Kawasaki Triples Club

what this front end is off ? its marzzochi with grimeca calipers 35mm fork legs its all pretty much brand new
whats it worth ?

could be worth something gary, i reckon they are Laverda Jota forks.

I bet jp will know, oui..

sure looks close to that dave , whetever it sells for is going towards the rebuild , spoke to farmer john today BUT he dont use internet and his phone dont take pictures

and hes the sec of the laverda club !! god help us

While on the subject " were them Jota"s all they were cracked up to be..
saw 1 in 1976. ugly mothers . i recon a Zed 1000 wud whip em,,,

If we were playing top trumps a jota would win anyday


Seriously, they were officially tested at 140 mph and it was also phemonenally successful on the track.

Sam and me have a tale to tell about them
we went for a test day ride back in the late 70,s when the montjuic came out and the jota or the 3c was available to test ride


we were next in line to test

guess what

the [test ride] before us ended up sliding down the tring bypass

no more test rides

maybe a blessing

ducati or guzzi lemans dont think they are jota, ask farmer john phil

thanks Phil i will try and find some guzzi pics

My dad tried one, he said the clutch lever was effing unusable

I think the Jota was the fastest production bike you could buy for a good while. My mate had a Jarama - which I rode quite a lot. It was a great bike with a lovely triple power delivery. Only trouble back in the day was that it was shod with Dunlop TT100s which resulted in the bike shaking at speed once they got worn. Also the saddle was very tall and we took it in turns to fall off at 0 mph.

BTW Morini had a marzzochi forks/grimeca brake combo.

Cheers

Nigel

had 3 jota's in the past(180's of course) fabulous bikes and the best soundin 4 stroke roadbike bar none ! sorry bout the foto quality -

79 jota (in 78 model colours) aged 22-



1980 jota at 23-



and a restored 79 jota in 1999 at 43-

Great pictures AL

I had a new Laverda 3CL (Jota without the lumpy cams and straight through exhaust fitted by Slaters) in 1977. It cost £2200 at the time which was about twice the cost of a Z900. Excellent machine for the time if you were strong enough to operate the clutch and could cope with the wobbling at about 80mph.
I think they still look and sound beautiful Keep thinking I should buy another but it would have to be a later model with a hydraulic clutch!
Pete

1 also owend a jota for 7 years , slater laverda came and bought it off me in 95 phil

Whoa!!!!!
Beware the Experts Gary. !!

A Jota uses 38mm forks.

35mm is Ducati Pantah/Moto Giuzzi V50 size.

38mm forks , when you add the words " Ducati 900ss to them go for about £500+
V50`s are worth bugger all. A complete knackered bike you can buy for £2-300. Decent set of forks etc approx £200 on their own with the brakes.

Oh btw ;
Had a `79 Jota from 1982 till 88 . ( Sold it to get a TZR250 to do the TT. )
It had 7c race cams in it. The clutch was " a wee bit heavy" but no worse than a badly adjusted H2`s
With the race cams my hand were numb from the vibration after 100 miles. Fitted big squashy grips , stopped me from having to constantly rewind the throttle open ( as the vibrations shook the twistgrip closed !! ) Mind stock Jotas don`t shake as much.

It was a great bike. Took me down to the South of France from Aberdeen , 2 up with camping gear. Totally reliable, and FAST.

Forget even considering a Z1 against a Jota. With the same quality riders the Laverda would utterly annihilate any big Jap. Handling was phenomenal. Brakes great, power bang on.

That wobble started at 110mph. Not 80 ( Err, my Z1B wobbled at 80 ) If it was fitted with Pirrelli phantoms it wobbled at a lower speed but steered fast. I fitted Metzelers which probably upped it to that 110mph ?

Bit thirsty. 30-35mpg. But then again , better than most ohter Triples !!
Faults ? Very tall seat height. You sat on top of it. Yes, it shook with the 180 Crank. And parts were hard to find and expensive. Hmmmm, thats not the bikes fault I s`pose.

Utterly reliable, simple. Tough as old nails. Great sound, great performance. ( Lol. Just as well I bought another one recently eh ?!! )
Sorry to rave on so much !! But they`re just really good bikes !!!

Neil the Don wrote: , it shook with the 180 Crank.

How does the triple work with a180 degree crank niel ? i thought 120 was the only configuration ,,,

And wen you lived in Aberdeen, did you ever visit the Metro,[ball room] Market St, A real class joint,, being near the harbour,,,
I worked the door , 1992/94,,,

Metro. Hell Yes. I recall watching my deunken mate trying to get past 5 Bouncers to GET OUT...!!! They wouldn`t let him .

Laverda started out with a 120 degree crank but high rev vibrations were breaking the welds on the frames. So they switched to 180 for a good few years.

A 180 has the two outer pistons rising and falling together , but firing on each different 4 stroke cylce . So it ran/sounded like a 360 degree British twin running in conjunction with a single cylinder motor alongside....if that makes sense. And not as strangely , thats exactly what they sound like running. Quite unique sound. BrahapaabbBrahappaapp .

Neil the Don wrote:Metro. Hell Yes. I recall watching my deunken mate trying to get past 5 Bouncers to GET OUT...!!! They wouldn`t let him .

Laverda started out with a 120 degree crank but high rev vibrations were breaking the welds on the frames. So they switched to 180 for a good few years.

A 180 has the two outer pistons rising and falling together , but firing on each different 4 stroke cylce . So it ran/sounded like a 360 degree British twin running in conjunction with a single cylinder motor alongside....if that makes sense. And not as strangely , thats exactly what they sound like running. Quite unique sound. BrahapaabbBrahappaapp .

Neil,
The early ones were 180 apart (like a 4 with one missing). I think the 120 cranks were adopted in about 1982.
Pete

petearis wrote:

Neil the Don wrote:Metro. Hell Yes. I recall watching my deunken mate trying to get past 5 Bouncers to GET OUT...!!! They wouldn`t let him .

Laverda started out with a 120 degree crank but high rev vibrations were breaking the welds on the frames. So they switched to 180 for a good few years.

A 180 has the two outer pistons rising and falling together , but firing on each different 4 stroke cylce . So it ran/sounded like a 360 degree British twin running in conjunction with a single cylinder motor alongside....if that makes sense. And not as strangely , thats exactly what they sound like running. Quite unique sound. BrahapaabbBrahappaapp .

Neil,
The early ones were 180 apart (like a 4 with one missing). I think the 120 cranks were adopted in about 1982.
Pete

I thought it was conceived as a 120 motor but problems encountered during development led them to adopt a 180 configuration purely as a stop gap until they were overcome - just so they could start production and get sales going to gain some much needed income. This stop gap measure turned out to be much longer lived than planned though.

Yes Hal ,
The problems being the hi-speed vibration.

And Yes Pete, the 120 Jota arrived in 1982. My 2nd 180 Jota was an `82. It was Orange , like Al`s picture of the one with the half fairing. They switched over to a 120 crank and started painting them red .
Then came the RGS etc.