The Motorcycle Broker article

I have been around some troublesome Laverdas but I have never heard of one snapping a valve guide. Seizing on a valve with too tight a clearance on a rebuild and the valve bending yes but snapping nope. His comments completely miss the couple of factory issues that happened more than 40 years ago and would have well and truly been sorted over the years. I just don't get his point, well warn old bikes cost a lot to get perfect, DEE who knew. It's a good idea to have engine work done by Laverda specialists, well yes again. Don't expect shiny bikes to run to a high standard unless you see the receipts from the engine builder, again really.
 
not entirely acurate is what I say, I have never known a busted valve guide on a Laverda triple like that one in his video, has anyone?

he says they eat primary and timing chains, total bullshit, I have both with more than 40,000 miles and maybe even 50,000miles, and still good and have been tested alongside unused.

primary case sludge total bullshit as is the lack of drain plug

Jotas will get to £50,000, yeah right oh, maybe in 590 years time, but then again, no fuel ????? and SFC are already above £50,000 even £55,000 show me the evidence then! anyone paid that, EVER!

he praises Keith Nairn (rightly so) and says "he works with him" and that he supplies good pistons, how many sets have you sold him Keith? did the crank get done on the £40K Jota?

No mention is made of items that need to be talked about, crank recall ball/roller centre mains, valve seat recession, crumbly cam bearings, crankcase with O ring or not , base gasket with oil hole or blank (YIKES!) and extra front bolts or not, head gaskets with O rings or not, short or long valve springs, cast head skulls or plain alloy, tappets (Buckets if you like) in cast iron liners or plain, perished early carb mounting rubbers, cracked/broken inlet manifolds, even rotten RGS type plus the early CDI ignition, frame cracking and repair stiffening, I'll stop now.

This genuinly is Mister Know All!, knows fxxk all, he implies that he has traded loads of Laverda's (which I doubt maybe just the one) and I am not impressed, plenty on here both amateur and professional will no doubt agree.

Thats my take, moderators, delete if you so choose, I dont think I have misnoted anything.

CLEM
 
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Where the "proper crowd" meet....Reminds me of an English Italian boutique motorcycle
shop back in the '90's whose advertising line was something along the lines "to be scene
and not herd" The connection between snobbery and motorcycling always draws a laugh.
Ask anyone who actually rode an Italian bike in the 60's and early 70's and see if they can
draw a parallel between a Ferrari or Lamborghini to their small bore bike.
 
CLEMTOG said:
“No mention is made of items that need to be talked about, crank recall ball/roller centre mains, valve seat recession, crumbly cam bearings, crankcase with O ring or not , base gasket with oil hole or blank (YIKES!) and extra front bolts or not, head gaskets with O rings or not, short or long valve springs, cast head skulls or plain alloy, tappets (Buckets if you like) in cast iron liners or plain, perished early carb mounting rubbers, cracked/broken inlet manifolds, even rotten RGS type plus the early CDI ignition, frame cracking and repair stiffening, I'll stop now.”

CLEM
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Damn!

And you guys moan about Zane issues!! ;-)

Even me knowing nothing about Breganze bikes knew he was wrong, still, I guess he got the views etc he wants as a “broker”

Alistair
 
Here's an excerpt from a Vee Two Ducati oil thread by Brook Henry:

"Roller Big Ends have been around in motorcycles for many years. They are also used in many of the late model 4 stroke Moto X engines. Many of these later engines do not have pressurized oil feed to the big end. They rely totally on oil mist and oil splash to supply oil feed to the big end.
Laverda Triples have never had a direct oil feed to their roller big ends. Again, they rely on what is called an oil slinger. This is a method of collecting oil and oil mist from what is floating around the crank cases. The oil is collected within a thin metal disc fixed to the side of the crank shaft and then directed into the big end assembly. There is no pressure or direct oil feed at all. Interestingly, Laverda crank shafts and big ends do huge milage before requiring any attention. As a comparison Ducati Bevel big ends do not do any where near the same milage before failing. The Laverda Tripple engine was one of the most reliable engines in endurance racing of that time. Interesting fact since they only rely on a splash and mist feed to the big end."

Link to complete article: https://www.veetwo.com/Info/what-en...h-tqaxYR7mdFaBELvgPB8dMmSA7Z4OjAbRXmcovCus-9Y
 
Honda's NXR750 Paris-Dakar bike had roller bearings instead of plain bearings throughout. Honda were paranoid about reliability for the first liquid-cooled bike anybody built for rally because it was assumed they were too vulnerable to damage, so they went to incredible lengths. Entered four times, won all four, with no failures. One rider struck a rock and holed a case. He used the kit on the bike to repair it, but had no oil to refill it. Managed to scavenge some diesel: carried on 100kms or more to the finish. They fitted a new motor but later found the original hadn't suffered for it.
 
Triples and SFs both have a direct oil feed to the slingers. They do not just rely on catching oil that is flying around in the crankcase. The centrifugal force acting on that oil forces it through the hole in the big-end journal.
 
Tippie said:
Triples and SFs both have a direct oil feed to the slingers. They do not just rely on catching oil that is flying around in the crankcase. The centrifugal force acting on that oil forces it through the hole in the big-end journal.
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Yeah, surprised Brook didn't know that about the constant feed to the slingers. Bevel big ends failed for reasons other than oil, I reckon. But fail they did.
 
The big end rollers in my bevel Ducati engine will never fail. That's because they're not roller bearings, but plain shell type. The last of the bevel engines had plain bearings. They finally built a reliable bevel twin at about the time they swapped to belt camshaft drive.
 
If you want to buy a motorcycle purely for investment purposes then this is obviously the guy to go to , he certainly seems to know his stuff doesn`t he ?
Go to his website and imagine that`s you riding helmetless and in shirtsleeves down some stately home gravel drive aboard your £35 k MHR or CBX , although to be fair he does have a Montesa Cappra going for £3.5 K and a 900SS Belt for £6 k and a nice looking Sei for £20 k , (starting to push it a bit) , not sure about the 400 Hondamatic for £7.5 K though.
The type of customer he`s trying to attract aren`t enthusiasts for any particular marque ( he mentions China as a possible burgeoning market indicator when you eventually want to off-load your investment) , so if these potential customers want to be taken in by his polished half truths that`s up to them , they won`t know , or want to know , any different.
From his viewpoint a Laverda triple isn`t as gold-plated as a Bevel or a MV America , but an almost unobtainable SFC is , as he well knows , so it`s interesting that he points to alleged and often unfounded faults regarding the triples which require correction , which will then enable him to push his asking price for his now sorted triple to it`s market limit and beyond , which from his point of view makes sense , as the Jota is the Laverda that Joe Public is most familiar with , and due to their greater availability that`s where the money`s to be made.
Buy a reasonable looking but mechanically ambiguous triple , factor in the possibility of some remedial work to put it right , and push off the resultant cost to the investor on the grounds it`s value will soon rival that of the impossible to get hold of SFC. , at least that`s the idea.
What actually happened was that he went way over budget spending £40 k on a Jota putting it right , then sold it for half that , then says "Beware of the Jota" , having got his fingers burnt .
Perhaps dabbling in Laverdas wasn`t the best idea as far as he was concerned , after all as Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry would say , " A man`s gotta know his limitations".
Dealer as a "Broker" , but still a Dealer.
 
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