Not too much progress this week but did take a wobble over to the ILOC Rally at Baskerville Hall. It’s become a bit of a tradition to visit in the afternoon, catch up with friends and look at the bikes before heading home. It’s a round trip of maybe 250 miles so easily done in a day.
Unfortunately the weather was against us so we retreated to Hay on Wye for hot soup and cake 🙂 Looking at the map I saw that Hergest Ridge is just up the road so we got a copy of the Mike Oldfield album from a second hand shop and headed up the road for a photo-shoot. The plus side is that it’s not a bad album so a win all round.
There were about 50 motorcycles present and as is the modern way about 50% of them Laverda. Each year throws up a new trend and this year it seemed to be the return of the orange and silver Jota – Alan Bell excepted with his ‘Peppermint’ beastie.
Notable bikes included a Mk 1 Monty, Alpino, 1200 Anniversary, 200mm 3C a Zane 750S and a very tidy orange and silver 120 Jota.
This 120 Jota was my favourite as it had been clothed as a Series 2 Jota – the original clocks are retained and sit a little high but that’s just nit-picking. This is what the 120 Jota should’ve looked like!
A small amount of progress was made on Atlas #2 with the sidepanel ready to go back on – it will still need fettling to get all the scratches out but it’s ‘good enough’. Atlas #3 continues to give good service but the damned gear return spring is failing – it doesn’t return back to 1st or 2nd but otherwise is okay. At the moment I don’t want to take the primary case off so will get by giving the change lever a little intermediary tap between changes. The other thing is that with the arrival of autumn the battery is beginning to fail. These Harley batteries are good but they don’t last more than a year on an Atlas – the good news is that they come with a two year warranty!
Nick 🙂
Bent screwdrivers, big hammers and old Laverdas 