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

[sfcpiet]

Quentin,

Do the FCR slides have cut-outs for air metering? Not entirely familiar with the flat-slide workings...

A stumble just off idle is most certainly an air issue, I've remedied such a stumble with different slide cut-outs in the past, both on Dellorto and Amal round-slide carbs. The cut-outs are effective only for about the first 1/8 of total slide travel.

piet

 

[OTR002]

Nice, everything in these photos is a credit to you... Spotless workshop ( Looks like Myford early open belt drive in the background? ). Plug chop, just dealing with modern fuel and plug colour now, well done BTW on not crushing the gas seal ring into a pancake. All but pure white nose colour has me questioning what is actually in modern fuels. This type of "white" colour has indications of ethanol inclusion, though i can be shouted down, given it is new to me, after many years of plug chops. No excess plug thread body sooting, If a new build i would richen it up just a tad while running in to be safe. If older motor you have done extra well in carby setup, a win oft not found. j

Thanks, the lathe is a Hercus made in Australia.
Another test ride today showed up some issues, the clutch drags and the starter motor is very weak with quite slow engine crank over.

But other than some water in the tank that must have come from the cleaning yesterday I'm happy with how it's going.

 

[Tippie]

Cutaway affecting pick-up from idle from my experience, compensating for gas flow change. Can idle fine, but falter on lifting the slide that first little bit.

 

[Vince]

Taking a millimetre off the slide helped my 2 stroke Husky Automatic heaps, it would stutter just off idle and once past that immediately hit its power band screaming top-end and change to its next gear AUTOMATICALLY, rinse and repeat making it blindingly fast but impossible to trail ride on plus getting 20mpg with a tiny tank. Filing the slide allowed it to chug below its power band and made trail riding suddenly possible. Q do a choke test to see if it's rich just off idle.

 

[piranha-bro2]

The slide has a removable 'blade' or plate on the air side. It has a tiny cutout in the centre of it. As mentioned before I'm loath to file it bigger in case I'm going the wrong way. If I had a pair of fukt donor carbs I'd happily file away but alas ...

If it were Dells I would have sorted it in 5 minutes. Piss easy to remove and replace slides with the various 40/50/60/70 cutaways. I might do a hunt for some slide plates.

 

[Paul Marx]

Hi Paul, it is nickel plated. I never cared about that. My Electronica had a very hard live under her first owner. With aluminium tank, double seat, ND instruments and switches and German papers, which declared her as a 750 SF. He used her for daily commuting as well as for trips to France and even Spain, with the girlfriend on the back seat. The second owner restored her, but not very well. Since 2002 she is in my hands. The engine was completely fucked up and I still try to bring her back to nearly original condition. BTW: It is the sister of your Electronica, mine is *18436*. Ciao, Gert

You also have 18436?

Paul

 

[hooksey]

The slide has a removable 'blade' or plate on the air side. It has a tiny cutout in the centre of it. As mentioned before I'm loath to file it bigger in case I'm going the wrong way. If I had a pair of fukt donor carbs I'd happily file away but alas ...

If it were Dells I would have sorted it in 5 minutes. Piss easy to remove and replace slides with the various 40/50/60/70 cutaways. I might do a hunt for some slide plates.

Ahhh yes the simplicity of a Dell. Wind up your idle (2k) when back on the rd, see if she still stumbles off the stop. If not file away.

 

[Exmoor beast]

Changed the eight year old battery on the Lav and tried to fire him up but wasn’t happy and was holding revs. I whipped out the jets and changed a leaky float bowl washer, it fired up nicely but was still holding revs.Tank off, wiggled the cables to hear a slide clonk shut-running properly again. Took it for a twenty mile shake down.
I’ve spent the winter getting a 60cc twostroke scooter going- Milliard could build a bike from a lump of alloy in the time it’s taken me to get this effing little thing to run properly! I’ve been blasting about on it plug chops, fuel tap leaks , blowing exhausts all the crap I used to do when I was sixteen- finally getting it running nicely and feeling chuffed to get 36mph on the straight. Then I dig the Laverda out that I haven’t ridden for six months - bloody hell - it’s like the first big bike you’ve ever ridden! Anyway, Lav’s running better than ever, better than even I remember !

 

[iis_iis]

Thanks, the lathe is a Hercus made in Australia.
Another test ride today showed up some issues, the clutch drags and the starter motor is very weak with quite slow engine crank over.

But other than some water in the tank that must have come from the cleaning yesterday I'm happy with how it's going.

ah... a Southbend knock off, the Hercus, did all the iis work on a metric Hercus 260, still use it the odd week, fitted a single phase to three phase inverter ( scandinavian ) hated the single phase motor conversions.

Easy things first, move ( fabricate a new 100amp+ connection ) the battery negative high current connection to the starter motor body itself, ie lower mounting fastener. May not overcome issues, it will remove one of the possible issues. Been covered on this forum a number of times, starter motors and best connection system. HTH j

 

[Vince]

Not much the same on my BIKE Jon but it still has that welding cable starter motor connection you did.

 

[LaverdaIan]

Went to Carnell Classic and gave the Formula 500 a bit of a floggin'..
The dummy grid though.. "there you will find the calm before the storm grasshopper.."
I'll just leave this here..

 

[Andy]

Went to Carnell Classic and gave the Formula 500 a bit of a floggin'..
The dummy grid though.. "there you will find the calm before the storm grasshopper.."
I'll just leave this here..

I hope more than a few saw that view once you were on track!

 

[piranha-bro2]

Good shot Ian. Purposeful!

 

[piranha-bro2]

Fitted the head and timed the cams on the Q. Ready to go back in!

But the excitement came in the form of a 796 Ducati Monster - been parked outside our joint for four days. Seemed odd - expensive bike, on the street. Closer look yesterday made me sus so rego checked - sure enough rego cancelled, listed as stolen. Bewdy! Finders keepers! Nup - rang the local cop shop and wheeled it down the side drive behind slatted gate.

2.30am and Charlie the hound wakes us - there's a ute outside and people lurking. Yikes - the thieves are back to pick up their booty! Freaking out cos it ain't there - we're worried they'll scour around then get nasty - but finally they leave. But a few minutes later, they're back!! Oh no! Ring 000 (emergency no in Oz like 911). Just describing the situation and Emily says 'It's the police'!! What the...!! I go out and four uniforms and two cars are responding to the report I'd made - at 2.30am!!!

Two leave, the big guy wheels it out and they wait till the tow truck arrives and takes it away - thank fuk! I want nothing to do with it. Not easy getting back to sleep after that little episode. Odd thing was the bike had virtually unused Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsas on it. Also had the weirdest handlebars on it - I'm sure they were flat bars off a MTB. No idea how long it's been reported stolen - did a social media search - nothing posted about someone missing their Monster.

 

[redax5]

Guess if more cubes is the goal, the spigot simply needs to be sacrificed. Do the pistons for these kits actually match up to the top of the barrel? eg, 1200 triple pistons have a lower compression height than 1000s due to the omitted spigot.
piet

I don't know how Andy Wagner set up his pistons but when we started to do the 880cc conversions we scanned the combustion chamber of a 750 head and sent the scan to Ross Racing Pistons as a Solidworks model and they used that model to make me the 87mm pistons

For Liners I had LA Sleeves custom make them with a wider flange OD that requires the holes for the main studs to be notched out with an End mill or Slot cutter

When assembling the engines I spray both sides of the head gasket with VHT Copper Head Gasket sealant that basically glues the head and barrels together, same as I do on my triple race engines
Works really well as it a prick of a job to remove the head gasket remnants from the head and barrel faces when rebuilding the engines which is a regular occurrence on my race engines but never for a head gasket issue, normally burnt pistons or even worse

 

[piranha-bro2]

I don't know how Andy Wagner set up his pistons but when we started to do the 880cc conversions we scanned the combustion chamber of a 750 head and sent the scan to Ross Racing Pistons as a Solidworks model and they used that model to make me the 87mm pistons

And a nice job they did too. I put my 880 together twice with Wagner's head gaskets, no added sealant and no leaks or blowouts. Just fitted my third. I may go to copper if I have to pull the head again - I'm hoping that is not gonna be necessary in the far future.

 

[Paul Marx]

Looked into the front brake on my 75 Sport which may if it's ready go out for a 3 day tour mid-May. The brake wouldn't stop the bike when you pushed it.
Drum and shoes were all greasy. Cleaned up with acetone and it's better. Shoes are probably new and need bedding in.
The cable is puny and wouldn't look out of place on a mass produced bicycle.
I love the wheel mounting. Simple engineering. I can imagine repairing a rear wheel puncture on a 100 Regolarita during the ISDT.
Paul

 

[Paul Marx]

Looked into the front brake on my 75 Sport which may if it's ready go out for a 3 day tour mid-May. The brake wouldn't stop the bike when you pushed it.
Drum and shoes were all greasy. Cleaned up with acetone and it's better. Shoes are probably new and need bedding in.
The cable is puny and wouldn't look out of place on a mass produced bicycle.
I love the wheel mounting. Simple engineering. I can imagine repairing a rear wheel puncture on a 100 Regolarita during the ISDT.
Paul
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[Paul Marx]

A bit of fine tuning and off we go.
Hasn't run since 2009.

Paul

 

[LaverdaIan]

I hope more than a few saw that view once you were on track!

Thanks Andy, bit of that, as well as a bit of chasing involved, but always good to be out there..
BTW.. did you notice the early ILOC (Laverda Owners Club at the time) patch..? I was very pleased to receive it many, many years ago.. always good to wave the flag for these rare machines and the whole Laverda family..
Ya Gotta Luv Ya Laverda Racing..