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

Q 100% that's the conventional wisdom and drilled discs made the cast iron ones even better in the rain but not my setup. It's brilliant in the dry. I cannot remember what pads were recommended but I asked at Gowys for what would work on cast iron in wet and dry for Brembro 4 spots. I am going to try this green scotch bright scourer pad deglaze thing and see what happens. I cannot see much effect with such a non-agressive abrasion gadget, maybe some 300 wet and dry might be better. I don't want to smooth or polish the discs, the exact opposite in fact.
 
My experience has been the same as Quentin's. Early Japanese stainless disks hopeless in the wet, while contemporary Italian cast iron OK. I didn't think it was possible to polish cast iron so much as to make it slippery.

My old original Jota brakes are OK, wet or dry. I've never felt the need to upgrade to bigger rotors or 4-pot calipers. Apparently I'm not riding it hard enough.

I've got no idea what sort of pads are in them. I don't think I've ever replaced them during my ownership. I had the disks ground a few years ago to take out a few thou of run-out. That made the braking smoother but didn't change the 'grabbiness' of them.

 
What got me started on improving the front brakes was the horrible way they worked, I would apply the brakes and not a lot happened and then they would suddenly become really strong. I hatted the way they worked so what I did was buy a set of 4 spot callipers from a shop in Canada who had them really cheap. So I get a call from Customs saying they have a parcel for me at the Grandville mail centre and I need to give them $200 to take delivery. So they ended up the same price as retail here. I had the Radial Master for the dirtbike but before it all went on one of the locals discovered the outer piston on my standard master had warn some ridge on it causing that horrible action. 30 seconds dressing it with a file had the standard setup working 100% better. Could have saved myself close to a grand in uprated brakes. Live and learn.
 
There is a huge difference in how brakes of same spec work I have noticed on different Lavs I have ridden. Unless there are sticking calliper pistons or other basic faults, I think a lot of it is things like dry pivot screws, lumpy/dry contact between the lever heel and the mc piston, reach distance to the lever with fingers, mc mounted as far out as possible against the throttle/switch instead of as far in for better leverage. I was pretty shocked the last "standard" SF2 I rode, the brakes were very wooden and weak, compounded by the front suspension which barely dived at all under brakes, set-up issues which owners only notice if riding bikes that work properly. I have never gone in for deglazing since I stopped using drum brakes. In really heavy downpours it can take maybe half a second (a fucking eternity in the wrong circumstances) to bite so I just feather them now and then and they are ready to go, but I have never had delay at the track. I think it is unusual to find shit pad material today. An English competitor at Anderstorp sanded the pads on his TZ350 after every single track session, an old habit he said, a bit like the rabbits foot in his pocket maybe.
 
Since I ride contraptions with drums, twin pot calipers with cast iron discs, and my modern Aprilia with huge 4 pot discs.
You can really feel what evolution is all about.

I thought that the discs on my SF2 were the chickens breakfast until I got the Aprilia. Except in the wet when the pads go surfing.
I still think they're very good even compared to Corinnes modern Triumph but the Aprilia is something else.

Paul
 
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Cam cover off, LH and centre exhaust studs out, lots of protection on the frame, engine on its side, my son and I lifted the frame over the engine and manouevered into position.
43 degrees C in the workshop this afternoon, now time for some air conditioning relief.

pete   
 
Paul Marx said:
Shouldn't that center stand be silver?  Paul
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I agree, it doesn?t match well. It is a little twisted and needs some work so when that gets done it will get recoated.
There is also a side stand that I haven?t fitted yet, it has a really nice wrinkle black finish but it will look odd too, so yes they will both end up being silver I think.
 
Black centrestands were originally standard with silver framed triples, probably until they had used up all the black ones.
I have seen only a few with original silver on the centrestands.
 
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Nice job Pete,....my center stands black which i prefer but i chose silver for the side stand,your bike,choose what you prefer and keep up the good work and photos  (bigthumb)
 
Forks reassembled with new stanchions and resized internals.  Will do for the duration of the resto  . maybe longer. Yokes in primer. Suzuki wheels heading to the machine shop.  Have to get that head off and see what's what.
 
motoddrob said:
Hey Pete, what happened to your beautiful patina-ed Jota?? :D
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Rob,

It's a fine line between patina and scruffy.
I was happy riding an original but lots of patina bike for a while but ultimately I got sick of riding a scruffy bike.

Then there were things I wanted to do to it that required engine out and a bare frame and I only wanted to do that once.

pete
 
2volts said:
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Assembly continues.

Sidestand is from a Kawasaki ZZR1300. I machined the mounting block and had it welded to the frame along with head stem bracing and some other tidy ups.

pete
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Pete,
how does the side-stand mount cope with cornering? From the distance it looks like it could touch down hard ...

Cheers
Jo
 
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