...or rather they were:

[Gromit]

Rummaging through some old slides today (got thousands of the things) I came upon this...

Scan-150111-0021

Yours truly, going for a good thrash on the Lav c1988. I loved that bike, although it cost a fortune in petrol (lucky to see much better than 25mpg, and really needed Pro-Boost to keep it happy).

[Mitch1100]

Nice!!.. you had/have awesome toys. Is that a 3 cylinder?

[Gromit]

Nice!!.. you had/have awesome toys. Is that a 3 cylinder?

It is, Mitch.

The original bad-ass Laverda was the 180 Jota (a souped-up version of the old 1000cc 3C). In 1982 Laverda changed the crank-phasing to 120 deg making the engine much smoother and so the 120 Jota was born. In 1983 they introduced a new model - the RGS1000 - with around 90bhp as standard, then a limited edition RGS Corsa which had hi-comp piston, hairy cams and bigger carbs.

The RGA Jota (which mine was) was a limited edition of around 35 bikes which Windy Corner in Leicestershire built up - it had the Corsa engine, a 3-1 race pipe and the twin-headlight fairing. The basic RGA was simply a standard RGS with less bodywork.

[Blackal]

Well, I guessed at Laverda from just the pic - but thought it was one of the smaller ones

Frightening sound from those Jotas

Al

[Taz]

I remember a few years back walking through the multi storey car park adjacent to the Manchester Arena (by Victoria station) - I had the pleasure of leading the construction of the arena and the car park.

As I approached my car I saw a group of guys on Laverdas. They asked me where the Exhibition Centre was as there was a motorcycle show there. I told them that they were in the wrong place and how to get to the Exhibition Centre.

After a few exchanges about the bikes they all started them up - at the same time. The thunder clap from their exhausts was enough to set off half the car alarms - no kidding !

Happy memories.

[bigblackfalco]

Them was t'days. Pretty heavy on the clutch control so I hear??