Small Laverda World

I'd leave it standard, Vince. I like the stability much more than lightning quick steering. That is one of the most attractive features of my SFC and the bevel ducatis I had; you can take your hands off the bars there is no excitement because you hit a rock or a road surface change, and less concern about tank slappers......of course, this sounds like an old man talking rather than a 20 something who uses public roads as his track, but I assume everyone on this site has given up any illusions to being anything other than an old man trying to stay young.....
 
I suppose modern fast steering needs modern type suspension control to work properly as well,less bump steer induced tankslappers.My bike must be halfway between an LC Yamaha and an SS Bevel or at least thats what I am aiming for.SS Bevels stability is handy and nice in really high speed sweepers but attempting that around my way gets you walking without a license real quick.Most of my riding is in tight bumpy 35kph bends and I have attempted to set the bike to do that.I am now a happy camper,I couldn't not go through this and remain confident on the bike,hell its only money and time.
 
Vince said:
Finial heard back from The Computrack bloke today,he measured it the day before he left for Bali and kept me hanging till he got back.Good news,its not a problem,the rear wheel is 4mm out of parallel with the front wheel,its easily within the spokes ability to fix and that puts the rim and hub back to plumb over each other where is started out.Bit of an expensive storm in a tea cup.So the rake is 26 deg and the trail is 110mm and thats with the forks through the trees 35mm and 15mm longer rear shocks on it.Seems it could take shocks 30mm longer than std to get close to modern geometry.Probably need a step ladder to get on it.The standard ride hight must result in maybe 130mm trail,thats really old school steering.Really stable and lots of mussel required to tip in.
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Vince, I was stunned to discover today that there's a CompuTrack shop in Florida in Ft Lauderdale, not real close to me (probably close to about 400km) but close enough I could drive down there with my frame to get it checked and maybe straightened before I start painting and putting it back together. Here's my question; do you know if CompuTrack shops can share frame spec data between shops? The invariable response from every single motorcycle shop I ask to work on a Laverda in this country (except Scott Potter, anyway) is "never even heard of it, definitely not going to risk working on it". So I've emailed them but it's still Sunday here, do you think your frame guy would share data with them (between trips to Bali, anyway)?

Ken
 
Ken,the creator of Computrack Greg MacDonald has a data base that I expect they share.Nigal the Cessnock bloke hadn't done one before but asked Greg.I expect Nigel would send info as well I don't see how it would adversely affect him.Actual factory spec I don't think have a great effect.What they look for is anomaly's around the swingarm centre and steering head,eg twist parallel and plumb.The impressive thing is once the system has the data any input variation in the spread sheet produces cascading alternate data.For modern bikes they are looking to arrive at a set of sweet points.EG there are positions via inserts in the triple trees on 4 valve Ducatis.To use the faster position you also need the longer factor swingarm and wheel position in it also has a big effect.Nigal wants the dimensions of the offsets of the other triple trees to run them through.To be honest I think my geometry is as fast steering as I want,he said the more modern dimensions the more a damper is needed.I am a happy camper just to have its straightness confirmed.It would be interesting to see how a later Jota compares to my 3C,forks through and longer shocks withstanding.
 
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