SCOOOOOORE!!!!!

OK... if you were paying attention a couple posts back, you remember me saying something like "now if I can only find a complete front wheel"? I can barely believe this one, but I posted a note that I was looking for a complete front wheel on the Laverda list, and my buddy who sold me my 1975 3c mentioned he knew someone who had one that they had built for their SFC race machine, but had since switched to a 4LS setup. Therefore, he might have a wheel for me and left me his contact info. I got hold of the gentleman and sure enough he had a complete, machined, newly laced and basically perfect front wheel for me. Even the linkage hardware had been re-chromed. New stainless spokes and nipples, drum surface machined, new pads bonded on and chamfered correctly. AND...AND... it was the model that I wanted! It's the Gorgeous Laverda model that was on a couple machines, the early SF and the early early triples.The machine *should* have a smaller Grimeca unit similar to what is in the rear wheel, but I really wanted to beef it up and at least upgrade the front to the later, larger Laverda made SF type. This is it. Score, baby!!!! OK.. so here's the really really killer part. It should have been well over $800. Maybe $1200 when you consider the work setting it up etc. They go for pretty big money. Basically, he gave this one to me for the price of the rim. I could not believe it... and seriously owe him a beer or something when we finally meet. Or a return favor. He just knew I needed a wheel for my machine, and was happy to have it go to someone that also had the Laverda sickness, I suppose! Man... I gotta say.. even this incident aside... the Laverda guys have been am amazing bunch. The best! Man.. this apparently was meant to be *my* machine. Un.Be. Lievable luck! Now... do I look for a match for the rear?!?!? I am still going to look for the correct front drum and keep it in a box, and would do the same with the rear IF I swap it for a Laverda unit. They are thin on the ground, so that may take a while. I want to ride it, so the Laverda front will provide a bit more stopping power... especially with it being setup correctly and all.

BITS BACK ON!

Glory... it be heeeeaaaaled!!! Tail section back on, sidepanel mounting tabs back on.... things are coming together! These tabs are just for positioning, as the way they were originally was a bar that went the span of the triangulated section the sidepanels cover, and it had a recessed are to mount the fuses, etc. Easy to fab and weld up. Now, to start getting the frame ready for paint.

EBAY, HOW DOTH I LOVE THEE. LET ME COUNT THE WAYS...

I'm not back five minutes from shipping out the tank and fender to Austrailia when I get on email and send the tracking number to the new owner. I check my eBay auctions for the day real quick and whattyaknow? There is a tank, sidepanels and fender for a 1969 750s... and they included the correct fuel cap and sidepanel hardware! It's labeled for another brand of motorcycle and no one is bidding on it. Since I was operating at a profit now and getting cocky, I went for it and laid down a high bid to assure a win. I won the auctions for way less than I had put in for and still had around $100 bucks left, even after shipping! Damn, I musta now used up all my good luck for a long time? Or maybe not! Two days later, someone had the headlight ears, brake pedal and other assorted bits, and offered them up to me for $100. I had $100 left in the budget, so sight unseen I went for it. When they arrived I was pleased to find that they all had been bathed in flawless new chrome! So now I am dead-even on the project money wise, and a whole lot closer to having all the right parts. They don't call me Even Stephen for nuthin', apparently. On projects like this it can most often take months or even years to find the right parts. This time it's been about a week and I am most of the way there! Now, if I can just find a complete front wheel!

The pics on the left show the tank and sidepanels essentially as they arrived. Then, on the right, a shot of them midway in the process as they were getting stripped to bare metal for inspection, repair and primer. The tank had a couple very, very small dimples and the sidepanels had virtually nothing to repair. The sidepanels are black in the right picture due to an application of an Eastwood product, a converter / sealer that I am testing prior to priming. So far, it looks like it is going to do a fantstic job.

TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES, YOU'RE OUTTAHERE!

Wow. What can I say but, "Wow"!
Someone unleashed an agry, jacked-up Monkey with ADD. They armed it with a can of Bondo... and the rest is history. This tank was "a project" in itself. So... the story actually continues here. Sometimes... I am a lucky S.O.B.. This was one of those rare times. A guy in Australia needed a GT tank and fender. He was willing to pay a more than fair price, and I saw no desire in my little heart for this tank design, so away it went down under with the fender which was quite lovely and super rare... so it made up for the tank work he was gonna have to do. Maybe? Regardless, the sale actually made the project go 'into the black'... operating at a profit, baby.. yeah! Just wait to hear what happened next!

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DELIVERY FROM PREVIOUS SINS, PART 1

I have decided to keep some of the previous owner's "modification work" to the battery tray and electrical shelf he set up. There were some odd holes drilled in the battery tray for which I could see no purpose for, so I drilled it out further to even it out and lighten it a bit. "As if" it will make a difference on the weight. These were pretty heavy machines. Totally overbuilt motors! So, I drilled some more holes, cleaned up the bends, and rounded all the edges down... then cleaned the plates up. I will primer them with some great aluminium aircraft stuff I have then paint or powder coat them black to match the frame. It will actually look pretty nice and function very well when all is said and done.

WHY, OH WHY DOES MY BUTT GET CUT?

Why does every Italian motorcycle I do a ground up restoration on always have it's butt cut off? Why? This one is *extra* special, as it is missing the tail section and the DPO also cut the sidepanel tabs and a few other associated hangers and brackets. Also, the stock battery tray and and other fixtures are loooong gone, Daddio. Long gone. The kind gentleman that sold me my triple has managed to get loose the tail section off of an old parts bike frame he happened to have in his shop. It's on it's way to get grafted to this one. Sweet... original steel with the original brackets and all! Can't beat that with a baseball bat.

DUDE... WHERE'S MY BASKETCASE?

OK, so like, there is always a story with restoration project. This one goes something like this...

I have a buddy Ralph who let me ride his 1979 Laverda Jarama a couple years back. I had always wanted a Laverda and lusted after an early 3c, solely based on their style. After riding one... it was over. I had to have one. The experience of riding these triples is just a raw, purpose driven experience that you never forget. So, of course I set about the business of finding one that needed a fair amount of work so that it would be at a price I could afford and I could tailor it to my liking. Another good friend of mine, Eric with an RGS Executive hooked me up with a solid guy who had a couple for sale. So... I had me a 1974 3c within a month or two and proceeded with a partial but extensive restoration of that machine.

Having now been bit HARD by the Laverda bug... I mentioned to Ralph that I would love to have a twin. He has a few and I got to examine them in the garage and on the road. I was smitten with them immediately as well. Ralph immediately saw the level of addiction with my new found drug of choice, Laverdas... and hustled in with the deft slide of an experience narcotics dealer. He had given me my first 'taste', and now had me right where he wanted me. He mentioned that he had a "parts bike", an early American Eagle for a couple hundred bucks. "Dude, it's about all there... just a little bit of work and it'll be down the road in no time". Ralph makes this short speech a lot. A lot. He mentioned it a few more times, sliding it casually into conversations that usually involved him helping me with some advice on my triple, as well as the occasional phone messages. "Dude... like, so... you know that Laverda twin could really be a sweet cafe bike dude... ", or the ubiquitous "Dude... you really outta think about it... those twins are really sweet motorbikes". LIKE I needed some sort of encouragement. I mean, come on. Moth to the flame I am.

Now, I *know*... KNOW, not to buy basket cases. They are more often than not, heartbreakers of the worst kind that drag on and on and never get completed. They get moved from house to house, job to job, relationship to relationship. Hundreds of pounds of albatross.. hanging 'round 'yer neck... reminding you of things left undone, missed deadlines and your fleeting youth. Fun, they are. "But"... I said to myself, "I know what I am doing... I am motivated and resourceful and... AND, I do this all the time"!

Right. Or as Ralph would say, "Whhaatever, Dude".

So, the Laverda came to me as shown here. I did some reasearch and got hold of the gentleman who keeps some registry records on the Laverdas, and he comfirmed that I have a 1969 Laverda 750s frame and engine. The numbers do not match, and they belonged to a couple people in Europe. However, it seems that one motor got blown, one frame got wrecked... and I have the surviving frame and motor of those two incidents. Both machines were in Holland, apparently, so this makes some kind of sense. I am not a bolt-spotting-numbers-freak with my own machines that I intend to ride, but I *will* be trying to keep this bike fairly true to it's year, make and model as they are very very thin on the ground, "Dude".