Old Bike Australasia — Issue 68 2017

60 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA

The Laverdawas purchased new in 1974 from
Allmakes Motor Cycles in Pirie Street Adelaide by
the late Paul Attard. Paul had originally intended to
buy a Ducati, but when told there was a lengthy
waiting list for the model he desired, his attention
shifted to the Laverda. And so the green machine
took up residence with Paul at Newton in the
Adelaide foothills. Paul was a long time member
of the Classic Owners MCC, and a keen classic rally
goer. Although the Laverda sports a badge from the
Classic Owners Mildura Rally of 1975, the Laverda
was not there – Paul took a couple from his own
classic collection. He and his wife Margaret attended
the Isle of Man TT in 1984, although not on the
Laverda, which is where the sticker on the rear
number plate bracket came from.
After Paul’s passing, his fine collection of classic
bikes was split up and found new homes, and the
Laverda went to Chris Williams in Victoria, who
noted that it had covered only 9,500 miles and was
last registered in South Australia in 1989, and had
not been started for five years. Chris was astounded
at the originality, saying “ it took about a week of
polishing and tweaking to bring it up to scratch.”
However Chris decided against keeping the Laverda,
which is where Elvis steps in, and upon an invitation
we took the opportunity to inspect the Latin lovely.

Bigger and better

At this point it is timely to swat up on just how the
1000cc three-cylinder Laverda, and the 3C itself,
came into being. While the world was going gaga at
the announcement of the new four-cylinder Honda
CB750 in 1969, across in Italy Massimo Laverda was
hard at work on a mega machine of his own. His big
twin, in its various iterations, had first appeared in
prototype 650cc form in 1966, and Massimo openly
admitted that he had been inspired by Honda’s best-
selling 305cc CB77. The new 650cc Laverda drew

heavily on many of the Honda design features, but

Massimo was unabashed by this ‘inspiration’, saying

that Honda himself had been similarly influenced by

the NSU Rennmax. Like the CB77, the 650 Laverda

featured horizontally split crankcases, with a 180-

degree crankshaft (which became 360 degrees by

the time production commenced), as used on the

early CB72 and CB77 models. The wet sump engine

used a chain-driven single overhead camshaft and

acted as a fully-stressed chassis member. Even

before the 650 managed to reach the production

stage in 1968, Laverda had stretched the prototype

design to 750cc by increasing the bore to 80mm.

As it turned out, the 650 was short-lived and soon

replaced by the 750, which made commercial sense

in the wake of the excitement created by the CB750

• a decision heavily influenced by Laverda’s US
  distributor, the McCormack Corporation. Only a
  handful, perhaps as few as 150, of the 650s were
  made before the decision to move to the 750. In
  fairly short order, the 750 range grew to two, to
  include the base model 750 GT, and the more sporty
  750 S, which came on stream for 1969 and featured

a more powerful engine producing 60 horsepower,

as well as a frame with increased rigidity and

different steering head dimensions. In 1971 the 750

SF appeared, with a new frame and new brakes,

produced by Laverda themselves, to replace the

original Grimeca drums. The GT/SF range continued,

with detail improvements, through the early

‘seventies, acquiring Brembo disc brakes with the

SF2 model for 1974. In 1972, the sportiest Laverda

of all the 750s, the beautiful 750 SFC appeared and

is today regarded as a highly-collectable classic.

While the 750 range went through its process of

evolution, Massimo Laverda had already foreseen the

eventual need to upscale the design, and as early as

1969 was working on a three-cylinder version. By

grafting an extra 75mm x 74mm cylinder onto the

650 twin, he came up with a 980cc triple, with a

crankshaft throw of 120 degrees – the same as the

British BSA/Triumph triples and the racing MV

Agustas. The twin carried its pair of contact breakers

on the end of the crankshaft, but in order to keep the

width of the new unit as low as possible, the now-

three sets of points were moved to the left side of

LAVERDA 1000 3C

Isle of Man

sticker from

1984 graces the

rear number

plate bracket.

ABOVE Cable operated Laverda rear brake.

RIGHT New for ’74 – twin disc front end.

Nippon Denso

instruments,

similar to those

on the Honda

CB750.

ND switches replaced earlier Lucas items.