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

Paul Marx said:
That will be heavily modified with a Nava Gran Turismo grip for my old hand. They filter vibration very well.
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I think they were originally known as Beston grips in UK. They appeared as original fitment on Norton and Triumph parallel twins in the 60's to provide some vibration isolation. My old '66 (unit construction) Bonneville wasn't too bad for vibration, but I rode a mate's earlier pre-unit Thunderbird and it was awful. It turned into a jackhammer at 55 mph. No kind of soft handgrips would have helped. I dunno whether it was the unit construction that helped damp out the vibes with more engine mass, or if his bike was built with the wrong balance factor.

Also known as Titty grips in some parts of USA.

titty grips.JPG
 
A bit of sorting on the SFQ. Gearchange not quite right, clutch binding due to new thicker (factory?) plates; lever operating from 11am-10am viewed from behind - insufficient ratio to effect max travel of the pushrod.
Tank contaminated with filings and gunk (thought it was pretty clean).
Tiny mod with the eccentric screw in the lathe and an angle grinder to eliminate any play and preventing the hook from returning over the pin in the drum - I simply could not get it returning cleanly - Vince, you know exactly what I'm talking about! Small groove also helps keep spring legs in position.
Also rigged a custom washer/plate in .75mm stainless sheet to permanently eliminate the prob of the spring leg fouling over/under the eccentric screw.
Sorted the clutch throw by fitting 1.2mm broad washers ground under the pushrod-ball external lever housing, which spaced the actuating assembly further toward the mainshaft/pushrod - very nice travel from 1pm-11am now.
Flushed the tank about 10 times - should be good to go ... whew!
 

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I dread going into the eccentric adjustment, it's bitten me hard in the past, months looking for 5th gear. That was before I heard about misaligned case cover binding it up. After my recent selector spring braking I was missing 1st occasional at traffic lights and the eccentric was maxed out so that needed a mill and a bit, technical dimension filed off the upper point of the big C hook so it could catch the pin 100% of the time instead of 75%. It's so finicky in there, half a pussy hair makes a huge difference to clean RELATIVELY fast gear changes. All done blind unless you have X-ray vision. I like that spring retainer plate Q, more effective than the standard washer for keeping the spring legs out of the gubbins. That's a hell of a lot of crap in the tank, you been drilling and taping something there. Really looking forward to seeing THAT bike. Off now to replace the Oxford heated grips control box, a great time of year for that to fail, a week before the Brass Money ride. They get big frosts at Walcha.
 
It certainly is finicky. Rather than shave flats on the eccentric I spun it and got an even depth groove. Gave just that little bit more travel to aid pin pickup. My original SF1 never once gave me trouble.

Tank had major work, cut-shut, flush filler, overflow drain tube. bloody filthy!
 
there are a lot of pattern/crap springs out there, I recently had one that was wound so tight that a tube was needed to get it to go down on the splined shaft, as you nobbed it on you could see the legs open, chucked it out, the next one was wound from thinner wire and was week, the one after that looked OK, and felt OK, but a leg snapped after very little use, maybe two months, a used one from another engine is installed and is just right,. (I need some very good replacements but dont know where to get them)

when someone is arranging the making of pattern parts why dont they get it copied 100% from original bits, I dont understand it, gaskets that are the wrong colour, or stick out of the flanges, requiring razor blade trimming, how easy is that to get right? and the wrong thickness, ditto, that can have an after effect, how about clutch springs that are too long and DEFINATELY too bleeding strong, or cam blocks that you yourself have to machine/get machined, before you can use them, ditto alloy inlet manifolds, I am stopping now but I could go on forever, spoils it for me does this shit, pattern parts for my 35 year old Honda Pan European fit and work fine, just simply a joy by comparison.

CLEM
 
Made a trip to Oschersleben race track and visited Jens and Hendrik who made some practice on the track. On my way there I passed the Harz mountain area. In that region the climate change with hot and dry sommers had eliminated all the forests, it will become steppe.IMG_7603.jpeg
 
andre g said:
Made a trip to Oschersleben race track and visited Jens and Hendrik who made some practice on the track. On my way there I passed the Harz mountain area. In that region the climate change with hot and dry sommers had eliminated all the forests, it will become steppe.View attachment 82537
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Hi Andre,

I like the angle your exhaust cans make, did you modify the collector box? Are those up-side-down RGS cans? Did you make the brackets yourself?

Thank you!
Jeroen
 
I think these are Jota style cans, but not original. They are mounted upside down, left can to te right and right to the left. Brackets done by me, just triangle stainless steel plates, 3 mm and bended to fit. I also like the cans a high as possible, collector is original.
Will do a foto tomorrow.
Andre
 
andre g said:
Made a trip to Oschersleben race track and visited Jens and Hendrik who made some practice on the track. On my way there I passed the Harz mountain area. In that region the climate change with hot and dry sommers had eliminated all the forests, it will become steppe.View attachment 82537
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Pffft, it’s not climate change killing the trees. We have the same thing, in some parts of Australia.

Die off.

A forestry guy I know told me it’s the tree version of pods of dolphins beaching themselves. Well that confused me …. perhaps he made a bad analogy.

But why?

Because that’s how the species survives.

The theory is that, eventually the seeds laying dormant in the ground poke their little heads up and jump for joy, because they now have sufficient light to survive.

And so a new generation of trees come into existence.

Here’s a picture of some cows, the greenies (no doubt vegetarian greenies) word is their farts are bad for the environment.

See the cloud formation above the cows? That’s smoke from a fire 80klms away. Why a fire? Farmer burning off stubble ready for the next crop. These were the first cows I’d seen for 80klm since the fire.

Which is worse a few cow farts or the air pollution from a stubble fire?
 

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chrisk said:
Pffft, it’s not climate change killing the trees. We have the same thing, in some parts of Australia.

Die off.

A forestry guy I know told me it’s the tree version of pods of dolphins beaching themselves. Well that confused me …. perhaps he made a bad analogy.

But why?

Because that’s how the species survives.

The theory is that, eventually the seeds laying dormant in the ground poke their little heads up and jump for joy, because they now have sufficient light to survive.

And so a new generation of trees come into existence.

Here’s a picture of some cows, the greenies (no doubt vegetarian greenies) word is their farts are bad for the environment.

See the cloud formation above the cows? That’s smoke from a fire 80klms away. Why a fire? Farmer burning off stubble ready for the next crop. These were the first cows I’d seen for 80klm since the fire.

Which is worse a few cow farts or the air pollution from a stubble fire?
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Methane is 32 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas but does have a shorter duration in the atmosphere than CO2. However, I agree burn off has a far worse impact, which is why I am surprised it’s not banned like it is in the UK/IOM.
 
Great looking gathering there, especially good to see so many twins, a bit different to gatherings in the UK and the Antipodes where twins are usually the odd man out. Do thieves there actually know how to steal a big Ducati bevel with kick start technique and a brake instead of first gear?
 
Tippie said:
Great looking gathering there, especially good to see so many twins, a bit different to gatherings in the UK and the Antipodes where twins are usually the odd man out. Do thieves there actually know how to steal a big Ducati bevel with kick start technique and a brake instead of first gear?
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No, they just burn them.
Paul
 
Finally after umpteen years of ownership and never any charging issues I installed a voltmeter on my RGS. Hopefully this doesn't bring bad luck to my electrical system. BTW thats not a Heads Up Display on the windscreen. That would have cost more than $15 from Amazon. 20230514_170944.jpg
 
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