RGS Tach Calibration

Grant is spot on the  Laverdas were still great bikes into the late seventies,  but 79 was a very bad year followed up by poor development. Their reputation suffered badly, I had a 1200 my friend a Monty  both great bikes to ride much better then mates CB900/GS1000 CB750,s to ride and everyone loved them even at the extra cost, but there was one big issue that cropped up whenever we went on a decent ride one of the Laverdas woulds strike problems ( the Monty was slightly worse than my 1200 ) to the point where it became a bit of a joke and we both soon gave up on the Lavs. 79 Lavs have a lot to answer for. The basic bikes could have easily been updated to match the early 80's japs and had they been reliable would have sold ok but he RGS wasn't quite good enough in the handling or performance dept it could have been what Triumph made later no problem but as Grant said development resources were wasted on  dead end projects instead of improving what was basically a good bike.
GPZ900's were a step ahead of the air cooled bikes but  it didn't take rocket science to  equal one (the last 20mph took a very long time to arrive) if anything i would say the GPZ1100 Unitrack killed Laverdas for good, massively faster and better handling everywhere.
 
Well Grant, Laverda singles were hardly known outside of Italy, scooters had a bit more success.
That was just to answer the 70s as Laverdas glory days, they weren't.

My point was that as usual, different countries have different cultures and the Kawasaki GPZ thingies obviously were THE THING in the UK, not here in France. Obviously the commercial departments of the manufacturers, not to mention the press, move in mysterious ways.
My remark concerning the Honda C90 was humorous. In Thailand or Cambodia, Kawasaki GPZs weren't very successful either.

Geoffr, Laverda are extremely reliable. If yours and your mates kept having issues or breaking down, it's because they were badly maintained. I still do a lot of km on mine.

Paul
 
"Geoffr, Laverda are extremely reliable. If yours and your mates kept having issues or breaking down, it's because they were badly maintained. I still do a lot of km on mine."
Pretty true Paul. I worked for the Australian importers and some other distributors in the ?70s, and Laverdas had a fantastic reputation for long distance high speed mile eating and longevity, both the twins and the triples.  My SF2 used to do 1600km plus days without blinking. The models mentioned didn't really hurt the reputation, the ?81 Jota fixed any dent. I know of people on this forum that still own the bikes I serviced back then. The latest and greatest from Japan changed year by year. The GPZ9 was superseded by more nimble bikes that thrashed it around the tracks, GSXR etc relegated it into touring bike status. The UK Avon series cemented Laverda?s reputation and is most likely the reason almost all UK content on this forum is triple focussed. Laverda just didn't really follow market trends, neither did numerous other Euro marques, but they had stronger heritage and the new buyers had financial clout to pump them up time and again. How many times has Ducati changed hands? What type of bikes are Guzzi making these days? The little Honda stepthrus were aimed at a totally different demographic than Laverda. The Lav singles didn't have Honda Cubs lining up against them in those overland races. The Veglia electronic rev counters didn't really mean much in the big picture either.
 
The  bikes prior to 79 were reliable but 79 bikes killed that reputation, also the difference in performance between 2 production bikes was sometimes huge, yes our bikes weren't maintained to ideal standards but none of our other bikes were either and they were reliable, the faults the 79 bikes seemed to collect porous heads dodgy cranks dodgy rectifiers etc many of which weren't affected by maintenance got them a real bad reputation in our area. I perservered with mine longer than most i don't dispute once these issues are fixed the bikes are reliable but they weren't back then
We used to watch the Avon proddy series seeing the Jota's annhilate the opposition ( P K Davies et all ) but they were put together by mechanics who knew how to set them up the lav  you bought from the showroom factory fresh didn't go like that ( Roger Winterburns 1200t with 4c cams and Jota pipes was timed at 152mph) but if these 79  issues  didn't occur along with some basic frame / engine / ignition development, sales could easily have continued well into the eighties, the first Jota 120 was timed at 142mph by Motor Cycle News matching the 110 Katana so the basic performance was there but a new frame, suspension, 16 valve head, short stroke engine would have kept them more than competitive into the mid eighties, but the funds were put into other dead end  areas and wasted
 
One of the best I remember apart from the first test done in Two Wheels mag that was amazing and really stuck in my memory was the long time Editors SFC triple. He did the bought it directly from the factory and rode it all about Europe and eventually back to Oz. But then in a serious of rides in Oz, it always seemed to break down and come home in the back of a ute. This issue appears after lots and lots of troubleshooting was something to do with the ignition pickups I think. And then it backfired with a low battery charge and broke the starter clutch, and got parked because he couldn't buy a replacement or it was too expensive. Its been a while. At some point he then did a story about one of the Sydney shops, Forcycles I think completely going through it and it finally becoming the bike he expected it was. To me, this was horrible PR, but it still didnt stop me buying mine years later. About 5 years back the Sydney Club was contacted about Jerramys widdow looking at selling this bike, even with all those dramas he still owned it after his death. BTW I would love a copy of the artical Jeramy wrote, in 2 parts, about the work done to fix that SFC. I had a copy but its disappeared. It's a good read. It would be great if it could be posted here.
 
One of the better PR bits on Laverdas in Oz came from a local Journalist who liked to do overnight rides between Sydney and Melbourne at way more than legal speeds. One full crazy fucker called Kell Weane. After he added an extra headlight his favourite bike for this was a 180 Laverda. The trick was even back then not going to jail, hitting a Kangaroo or just falling asleep. Made some great stories. Full-blown Hunter S Tompson style. It all made for the reputation I formed in my head of Laverda ownership years before I bought mine.
 
It's interesting to observe the mostly triple-centric slant on the forum. Don't get me wrong - I love them, raced the 1200 for my boss, but I would never own one. They are physically BIG bikes and I just don't like big bikes (Z1300s, Z1000s etc etc). It's a shame the probs that plagued the triples were fairly simple oversights in design or manufacture (charging systems, incorrect bearing choice, poor casting). Without those issues there's absolutely nothing that should have made the triples any less strong and reliable than an SF, which undoubtedly sold from the late 60's until the late 70's because of a reputation for reliability, speed and handling.
 
Vince said:
One of the better PR bits on Laverdas in Oz came from a local Journalist who liked to do overnight rides between Sydney and Melbourne at way more than legal speeds. One full crazy fucker called Kell Weane. After he added an extra headlight his favourite bike for this was a 180 Laverda. The trick was even back then not going to jail, hitting a Kangaroo or just falling asleep. Made some great stories. Full-blown Hunter S Tompson style. It all made for the reputation I formed in my head of Laverda ownership years before I bought mine.
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Yeah, Kel Wearne, he could have written for the Melbourne newspaper "The Truth" (They used to say "there's a lot of rumour in the Truth but not much truth in the rumour!"  :D
One WA Laverda owners girlfriend wrote a letter to the editor of his Mag calling him out on his highly exaggerated heroics reporting, he didn't like it at all. The WA mob at that time used to do it for real. I agree that it was good fun reading though. The only real problem with the early triples I recall from my time at Stanco was the ignitions. Porosity was across the board but rarely a major problem. Had the Laverdas the importer raced at the time (all triples, he refused to race SFC for some reason) been cheated on as much as the winning bikes, we would also have been winning, but the chief mechanic was a very honest guy, and a scrutineer.
 
Couple of the Wheen stories I heard over the years. He raced Endro in the 70s doing pretty well. There was a ride to The Worlds End Rally that was pretty crazy, and the high speed jumping of a big a CBX Honda over a hill like ramp over a rail line crossing. I always wondered what happened to him, he just suddenly disappeared. Found this a while ago.

https://advrider.com/f/threads/captain-flashbulb-kel-wearne.1340816/
 
Yeh, I remember reading all the "derring do" stories of Wearne and his high speed interstate runs on test bikes.
Also remember the kerfuffle when called out and other journos trying to leap to his defence.
I think we need to remember it was all written for entertainment and with no doubt the odd embellishment. Don't think the suppliers of the test bikes were too concerned as it usually built up their bikes cred and I am sure we all had various (numerous) goes at high speed long distance runs back then  :D
Ah 'twas a simpler time...????...
 
Tragic end. The ADV posts are fun. I think a lot of people jumped that West Wyalong railway crossing, I did it without planning, touring at a good clip, my pillion passenger let out a little scream.
 
It was Pete Davies and the Avon series that made me buy my first Laverda when I got sick of my 750/4.
Then I discovered the 750s when I bought two for restoration in the mid 80s.
Never looked back.

I remember whilst riding up to the ILOC rally in Stirling in 2001, we stopped off at Slaters.
There were 5 bikes of which 4 750s. Slater said he'd never seen so many together. Quite surprising coming from someone with such a reputation in Laverda spheres, particularly as we were used to seeing dozens in European rallies.
I wrote an article in the ILOC mag entitled Twins in Triple land about that trip.

Nice to see that the british have caught on to the twins after all these years.
My friend Phil Todd always was a twin advocate.

Paul
 
Paul Marx said:
Then I discovered the 750s when I bought two for restoration in the mid 80s.
Never looked back.

I remember whilst riding up to the ILOC rally in Stirling in 2001, we stopped off at Slaters.
There were 5 bikes of which 4 750s. Slater said he'd never seen so many together. Quite surprising coming from someone with such a reputation in Laverda spheres, particularly as we were used to seeing dozens in European rallies.
I wrote an article in the ILOC mag entitled Twins in Triple land about that trip.

Nice to see that the british have caught on to the twins after all these years.
My friend Phil Todd always was a twin advocate.

Paul
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Yes, we are a secret society of 'cogniscenti', Paul  :D
 
I have a triple but at heart I'm a twin man. Never been without one since 1974.
Hey Tippy, who's girlfriend wrote that letter?? Wasn't Sal was it? She could have been a shit stirrer.
Caught up with her about a year ago. She now lives in Broome.
We had a good Lav sceen in Perth back in the 70s. Use to do huge miles on them.
Mine never broke down mechanicaly either. check points, valves, timing and oil changes every other weekend as 1000 miles clicked over on the speedo. A trip over east would be fit a Avon road Runner, chain, oil change and off ya go with sleeping bag straped to the tank.
 
Yeah Rob, Sal it was. So she is in Broome eh, right where he ended it. I reckon if they had caught up there would have been laughs about her stirring him up way back then, may have ended differently.
 
Fun thread drift! Thanks for responses.

The final question is about the tach's adjusting pot. Is adjusting for a lower tach reading counter-clockwise, or?

Do we know is these tachs have a specific calibration signal for a certain RPM? Like feed it 50Hz for 3K RPM?

Thanks -

Kristian
 
Do we know is these tachs have a specific calibration signal for a certain RPM? Like feed it 50Hz for 3K RPM?
Click to expand...

Yep, that will work. Revcounter is just a frequency meter. You only need to feed it with a few volts max. Some have used an online signal generator tool using speaker or headphone output . Others a 12v transformer for model train or scalectrix wound down low.
 
Rob said:
Yep, that will work. Revcounter is just a frequency meter. You only need to feed it with a few volts max. Some have used an online signal generator tool using speaker or headphone output . Others a 12v transformer for model train or scalectrix wound down low.
Click to expand...

Excellent info - do we know that 50Hz should be 3K RPM?

Thanks-
 
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