Ridden quite a few of them including an Automatic. Owned a Le Mans Mk3 1000cc. , very torquey Machine . But as soon as My Laverda Jota 1000cc hit 6500rpm in a top gear roll on catch, pass and Steem off! You know the Motor was originally designed for the military? Some kind of 3 seater Go Kart like device, to carry a few soldiers? As I recall it would be tossed out with parachutes as well! My Favourite Moto Guzzi model was the 750 Sport , a real thing of beauty!
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
I know the military used these, though I doubt you'd parachute them, at least not with this set up, the hydraulic trailor. I had a ride around a field on this one in the hills above Mondello, where Guzzi's are made at the side of Lake Como, North Italy, when the clutch in my small block Nevada 750 disintegrated. It's a different engine on this beast though to the laterally opposed V-twin, a 5oocc single, with a strange engine layout too. As you can see this is in regular use on the guys farm.
It was the last week in July and the shop there couldn't fit me in for the repair (everything in Italy and France/Spain all pretty much still have national holidays during the hottest month, August. They could see I was stuck though, and sent me following a lad on a bike up into the mountains above Mandello to a farm and said there's a guy there might be able to help sort it out. He did too, my bike was ready to pick up the next day with new clutch fitted. Even gave me a lift to the ferry on an old T3 to get back to the campsite across the lake, and picked me up again the next day on an Elderado, he rode the bends a good bit harder than I would, and I like to feel the lean pretty much myself. Of course he knew the roads like the back of his hands too.
He had a few classics at the farm. It wasn't till I got back home that I found out he's some sort of revered guru of the Guzzista, going by the name of Mene (or similar). I can't find much trace of him online, perhaps he doesn't like the internet age, but if you mention his him to the guzzista they all kind of draw a sharp breath and say his name really slowly and quietly, as if uttering the name of their favourite pin-up or pornstar, lol.
So many strange things and mishaps happened on that trip, I should write a piece on it for my blog. I don't see that much motorbike related stuff on here yet though.
Laverda Jota 1000cc............ Ah (sighs), I could only dream of such!!!!
Steem on through the twisties, but stay safe!!
You should definitely post some of your motorcycle adventures!
Yeah I will bro, you've got me thinking through all my trips. I'll give you the heads up when I post if you think you might be interested. I'm sure you'll be laughing at some of the antics of that particular trip, disaster after disaster, the first one was missing the ferry intended for Santander Spain for a ride over thr pyrenees, due to a selonoid fuel tap failure 30miles from home. I've never come across such a stupid and useless invention for the motorbike, you can't beat the simple on/off/reserve taps, thelast was a puncture in france and the break down cover couldn't find anyone to repair (August hols. The fix involved two airtickets, a lot of phoning around France to find somewhere that would fix it, 110 km from the puncture, another flight back to collect my bike. Luckily the breakdown cover had to cover the expense, but what a f*ck about man, for a puncture, add to that pillion illness, monsoon like conditions through the first half of France, folowed by clutch failure. Despite that it was a good trip, challenging though to say the least. Thanks for the upvotes on my comments here, that's really very kind of you and much appreciated.