Triple down memory lane

[T.W.R]

Dunno about the Orange colour thing,cant remember the exact year but do remember at the time my old man was riding a 78 900SS which wasnt that old and a bloke from Christchurch that worked for him turned up on a brand new Jota that was bought off a dealer in Christchurch and was Blue...kind of a dark blue.The SS was a great story in itself,he bought the thing over the ditch put it (crated) on a boat then picked it up at wharf in Wellington finished putting it together and rode it home to just North of Parnassus.

There's a few colours but the orange is the quintessential like silver/blue of the SS people 1st think of
Those bikes of that era were in a different league

[Grumph]

Dunno about the Orange colour thing,cant remember the exact year but do remember at the time my old man was riding a 78 900SS which wasnt that old and a bloke from Christchurch that worked for him turned up on a brand new Jota that was bought off a dealer in Christchurch and was Blue...kind of a dark blue.The SS was a great story in itself,he bought the thing over the ditch put it (crated) on a boat then picked it up at wharf in Wellington finished putting it together and rode it home to just North of Parnassus.

Eric Wood in ChCh brought in I think two shipments of Laverda triples. First lot were thousands and may have been badged Jotas.
Pretty sure this lot were assorted colours.
Second lot were 1200's. I remember seeing a line up of orange bikes.I know where two of the 1200's live, one of them is the race bike I built a few years back.
All of them were the 180 crank versions. The race bike now has a light crank and Carillos fitted and yes, it's a beast....

[T.W.R]

Eric Wood in ChCh brought in I think two shipments of Laverda triples. First lot were thousands and may have been badged Jotas.
Pretty sure this lot were assorted colours.
Second lot were 1200's. I remember seeing a line up of orange bikes.I know where two of the 1200's live, one of them is the race bike I built a few years back.
All of them were the 180 crank versions. The race bike now has a light crank and Carillos fitted and yes, it's a beast....

Think Eric the Hood was the one & only Laverda agent in ChCh...least through till the last handful of SFC1000s were sold...probably held it till the early 90s

The 1200 below came from Woods...79 Mirage...had a lot of money spent on it and went really well...was in the stable of bikes that Phil Payne used to look after. Was informed when I last saw it a few years ago at a rally it was the last 1200 Mirage registered on the NZ Laverda Owners Club register

Back then the XS was an easier bike to live with in all aspects, these days the Laverda could easily be the easier of the two....just as long as there's a copy of the "Green Book" handy & there's a good line of communication with the outfit in Canada.

[Grumph]

I've had both the XS and laverda triples apart and both have their plus and minus points.

I was talking to Redax Engineering in Queensland who are currently one of the best Laverda specialists in the world about the differences and said I'd like to convert the XS to the modern high capacity duplex primary chain nearly everyone uses in the Laverdas now...
They came back and said they were looking at converting a Lav triple to a Morse type primary like the XS.
After I'd told them just why I didn't like the Morse chain that project seems to have gone quiet...

Dave didn't have the budget for the conversion on his - but it would have taken about 2Kg off the primary drive. And given the possibilty of different ratios too.

[98tls]

Eric Wood in ChCh brought in I think two shipments of Laverda triples. First lot were thousands and may have been badged Jotas.
Pretty sure this lot were assorted colours.
Second lot were 1200's. I remember seeing a line up of orange bikes.I know where two of the 1200's live, one of them is the race bike I built a few years back.
All of them were the 180 crank versions. The race bike now has a light crank and Carillos fitted and yes, it's a beast....

Blue one was a 1200,long time ago but can still remember him turning up on it...he took a day off work and left home on his waterbottle and returned that evening on the Laverda, i remember eveyone drooling all over it.Dont remember the blokes name but do remember he was bloody slow through the Hundalees on the waterbottle.

[old slider]

Fascinating thread, so much history and knowledge being shared.

My first sidecar passenger used a very reliable Yammy 750 triple in his hack #44 back in 1980s, a pic of me passing on the inside on #11 at Oceanview

[Grumph]

Fascinating thread, so much history and knowledge being shared.

My first sidecar passenger used a very reliable Yammy 750 triple in his hack #44 back in 1980s, a pic of me passing on the inside on #11 at Oce

I bet it was great on a wet track - the heavy crank would have seen to that, LOL.....

[old slider]

I bet it was great on a wet track - the heavy crank would have seen to that, LOL.....

From memory it may have had a regular sledging problem and was always behind me at the finish line, lol

[Supertwin Don]

Been doing a bit more on my "cosmetic" refurb of the old 750 (a.k.a. 2 tins of black engine enamel) - these are "before" and "after" pictures
Made a bit of a difference - considering skimming off the edges of the fins, always liked that look on the old brit bikes


Now looking for a full exhaust system...........

P.S. my dream bike was a Laverda Jota (back in the mid 70's!)

[T.W.R]

Been doing a bit more on my "cosmetic" refurb of the old 750 (a.k.a. 2 tins of black engine enamel) - these are "before" and "after" pictures
Made a bit of a difference - considering skimming off the edges of the fins, always liked that look on the old brit bikes

Now looking for a full exhaust system...........

P.S. my dream bike was a Laverda Jota (back in the mid 70's!)

Looks as if its cleaning up pretty well...keen man hauling the engine out...heavy sods of things
Interesting spying the small differences between the early & later model casings.
Cosmetic refurb.....better known as a "dulux overhaul"
Good luck searching for a full exhaust system.......rocking horse poo/hens teeth/unobtainium spring to mind. MAC exhausts can still be sourced ex-overseas....next to nothing available locally, even cycleworks haven't got jigs anymore.

[old slider]

Looking good, I agree the aluminum edges look sharp, even my HD engine has the fins like that.

[Supertwin Don]

I know that they are heavy - getting it out not too much of a problem, stripped everything off the bike, then lay it on it's side and lifted the frame away!

(getting it back in again WITHOUT chipping the paintwork - now that's another story!)

[T.W.R]

I know that they are heavy - getting it out not too much of a problem, stripped everything off the bike, then lay it on it's side and lifted the frame away!

(getting it back in again WITHOUT chipping the paintwork - now that's another story!)

the old lay it on it's left and extract from there...had that experience with my 1st 750, though had to lift the replacement motor from a car boot and carry 20 odd meters to the workshop then go through the joys of refitting.

The original 750 had brushed fins

[roogazza]

pah , young whipper snappers !
Here's the Triples we rode in Sydney in 1968/69 .

No handling , no brakes and these first ones had Points Ignition.

[T.W.R]

pah , young whipper snappers !
Here's the Triples we rode in Sydney in 1968/69 .

No handling , no brakes and these first ones had Points Ignition.

Ha, yeah but we can still see straight without that kamikaze glint in our eyes ...bit like comparing a highly strung race horse to a draught horse.

Geesh in 69 I went to a party with the old man and came home with me mum