W/E 6th April

3C at ILOC AGM

 

Not much progress Laverda wise this week because I decided to head off to the ILOC AGM held in Blackwell near Stratford upon Avon. It was a chance to try out my new sleeping bag and whether the Atlas would start after a night in the open. Well both bag and starting proved a hit but the AGM was a little disappointing on account of how few Laverda’s showed up. Just 10 out of 22 bikes – nothing orange/silver, no 750’s, just one RGS. 12 non Laverda motorcycles (including the very nice Scott) and plenty of cars…this would have been unthinkable a few years back. Maybe I have to accept I’m getting old and perhaps Laverda’s are now worth too much to be everyday transport? Anyway you can view some pictures of the Laverda’s at http://1drv.ms/1fY7YiI

The upside of course was the chance to talk nonsense to Laverdisti despite their mode of transport – Alan Bell of Miura fame had never seen damage on the sprag side of a 120 crank but reassuringly said not to worry about the ‘clipped’ dog in the RGA box and was hopeful that the ally would clear up off the cylinder wall in the RGS and ‘probably’ new rings would see satisfactory performance. Let’s see.

Nut mangled by nut splitter then ‘saved’ with a chisel…

 

I did manage to get the front engine mount off the RGS frame. The 12mm nuts holding the stud had rounded so first off I tried a ‘nut splitter’. The splitter didn’t work mainly I think because I was trying to split a flange bolt and so the chisel in the splitter slid off this. However the mangled bolt did respond to a straightforward hammer and chisel and away came the engine mounts – didn’t realise they are two put side by side.

Hmm this should be a hole not a slot

One of the mounts has a damaged bolt hole which I will have to give some thought to. I think these engine mounts are hard to come by so maybe I can just get the damage welded up?

Broken crankcase stud

The RGS cases look fine but do have a busted front 6mm stud and also a stud gone that holds the oil filter in place.

Hey shorty!

Fortunately both these studs have broken plenty standing proud so with a bit of heat and care should come out reasonably easily…

Nick 🙂