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

It lives!
I got the 750 started for the first time today.
Butt clenching stuff as the engine was bought complete but unproven from a trusted source.
No smoke or undue noises, just fettling and lots of finishing off to do now.

It had failed to start at first but this was traced to a broken wire in the RHS switchgear going to the kill switch.
Big relief as I made the whole loom from scratch, whew!

Beer o'clock now.

Crappy video clip.
https://youtu.be/aHhU9lRUgTw
 
Waiting on cables coming.
Lots of finishing off to do.
Just pleased it started with no issues.
 
Been fitting heated gwippy wips to the RGS.  Use them a lot on the BM and often miss them on the RGS- especially as I don't like wearing my heavy gloves if I don't have to.  I did have a set of Oxford hot grips for a while on the 180, but they are sooo thick I hate them.  These are a thin printed film (same as what's under O/E BMW grips so I can use my favourite thin Renthal grips over them.  Switch tucks nicely out of the way in a mount underneath the clutch perch.
Added a micro relay for the power feed switched by the pilot light.  No fuse in the kit so I added one.  Just need a couple of 4.8mm spade connectors to finish the job- not something easy to come by up here.

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Viewed the video of your twin again, Grant.  It then occurred to me that you are enjoying what looks like spectacular December weather there in Madrid! I'm ready to pack up and move, as I'm already tired of the icy roads here. And Winter has only just started.  :'(
 
It's 3000 feet up where I live. Hot in summer, cold in winter but usually sunny.
Max today around 8?C, about -1 this morning in the cave.
 
Winter still has not shown up here in central northern Germany. Everything weatherwise seems delayed by 4 weeks this year, including ole Jack Frost.  Over 10?C, sunshine and calm winds today. Of course I took the Laverda out for a nice ride around the country side. Neither heavy glovers nor heated grips required... 8)
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Bike does a bit of weaving in long fast sweepers, even with relatively new tires and tire pressures 38psi/41psi front/rear. Steering and swingarm bearings fine, so will give them forks a try with 7.5 grade oil instead of 10. But that has to wait until the weather turns shite.
 
Hi Gravelroad,
When my Mirage 1200 of years ago had a weave in corners, I adjusted the rear wheel alignment as compared to the front and the weave vanished.  You might check yours, as it's quick and easy to do with a bit of string.
 
Ditto with Lothar, mine would weave unless it was set at 3 on the Damping, thats with Icons . It started doing it again recently, had the shocks rebuilt with 7.5wt oil and now use damping on 1 and .... if you notice nothing its working as it should. I also pull the bump stop down and sit on the bike, that should show you how much travel its using, if more than 1/3 is used up the preload till its set at 1/3 by eye.
 
Agreed, #3 setting on the Koni/Ikon shocks, fitted YSS and starting to experiment all over again. ::)
 
Terry I was reading about a bloke, engineer I bet was he had done a hell of a lot of graphs. Anyway he had done a complete change to the rear suspension on his bike, made a test rig that measured the spring over distance and the damping of his shock.The damping graph was very interesting . You might expect a progressive change from hard to light over the adjustment available with the middle being a good starting point. Not so much in his application.Out of the 20 clicks he had available quite a few had very minimal effect and around the middle was not in the middle of what effect these clickers had. Starting there acording to him would waste a lot of time.So maybe try doing the adjustments in 5 click changes at the start.Wish I could find that thread, some impressive home made testing gadgets there.
 
G'day Vince,
The YSS shocks I fitted are not the piggyback type and have rebound damping adjustment only; agree that the multitude of clicks can be tiresome so I put a dab of paint (not yellow :o) on the adjuster and tweak the settings a quarter of a turn (from hard to soft is 3 turns). Got them set at 1 1/2 turns at the moment, but still experimenting.
The general consensus that changing the shocks will show up the front end is right; a set of emulators is the next item on the wish list.
 
Hi Terry, a fast way to set up the YSS is to go 4 clicks at a time. You will recognize quite soon when you have set it to tight, then you go back 2 clicks.

FWRE, the YSS have something like 80 clicks or so. I think to remember that I set them 24 clicks open or so, but am not 100% sure (bike is stored for winter, can't check and setting is about 8 years ago).

HTH
 
Laverdalothar said:
Hi Terry, a fast way to set up the YSS is to go 4 clicks at a time.
Click to expand...

Actually the fastest way with 80 click YSS is start in the middle (at 40 clicks), then go 20 clicks up or down, and then 10 clicks, then 5. You should be able to zero in on your preferred setting with about 5 or 6 iterations.
 
True, that is even faster  ;)

I have done it even differently: you can set up the rebound close to the real settings while standing aside of the bike, the final last 4 - 5 clicks when riding. Did that with the Ducati 916 of a friend of mine, was as close as 2 clicks (out of 20 or so) on the Showa single shock... Then we went on a spin, me riding behind him. Could well see the bike was still weaving in long corners. Stopped, closed another click - far better, still a bit of weaving. stopped again, another final click and it was perfect. Front was set also while standing aside of the bike, pre-load, rebound and compression perfect on the first attempt. totally different bike afterwards...  :D :D (but that was easy, he had closed everything to the maximum, which was almost as riding with a rigid frame...  :o
 
Lots of input, guys, thanks for that. Think I have to dig a bit deeper into my suspensions.
Grant as well as Piet, both had a ride with the bike in the past, and both said that the suspensions feel somehow stiff, so my first thought was too much damping. Now it seems I have several things to check.

-rear wheel alignment. I have adjusted it based on axle distance to swingarm spindle, and not for front wheel alignment. I might have been a bit too optimistic here with regards to overall frame tolerances.

-The rear Konis started as NOS parts, but I have replaced the oil filling before bolting them onto the bike. In the meantime I have learned that they are rather sensitive to be filled with the correct oil amount. I'm not sure anymore that I have considered this properly when replacing the shock oil.

-Front fork has progressive Wirth springs instead of the original springs installed. The Wirth manual requires to add spacers, to achieve the same unloaded length than the original springs, which was what I did. Bike's weight has been reduced by 20kg compared to factory standard, possibly I have to reduce preload a bit on the front. Best hopes that the old Ceriani fork is not just clapped out.

Happy new year to you all,
Stefan

 
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