1976 Laverda 1000 - 6-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article

Description

1976 Laverda 1000 - 6-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
You think you’re a motorcycle enthusiast?
Before you start writing yourself a Certificate
of Merit give some thought to the people
who created Moto Laverda, which almost
certainly is just an expensive hobby mas-
querading as a business; an enthusiasts’
indulgence. Sure, Laverda motorcycles are
made for sale, and priced so the ledgers
should show a profit, but that doesn’t mean
the operation really makes business sense.
The Laverda family’s major activity, its solid
economic base, is the manufacturing of
agricultural equipment; motorcycles proba-
bly represent a diversion of resources that
would yield a better financial return if applied
to the production of tractors. And if there
has been a saturation of the market for
tractors, then Laverda might reasonably
have chosen to pump out a great swarm
of mass-transport mopeds. Instead, the
family plunged into motorcycling at its most
difficult and—let’s face it—most entertaining
level: first with a 750 twin clearly inspired
by the old Honda CB77 Super Hawk; more
recently with a highly original 1000cc triple.
We tried Laverda's hyperthyroid Super
Hawk-lookalike in 1969 (when it was sold
as an American Eagle) and were favorably
impressed. But in 1973 we were loaned one
of the then-new Laverda 1000s, and it
proved to be absolutely marvelous. That
machine's drag-strip performance placed it
squarely among the quickest Superbikes,
its lavishly ventilated drum brakes were a
match for the others' new-fangled discs, and
the big Laverda's handling was wonderfully
precise and steady. The only flaw in this
otherwise lovely picture involved availability:
you couldn't get a Laverda except on an
import-it-yourself basis. (Tom Lester, of the
Lester Tire and Wheel Company, supplied
our test bike; he decided a Laverda 1000
would be terrific even as a near-orphan.)
Now everything has changed. Massimo
Laverda has his factory cranking out more
12169-7603-04