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

Vince said:
The first time I rode one I was maneuvering it around a car park and hit the lock stop, had to put a leg out. They don't have much steering lock.
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Yup, remember trying to do a u-turn on a MHR Mille  (younger brother?s bike) on a slight incline.  Went to lock and was very fortunate to be able to get my foot down.  Thought I was going to drop it there for a while.


It had a 2:1 Gianelli exhaust on it (as well as lots of other work/bits) and was it very easy to lift front end a bit just on the throttle, which also surprised me.  I?d always considered Ducati?s and roll-on wheelstands to be non-compatible.


My brother then bought the first McIntosh Suzuki registered in NSW (from Rod Hunwick of Action Suzuki) with a full Yoshimura engine - that was fun riding around town on... not.


Yogi
 
Maybe it was geared down, Yogi? I rode a friend's TRX which he'd geared down considerably as he reckoned it was way over-geared. It lifted the front wheel so quickly and so easily it nearly got me into trouble!

Yeah, those Yoshi and Moriwaki motors had some mumbo. A friend built up his Rickman Kwaka with a 1050 Moriwaki motor, CR carbs, cams, pipe, valves, the works - he set it up for midrange and it inherently had plenty of top end, and boy, did he do a good job! Really good fun, and tractable as buggery. Wheelies were a piece of pees, much like modern sports bikes (before wheelie control or with it turned off!).
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
Is there much diff b/w an MHR and a 900SS? Same frame?
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Absolutely not.
The SS has straight tubes everywhere but for some reason they decided on the MHR to put bent tubes in various locations.
I know this because I restored a 900SS and an MHR-framed Ducati and side by side they were similar but very different.
No idea why they had to re-invent the wheel (frame).
 
Hi Grant,

The early MHRs should have an identical frame to the 900SS (actually made on the same production line with the same main parts)  the later bikes were changed according to Faloon's books, 

It's not actually the turning circle that bothers me with the MHR, more the riding position and response at slow speeds,  my MHR  (1980 1st series second batch) rides lovely when it's given it's head but is uncomfortable to ride slowly and handles a bit grumpy at slow speeds, otherwise much easier than the 750 Sport, 
The Sport has a lovely engine, nice handling but made for an absolute midget,  I was really uncomfortable on it and glad to get off, a peg re-position would help but then again it just looks so good upstairs  :D

Jules
 
Yogi said:
I?d always considered Ducati?s and roll-on wheelstands to be non-compatible.
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"Where there's a will, there's a way ..." (Jim Scaysbrook, Amaroo Park 1977)

 

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Still got the centrestand on?
For racing?
In the UK they were allowed to remove them for production racing.
They were even grounding the kickstart shafts.
 
julian said:
Hi Grant,

The early MHRs should have an identical frame to the 900SS (actually made on the same production line with the same main parts)  the later bikes were changed according to Faloon's books, 

Jules
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The very first MHR's were just a 900SS with a fiberglass shell over a 900SS tank and different seat plus the fairing.

Jim
 
I have no idea what year mine was as it was a rolling chassis with no papers.
Completely different frame to the black/gold genuine 900SS I was also restoring at the time.
 
psg said:
The early fairing was one piece as well, you had to remove the front wheel to remove it IIRC.

Stu
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I don?t know what IIRC means but if its meaning is similar to ?Royal Pain in the Ass? ....... then you are 100% correct.
I modified mine to be a two piece ........ raced it for three years,, crashed it three times ..... then it turned into an endurance racer and I can?t remember what happened to all the bits after that as I went off flying helicopters.

Jim
 
Grant said:
The SS has straight tubes everywhere but for some reason they decided on the MHR to put bent tubes in various locations.
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On later MHRs, the frame tubes that go up from the swing-arm pivot to meet the top frame spine were splayed out to allow a larger battery to be fitted (no kickstart on later models). So they had to bend inwards at the top to meet the frame spine. That tube was also flattened on the inside of the bend to give another few mm of battery space.
IIRC, that's the main difference between the early and late frames.

A flattened and bent frame member won't be as stiff as a straight tube, and some people reckon it adversely affected the handling of the later bikes.

Personally, I doubt whether it made a huge difference. My (later version frame) MHR Mille handles OK and is very stable at speed.  The main difference between my MHR Mille and a mate's 900SS is the ergonomics of the riding position. The 900SS is a bit more of a racing crouch with a tighter knee bend (thinner seat padding?) and lower clip-ons.  I find the MHR a bit more comfortable.
 
Ventodue said:
"Where there's a will, there's a way ..." (Jim Scaysbrook, Amaroo Park 1977)
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I had the use of a mate's 900SS for a few months - over that period I managed to scrape the right header and the kickstart but not the centrestand. It also wheelied quite easily on a fast clutch start but not ever in a roll-on. I used it mainly around urban Perth - and loved it.
The modified centre stand on my SF doesn't scrape either - angled right leg for factory 2/1 and a shortened foot thingy.
 
motoddrob said:
That would have to be our old friend Frank hey Q? The Beasty, remember it well
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That be him, Rob. It went through a few changes over the years. Made his own box section swingarm (mainly to toss the eccentric shim chain adj system that he despised) and a Marzo front end from a Duke I think. I scored the Rickman triple clamps that I used with your old 35mm Ceri sliders fitted to my original drum brake Ceir staunchions. Clamps had a decent offset, so it worked well in the steering dep't.
 
Dellortoman said:
A flattened and bent frame member won't be as stiff as a straight tube, and some people reckon it adversely affected the handling of the later bikes.

Personally, I doubt whether it made a huge difference. My (later version frame) MHR Mille handles OK and is very stable at speed. 
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There is some terrible BS out there from so-called 'experts', Cam. I have never quite overcome my stupor at reading in one of the foremost Oz moto mags (Two Wheels probably) in a Laverda review, that the 750's didn't have the handling and stability of the big triples because THEY LACKED THE FULL CRADLE FRAME!!!! FFS, how do some wankers get their jobs ...
 
IIRC, the photo of Jim Scaysbrook on the SS for the 77 Castrol 6 hour was partnered with Mike Hailwood and it was Mikes return to racing before he went onto the success he had at the IOM in 78. I also believe it was a 750 as it still had a r/h gear change due to having a dodgy left foot. It was a long time ago so maybe not 100% correct.
Can anyone add to that?
 
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