No! This is not a blog about naked women, but now that I have your attention......
Stage 1 of The Jota Project involves stripping the chassis of our 180 crank Laverda Jota, photographing the process of disassembly, and cataloguing and bagging all the parts that come off the chassis.
Stage 2 requires disassembly of the brake components, all of which have siezed pistons, and assessing whether to service or replace them. The complication is that Brembo F08 calipers such as those fitted to the Laverda are only available with the non-threaded mounting holes, which suit Marzocchi forks, and the Laverda's Ceriani forks require the threaded hole. New calipers could be purchased and then have an oversize thread tapped into them, but the preferred option in this project is to replace with original parts except where unavoidable. Steve Allen from Bevel Heaven in California has already been very helpful in providing advice on alternative fitments, master cylinder sizes etc. A lot of the Laverda bits seem to have come from the same component manufacturers as Ducati, and as a result I'm getting my parts etc from Steve.
Stage 3 involves the cleaning of the chassis, and stripping all inserted bearings and races etc, and then having the chassis sand-blasted and then double powder coated in gloss black.
Stage 4 involves getting all the chrome parts, most of which have significant surface rust, re-chromed. In the case of the front guard, it will first have to go to a panel beater to remove the dent on its leading edge.
Stage 5 involves a trip to Coventry Fasteners to get replacement nuts and bolts for all the rusted items that have been removed, and then a trip to Fitch the Rubber Man to get replacements for all the perished rubber grommets and boots.
Stage 6 will see me stripping the wiring loom out of the headlight - which has to be replaced as the shell and the glass have been irreparably damaged - and installing it in the new headlight ready for re-fit to the bike. Plenty of photos will be taken here in order to avoid incorrect re-assembly - I hate electrical problems.
Stage 7 is to reassemble the rolling chassis and then get the engine from our mechanic, and fit it to the chassis.
Stage 8 is the crucial stage, involving service of the carbys, replacement of any perished or rusted ancillary components, and then getting the bike to Italian Motorcycles in Wingfield for an initial run up of the engine, and tune-up, along with a shakedown of any mechanical issues. They did a great job recently of tuning out all the built-in crap tuning that my Guzzi 1100 Sport exited the factory with. Pretty much every owner of the Carby version of the 1100 Sport seems to complain about this issue. Italian Motorcycles did the carb rebuild and re-jet, and now she is going like a missile.
Stick around, as you can see from the photos the disassembly is well under way, and you can see the overall condition of the bike.
