NBT- My 1970s Muscle bike!

[Tricky]

It's currently resting under a cover- I haven't been out on it for a month or two, and yup, the work on the Bandit ( and to a lesser extent essential day-to-day maintenance on the KTM as that's ridden the most of all my bikes so gets regular attention) does mean the Laverda hasn't had much of a look in lately, but I did actually start it up and warm it through last week - went instantly and once it had had it's 30-60 secs of warming on choke, settled to a nice tick over so all is good.
My plan is still to strip a few bits off over the next few weeks and get them plated, and either re-furb or replace the rear shocks.
TBH that's likely all it will get, but aside from some better tyres, but TBH that's really all it needs now, until something falls off or breaks

The thing I love about it, which I guess is maybe also one of the things you probably do too with your Rudge, is that there's no need to worry about MOTs and Tax, and insurance is a pittance so it's ready to go any time I fancy trundling out on it- keeping MOTs and Tax up to date isn't too onerous, but not having to bother about it does feel quite liberating and is a definite plus point in my book

[Dodgy69]

Early 80s...definitely a few half decent bikes to be had and it does take a lot of hassle away.

[Tricky]

I was having a little clear-up / shuffle round in the garageyestrday so dug the old girl out - she hasn't been touched since Christmas so I fired her up- started first press of the button ,and settled down to that lovely slow shaky tickover once the choke was off



It was , for a change, not a bad and dry day down here yesterday so had a lovely bimble around the lanes here- would have been rude not too eh

It still impresses me how totally oil-tight and mechanically quiet it is, I do love this bike

[Bustaspoke]

It sounds nice & characterful.You should send in a audio clip to the Revzilla podcast for the High side Low side guess the engine quiz
IMHO,from a enthusiasts point of view most modern bikes are so restricted to comply with E4/5/6 emmisions regulations that they sound quite bland,'2 wheel white goods',your Laverda takes us back to another era when bike engines sounded 'proper'.

[Skub]

I was having a little clear-up / shuffle round in the garageyestrday so dug the old girl out - she hasn't been touched since Christmas so I fired her up- started first press of the button ,and settled down to that lovely slow shaky tickover once the choke was off



It was , for a change, not a bad and dry day down here yesterday so had a lovely bimble around the lanes here- would have been rude not too eh

It still impresses me how totally oil-tight and mechanically quiet it is, I do love this bike

Is the tickover meant to be under 1k?

Is that a charging light I see going off when you blip the throttle? The H1 has one of those too!

Sounds lovely btw.

[Ditchfinder]

Who doesn't love the sound of rattly old Italian twins

[Tricky]

I was having a little clear-up / shuffle round in the garageyestrday so dug the old girl out - she hasn't been touched since Christmas so I fired her up- started first press of the button ,and settled down to that lovely slow shaky tickover once the choke was off



It was , for a change, not a bad and dry day down here yesterday so had a lovely bimble around the lanes here- would have been rude not too eh

It still impresses me how totally oil-tight and mechanically quiet it is, I do love this bike

Is the tickover meant to be under 1k?

Is that a charging light I see going off when you blip the throttle? The H1 has one of those too!

Sounds lovely btw.

RE tickover RPM, dunno what the books says TBH, I just set it to where it to seemed to sound right by ear, where it settles nicely and still picks upquickly and reliably when you open the throttle, but yeah, may possibly be a bit low- to stop the (no) charge light coming on at tickover , it needs to be 1k+ but it just sounded to high there to me

[Skub]

RE tickover RPM, dunno what the books says TBH, I just set it to where it to seemed to sound right by ear, where it settles nicely and still picks upquickly and reliably when you open the throttle, but yeah, may possibly be a bit low- to stop the (no) charge light coming on at tickover , it needs to be 1k+ but it just sounded to high there to me

The book idle for the H1 is 1400 rpm,but the charge light doesn't go off until 1800 or so when cold starting. The stator hasn't the poke to charge at tickover. I'm just happy enough it still goes off.

[Tricky]

Just a little update- when I got back from my run around the lanes on the old girl a few days back, I noticed that the brake light was stuck on when I got home, and on further investigation, wasn’t working off the rear brake most of the time, so I set about sorting that out today.

Like a lot of the little things on this era Italian bikes, it’s not really a thing of beauty, and it’s in a place where it will be underwater pretty much the whole time whenever the bike’s ridden on wet roads



It is the original switch and hence fairly ancient and well worn, it was very inconsistent in operation, sticking on sometimes and not working at all other times so I thought that chances are I’d have to replace it with a generic Chinese one as the originals don’t seem to be still available, but before I did, I took it off, pulled it apart, cleaned it up internally as best I could, gave it a bit of lube and voila! it’s back from the dead, well, for the time being at least
Externally it’s pretty weathered and horrible, so when I send some odd bolts and spacers etc off for re-plating soon I might take it off again soon and see if I can improve it cosmetically, but in the meantime, I’ve just treated it to a new shiny spring



One positive of having this minor issue was that it caused me to remove the LH side-panel to chase the wiring through and I caught this before it did any serious damage- I should have spotted it really when I secured the battery months ago, the nuts holding the fusebox on are unnecessarily deep ones, and vibratey thing that this bike is, one of them has been digging into the ( slightly non-standard size ) Motobatt.



Anyway, the good thing is I caught it before it punctured the casing, so have shortened the screws and replaced the nuts with regular depth ones so they can’t make contact, and also taped some double-thickness enduro inner tube around that area of the battery too for good measure.



I have high hopes that the seemingly endless crappy weather we have been having for the last few months is finally on the way out, so I'll be getting rid of the ancient Bridgestones in favour of some Contis now and am expecting to be getting out on the old girl a lot more over the coming weeks

[Supermofo]

Yes nice this weekend but bloody windy. Had a few moments where it felt like the front was washing out yesterday the gusts were so strong. Still hopefully well get proper good weather soon!

[Tricky]

Getting on for two years since I last updated this thread which I guess tells a story in itself- although I've started the old girl every now and again s and had the odd few runs out, it really hasn't seen much use at all, and as I've been bike buying again I need to make some space, which unfortunately means one or two bikes need to go, and the SF2 is No1.

It will be up for sale as soon as I give it a front brake fluid change and and write an ad, but in the meantime, any of you on here fancy a bit of 1970s Italian loveliness , give me a shout

And to save you scrolling back to earlier pages in the thread, here's a couple of pics to remind you what the old girl looks and sounds like, taken at the weekend when I dug it out, put some air in the tyres and ran it around the block- fired straight up and runs as good as ever

[Dodgy69]

I'm not asking...

[ZRX61]

I would polish the snot out of those engine covers.