Can someone semi-sensible *please* tell me why I shouldn't be bidding on this?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200133231655

I hate it when I've got cash in my wallet and space in the garage. Some
people seem to notice and then roll out all those tempting bikes...

 

Well...

It's that dreadful Kawasaki green colour.
It's too close to Nigel's house.
Laverda 750s have already been Timoed by Doc Gonz0.

Anyway, I tend to be less than enthusiastic when the description is a
steaming pile of semi-literate blether that's light on hard facts, and I'd
like to see better pictures. Are those Koni shocks or shagadelic originals?

 

It's not a Jota or Montjuic, so isn't 'really' a Laverda.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, platypus

It's worse than that, Jim.

It's in *Stevenage*. <shudder>

Let me know if you want me to do a non-expert look-over, Timo.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Honda ST1100 wiv trailer Norton 850 Commando

 

*cough* Bimota *cough*

Let me guess - agricultural as if they were made in a tractor factory?

Bummer. There goes that idea then.

 

Now I'm really worried.

We've got me, Laverda and "sane choice" in pretty much the same
sentence.

 

Your Bimota was an 80s lash up, not one of the pretty Bimotas. And,
IIRC, it was shit.

That Laverda looks up together - I suspect it may go for quite silly
money.

 

And the ones that are[1] make bloody awful road bikes - so I'm told, I
can't afford one & don't fold up enough anyway.

The SF series of 750s seem to make great road bikes & seem to go much
better than any heavy old 750 twin has any right to. Either that or
they're usually ridden by nutters.

Bob

[1] For anyone seriously contemplating an SFC750 the thing to do is ask
around - there's a Dutch bloke called Marnix[2] who will (most likely)
be able to tell from the frame number if it's real or fake & what it's
history is. There was a scam a couple of years back where an Italian
restorer was allegedly cloning SFCs he was restoring, sending the clone
to the owner & selling the pukka one on...
[2] He wrote the book on them.

 

I dunno. They passed me by in my youth and the only ones I remember really
are the Laverda (mate had one for years) and Montjuic one of which I rode
and raced for a couple of years on and off. I know there were 'other'
Laverdas but don't really know much of them.

My OP was meant to be tongue in cheek ...

 

Doh! Jota ....

 

Thus spake Champ () unto the assembled multitudes:

I can't speak from experience, but I do remember reading about (and really
really wishing I could afford) the Jota in Bike magazine back in the
1970s, and they said something to the effect that after a few journeys
working the Jota clutch, your left forearm would be about twice the size of
your right.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique,
typed

Christ, imagine the shape someone would be in if they owned a Jota and a
Panther!

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Honda ST1100 wiv trailer Norton 850 Commando

 

A powerful left arm and the ability to run very fast?

 

Thus spake Wicked Uncle Nigel () unto the assembled multitudes:

You mean they'd have a huge left forearm and no teeth?

 

They were. Trust me.

 

They vary a surprising amount - I've experienced an SF2 clutch so heavy
that I couldn't operate with both hands (the owner called me a winp) but
there was a 750GT clutch that was as light as the hydraulic clutch on my
SFC1000.

Cable routing & condition obviously have a lot to do with the clutch
action and there is (was?) a longer clutch actuation arm conversion
available which should lighten the action.

I suspect it would be possible to bodge^H^Hconvert a hydraulic mechanism
from one of the early hydraulic clutch triples onto a 750 but I've never
seen it done.

 

Timo Geusch wrote

Give me your money and let me live in your garage. Problem solved.

 

But I don't mind a green bike either

 

That's probably the thinnest excuse for not buying a bike I've ever
heard. "It's a bit hurty wurty".

 

I think there is a market for a vacuum servo-assisted clutch retrofit kit.
I helped my brother install one of the "E-Z Clutch" kits on his wife's
Sportster, it wasn't really much of an improvement.