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

MY JOTA 120 REBUILD : THE FINAL CHAPTER

Ppuxley said:
Last Post December 2015
Got the long awaited call from Mr Nairn, this evening!  :D :D :D
My 120 motor is in bits and has the had the expert eye over it. The cause of the smoke is apparently down to a set of pistons, bores and rings that bear no fit to each other or anything that Mr Laverda ever intended.
Thats good news really- for there not to have been an obvious problem would have been more of a concern.
The proposal is to do Keiths bored out to just under 1200 version, with a realigned and balanced crank and new Carrillos.
The head will be undone of some previous poorly executed work and some more tractable camshafts installed
Not doing the Mikuni conversion at the moment and sticking with the Dellortos for now.
The other thing uncovered was a worn gearbox mainshaft at the sprocket end- a not unusual problem apparently caused by a lack of lubrication to the needle roller bearing and never sorted till very late on in the production run. A replacement will need to be sourced, so if anyone has something to offer please get in touch.
Great to know this is moving now, but under no illusion that I'll be getting the next call for a bit yet.
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Been away from here for some time, so this isn?t ?what I did today? but at least brings me up to date on my 120 rebuild from my last post back in December 2015.

The refurbished rolling chassis finally went up to Keith in May 2016, I think it was, and the motor came to the front of the queue around November.

The work included
?            New Liners
?            New 80.6mm Forged Omega pistons to take it to 1133cc
?            New KN special Arrow Con rods
?            Dynamic rebalanced crank with new bearings throughout
?            Camchain
?            New valves, support bearings, but retained the 4C cams
?            Indexed cam wheels
?            Flowing of the head for the Mikuni RS36 carb conversion
?            Quite a lot in the gearbox to account for a  knackered mainshaft
?            Witt DMC2 ignition, TEC coils
?            Fork conversion

In Keith's workshop in Linwood
image by Patrick Puxley, on Flickr

Arrow Conrod to Keith's own spec; .....at the heart of the worlds most powerful engines!
KN Arrow Conrod by Patrick Puxley, on Flickr

Although the bill was eye watering indeed, and the overall time it took was long, all the work needed doing and the hours of care spent were more than fair.

This was all wrapped up in early 2017 and March was spent waiting for the weather to improve enough for Keith to put about 400miles on it to shake it down,
finishing up with a dyno run, in which he managed to get 101 out of it.
I think the only issue that came to light was what Keith called my ?booby trap?, of him not finding the breather ball that I had put up the breather tube for safe keeping when I sent everything up to him, so it had two for a while till he discovered it following some head scratching over the odd oil leak.  Ooops!

First ride out with Keith Nairn, more than a little nervous after at least 10 years off the bike.
image by Patrick Puxley, on Flickr



So in early April the date was set for me to collect it and at Keith?s insistence- ride her back to Berkshire. We stayed an enjoyable night with him and Eileen in  Kilbarchan before setting off on Friday morning for the ride home, which I did over a couple of glorious days on the weekend before Easter, having prised it from his grip, it being pronounced one of the ones he really didn?t want to give back. It was definitely right to undertake the long ride home, I got to know the bike again after such a long lay off and saw some great countryside on the way back as I tried to keep off the motorways.

Kirkstone Pass
image by Patrick Puxley, on Flickr

On the way home, overnight in the Dales, at The Traddock, Austwick
image by Patrick Puxley, on Flickr


We stayed a night in the Dales on the Friday night and completed the journey on Saturday. I was considerably younger the last time I rode a decent distance on it, so was quite surprised to be suffering no ill effects by the time I got back on Saturday afternoon, so on Sunday I went across to Blackwell for the ILOC AGM.
The oil was then changed again, on Keith?s advice. It now had getting on for 1000 miles on it and this was the  3rd change.

Now its home I have been making the most of the decent weather to get out and about on it, and get reacquainted.
It pulls like a train, with a really smooth delivery and has far more power than I know what to do with.
I couldn?t be more pleased with it.

ILOC Challenge 2017 180417 by Patrick Puxley, on Flickr
 
Nice early start up or is it North  ;) to Bristol from Devon for the Auto Italia ride in,good to meet you Patrick ,and Scrumpy on hand with camera as always.Good showing up of Lavs from 100cc ,750 s and triples.
 

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another day, another Dyno session with the Mule, our black engine race bike
129.7 rear wheel horsepower, down slightly on Dyno session on Wednesday where we made 132hp but picked up our torque significantly which is what we were after
standard 81 Jota puts out approx. 70 ft/lbs torque, we are at 89.5 ft/lbs @ 7,150 rpm which is 10% more than the alloy engine race bike so damn happy with that result
need to clean up the jetting down low yet





 
That glib comment I made about building faster bikes as I left the pub on the last night at the Barry, I didnt expect it to happen a month later. Bloody Impressive, really bloody impressive. Must rate a final gearing change with all that torque.
 
:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Missed this. Nice write up! Can't wait to run the Jota on the track.


LaverdaIan said:
So, no pictures and just as well..

Noticed a small F'book post from QEMS in Qld that they would be hosting a 'classics only' ride day at Lakeside today.. limited to pre 1991 bikes only.. so Joey and I thought, let's go put Monty on show and have a nice day out.. He missed out on a ride, but worked his butt off in Sydney, so a no brainer really.. really.. :o :( really..!!  Bloke has earned a ride I thought..

So with very little bike debrief since the (not the Barry) Festival of Speed, off we went..

Firstly, Monty refused to start, but a touch of 'Start Ya Bastard' sorted that, then it was rough as, in the running, and the tyres are obviously past their use by, because it was like riding on gravel.. Go to do a little tuning, but we have even failed to pack a screwdriver in the box.. lots of spanners though.. ::)

Then we discover that due to some planned changes to the Bus Stop, we are restricted to the 'Full Stop' which basically means you have to pull up at the end of the exit straight of Carousel on the main track, at what would normally be the exit of the Bus Stop section, go down to first gear, sharp left then right, and start again, which effectively ruins the whole flow of the lap down to Hungry Corner.. First time I arrived in second, and ended up out on the grass and nearly hit the farkn fence.. Who's great idea was this.. >:(

And then Monty's starter relay fails.. and we are in the embarrassing position of trying to push start the bugger.. which does not work.. but the crowd is in support, and a set of rollers is offered to get us moving.. so that's cool..

And then Joey, who's head is in a different place obviously, falls off the bike on his way out of the pits doing a slow turn to the exit gate.. fuel and him everywhere.. and another roller start required.. To be honest, both of us have got a lot of shit going on at the moment, so not surprising really.. but the day just kept getting better..

About now, we are looking like quite the show.. NOT.. but we did get a lot of interest from blokes that have "heard of this bike, and Laverda Montjuic, but never seen one.." and others who have, and wanted to check it out.. There were quite a few really nice Classic bikes out there, like BSA Rockets, Triumph Tridents, and a very special immaculate Aermacchi.. it was good to talk to blokes of a similar interest and passion, not stuck with the usual throttle jockeys on their latest rocket ships, that have no idea.. and that is the purpose of these types of meetings.. keeping it real for those of us that enjoy our older bikes and their character..

So we carried on as you do, and overlapping groups meant that Joey went out in his group, and I was next up.. so I encouraged him to come around in the pit area.. "try not to drop it mate.." and keep it running so I could do a session.. which worked out quite well, until I barrelled up to the end of the main straight, down through the gears into Carousel, go hard under brakes.. and no brakes.. :o  Well not none, but geez, not my normal brakes..!! Fluid has probably gone off in the calipers after the flogging I gave it in Sydney.. did I mention very little debrief before we went out today..?!!

So a very quiet exit, easy pack up with giddays all around from the lads, and take our shite outta there.. one of the funniest days we have had in years.. but hey, Ya Gotta Love Ya Racing.. apparently..

Just thought I would share lads.. it doesn't always go to plan, but at least we were out there having a craik..

Ciao Laverdaisti

8)
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Did a quick test lap of the block after fitting the blue springs to my Emulators and filling in my log book, one day down on my 30 days available on Historic rego, forks are very nice after hitting every hydrant bump mid road. Hardly felt any shock at all. Had some popping from the exhaust on the overrun, yep loose header nuts that needed a good 1 full turn to get snug. Still, have a weave, checked the tyre pressures and both were low at 34, 37. I have a replacement front tyre coming hopefully soon. Ordered it 2 weeks ago but easter slowed its arrival. Hope that fixes this weave.Checked the newly adjusted rear spoked wheel and its still running true.
 
checked the tyre pressures and both were low at 34, 37.
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Low at 34/37? What pressures do you run Vince and what tyres?
I run 33/37 on the Yellow Peril fitted with BT45s.
Would be interested to know what the general consensus is on the topic.
 
Although not 100% related the handbook of my Dramah from the period recommends 29.5 / 35.5  (converted from metric)
 
Specific tyre types/specific pressures, not general.
Bridgestones need higher pressures due to softer sidewall construction.
Also radials vs crossplies.
And then personal preferences/set up/added bodywork etc.
 
60 days vince and what tyre did you order?  Been crook for 3 weeks now so havent had any beer, weight down to 115 kg, i reckon between you and that huge tank bag you might need a wee bit more than 34. ???
 
The tyre is a T30 Bridgestone, I also wanted a rear the same but a 140. I knew they were not imported to OZ except maybe a couple I asked for 3 months ago on special order. The shop couldn't get the rear, surprise surprise, and didnt ask just for the front and also didnt ring and ask what to do for a week, and then when it got sorted Easter and Anzac day came up. I finally tracked down the bloke at the importer who supposedly ordered the rear and tomorrow he can tell me if he did and they came or he just blew smoke up my arse last November. You did ask, eyes glazed yet.
 
Its a big tank bag but there is usually not much in it, extra pair of gloves, a tiny security  throttle lock type gadget if I am nervous about leaving the bike alone, sometimes a flat  tyre foam inflator gadget, a thin fleece, maybe a baseball hat for bald head protection, a 600ml drink, house keys, But its mainly great to have space to put stuff in if you need to. It would be lucky to weigh 4kg loaded. Probably well less.
 
Have now fitted the solid fairing bush and new clocks ( thank to Smiddy and Ian S  to the Corsa with the very welcome help of Guru Rob ( two man job with instruction required for a virgin)  - now have a Revcounter ! - and no wobbling fairing
 

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