomorrow.
More later.
Paul
 
Not only do they patrol them so I hear but they set up in the bush wearing camo and ping you from a distance. Seems its a war up there .
 
Terry Dymond said:
Quick little Friday afternoon strop through the hills, before they get congested with pushies, tourists and other undesirables over the weekend ;)
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you bastard  :D  some of us gotta work, grrrr. Have to sort that out Sunday.....
 
Vince said:
Not only do they patrol them so I hear but they set up in the bush wearing camo and ping you from a distance. Seems its a war up there .
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I'm not surprised. I met a nice fellow on one of those new 'off-road-on-road' BMW 1200s (who been chasing the Lav!) when I stopped up the top. He's semi local but his mate works for the CFA and word id they are seeing a fatality almost every weekend up there. it's unforgiving territory if you make a major mistake, but the biggest cause of accidents is the hot shots taking their racing line on right handers with the top of the bike and finding a bull bar coming the other way and nowhere to go - aither hit it or run wide and take your chances in the trees.

Sort of road (and riders) that I avoid like the plague. I prefer mine a little quieter than Reefton must be on any given weekend.
 
Paul Marx said:
Well, that post is very appropriate Quentin.
Put 50 iddles and 145 mains in this afternoon. The 55 iddlers were still fouling plugs. No time to test today. Will try that tomorrow.
Makes the machine very cold blooded when cold. Will see what gives tomorrow.
More later.
Paul
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One of the symptoms that convinced me the 60s were too rich was just how nicely it idled almost from cold startup - motors are supposed to be very lean when cold, which is why chokes were invented. Listen to it change once it's at op temp. Best is to ride off asap after startup and (without giving it any stick) you get a much quicker warmup. Ditto with cars.

I even leaned it off a little more once it was fully hotted. Not sure 145s are required - this one revs hard with the std 140s, but won't hurt it. I think a dyno might be the only way to sus correct mains. Hope it goes well.
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
One of the symptoms that convinced me the 60s were too rich was just how nicely it idled almost from cold startup - motors are supposed to be very lean when cold, which is why chokes were invented. Listen to it change once it's at op temp. Best is to ride off asap after startup and (without giving it any stick) you get a much quicker warmup. Ditto with cars.

I even leaned it off a little more once it was fully hotted. Not sure 145s are required - this one revs hard with the std 140s, but won't hurt it. I think a dyno might be the only way to sus correct mains. Hope it goes well.
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I came to the same conclusion, on the 60s, mine would start after a day outside with just a squirt on the pump and no choke. The first couple of km were fine, spluttering started once the engine was warm.

I'll let you know how it goes in a few hours.

Paul
 
Finished wiring up the RGS Mongrel. Very last job was connecting up the Scitsu tacho. What a nice little piece of gear that is. I'm not used to a tacho that responds so quickly when you rev the engine. Just need to get it painted now and she's all done.
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
Piet, do you mean fit the original underslung junction box that scrapes with spirited riding??? never! On this one I had the headers bent and tucked up as far as they can go with out fouling the gear and brake levers. Clearance is excellent. And engine breathes beautifully (and Red, big green Unifilters work a treat - as does the crank web you provided).
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Yes Quentin, I do.  :D

I am fully aware that "spirited" riding may cause a bit of ground contact now and then, no use at all in racing/track applications.  But, in 20 years of riding my GTL on all types of roads Europe has to offer, I have only managed to ground the sucker a couple of times, including chasing (and occasionally catching :D) big beemers up and down alpine passes.  Carefull suspension set up prevents a lot of contact, fitting rear shocks from a triple helps a lot as well.

Many old 750s run around with sagged/shagged forks and far too hard rear units.  Bike rides a hump mid-corner and starts to wallow, instant scratching...

BTW, it is not just a junction tube.  It is actually a proper silencer, the "silencers" not doing much in the way of actually silencing the engine note, perhaps subduing it a little.  As I am a "convert" to quiet bikes due to various reasons, I refuse to omit the silencers from my bikes, or attempt to make them unduely louder.  Even tried to quieten down my road/track 3C as the ensuing noise was bugging me big-time.  But that's just me, adding my little contribution so all of us can ride a little longer before motorcycles are banned completely.

As you, Paul M, and many others have found out, the longer headers that allow the omission of the silencer box require some sort of support along their length to keep the header to head joint tight and to avoid the header contacting the primary and selector covers and screws.  Some form of interconnection not only offers the much-needed support, but also offers greater expansion room for the exhaust gases, resulting in a far sweeter running engine.  A simple "H" tube fitted in place of the original silencer box would probably be all that's needed to restore full torque and power.  The stock Conti straight-through silencers are far too small in effective volume to offer much expansion room, they are effectively just header extensions.  Calculating header lengths for max. power will show such a set up to be far too long.  A quick look at the stock SFC 2-2 system gives a lot of insight of how a silenced twin exhaust system should look like, the factory didn't use all that tubing because they didn't have anything better to do...  Compare that to the factory 2-1 and you have 2 entirely different systems, both of with work very well in their appropriate (especially by using the correct cams) applications.

piet

PS, please do not regard me a some sort of environmentalist "Gutmensch" or tree-hugger... I definitely am not.  In regard to exhaust silencing, I only apply the prinicples of tried and tested systems that I have experienced performing on tracks.  Louder is most definitely not always better, in fact, it more often than not, is far worse!
 
A quite young-feeling 58, Rob. :D

Gone through all the rebelling desperado malarky, luckily unscathed.  Still a bit quicker than many of the modern bike riding "competitors" though, even on my old clunkers, just that I'm a lot more considerate these days about my fellow human beings, especially those that live close to favourite biking roads and haunts.  Behave like an arsehole for much longer, and these will be shut down for us in the near future.  Don't think the biking situation in Oz is much different to that here in Europe.

If I was allowed, I'd whack all the inconsiderate wankers flying through my village at 150kph+ (at a posted 70) off their contraptions with a lump of 4x2. >:D >:(  There's a place and time for everything, but racing through a populated village at over double the limit just does not work.  Don't mind at all if they scare a couple of squirrels in the forest...

piet
 
sfcpiet said:
..  Behave like an arsehole for much longer, and these will be shut down for us in the near future.  Don't think the biking situation in Oz is much different to that here in Europe. 
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sad, but true.  is the same over here.
on the weekends, the biggest hazard is all the wannabe racers on all the favourite twisty mountain roads. with the emergency services and police doing a regular shuttle service.  i agree, that the authorities will try to stamp it out soon enough.

i'll try to enjoy it while it lasts.  mid-week that is, as the weekends are a last resort for me these days.
& yes, i always observe the limits through residential areas.  but, not many do, unfortunately.    >:D

dunno about ya squirrels, but i've had a few scrub turkeys and rather large goannas scare the crap out of me up in the rainforests.
  Mark
 
markQLD said:
sad, but true.  is the same over here.
on the weekends, the biggest hazard is all the wannabe racers on all the favourite twisty mountain roads. with the emergency services and police doing a regular shuttle service.  i agree, that the authorities will try to stamp it out soon enough.

i'll try to enjoy it while it lasts.  mid-week that is, as the weekends are a last resort for me these days.
& yes, i always observe the limits through residential areas.  but, not many do, unfortunately.    >:D

dunno about ya squirrels, but i've had a few scrub turkeys and rather large goannas scare the crap out of me up in the rainforests.
  Mark
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Just getting their own back... :D

Mainly deer at dusk are the main hazard, apart from the fucktards in their Volvos. :D

piet
 
Your right though about noise Piet. The older I get the more considerate I become!. Even thinking about changing the SFC 2/1 back to the 2/2 system.
The Motodd is loud but not offensive like the idiot harley riders with the short straight through pipes that are offensive too my ears.
In built up areas I try to be as discreet as possible as one can be on the Motodd!
 
There is a run along The Hawksberry Rd that I do a lot, plenty of people retire along this road in little hamlets, I cruise past these as it would piss me off hearing bloke scream though my quiet little spot all day long. The do also get the Ski boats so ...
58 must the catching,me too.
 
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