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.
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.
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.
Be the person your dog thinks you are...
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.
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!)
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