It’s a rubbish pic, but Laverda Jotas get better looking all the time
There’s just room to fit both the new ignition coils behind the headstock. This one sits on a custom bracket
Most of the action happens here, under the left sidepanel
Blade fuses: always a good idea
Derek’s Laverda Jota
I’ve done several Laverdas and they’ve always been great bikes to improve. There’s plenty of room for cables and components, and fitting new coils and ignition always makes them drive better.
Derek’s bike was coming to the end of a long restoration, and like most owners he wanted to junk the original igniter boxes and Bosch coils. The best replacement is Ignitech – it happily combines with 3 ohm Dyna coils, and the ignition box costs about £120. That’s a hell of a lot less than its rivals. Moreover, if the original trigger coils are in reasonable shape they will work just fine.
As usual, the original loom was scrap, but I could re-use the flasher unit and starter solenoid. The handlebar switches needed a couple of wires replacing, and it’s always worth stripping down the tail unit to renew what are often corroded wires hidden away in there.
It seems that all Jotas these days run smaller batteries than the huge original lead-acid one, and people find different ways to hold them in place. These range from blocks of wood to (as here) a purpose-built battery cage. It’s a good idea to think carefully about where this cage should go so that you can fit all the other components around it.
Derek has a few more mountains to climb with this bike, mainly because spares are so hard to get nowadays. But it should be ready for summer 2022.
Sorry the pics are taken indoors in about five seconds. They don’t do the bike justice.
The classic Jota rider’s view. Although if I owned one I’d fit conventional handlebars to save my wrists
Neat, huh? The second ignition coil lives behind the grey plate with the two screws
