OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA: 61the camshaft in the cylinder head. The 750’s separate
dynamo and starter disappeared, replaced by a single
Bosch AC unit running onto the right side crankshaft
and doing double duty as a starter motor. A key
figure in the design of the new one-litre model
was Luciano Zen, who had been associated with
the Laverda company from the very beginning and
was a close friend of Massimo’s father, Francesco.
Initial tests of the new triple were however,
disappointing, the unit being underpowered and
the whole package somewhat overweight. It was
decided to advance the specification to include
double overhead camshafts, and a prototype was
LAVERDA 1000 3C
built using a toothed belt to drive the valve gear.
This rather ugly design, with the belt running in a
substantial timing case on the right side, was soon
discarded and a further new design, using chain
drive to the crankshafts, appeared in time to be
displayed at the Milan Show in November 1971.
Power was stated as 80hp at 7,000 rpm, and this
version, which bore a close resemblance to the one
that finally went into production, also featured an
entirely new full cradle frame using a large section
tubular backbone with twin front down-tubes where
previously (on the 750) there had been none.
It was a time of frenzied activity at Laverda, which
was in the process of transferring production to a
new 12,000 square metre factory, still in Breganze
but now out of the centre of town, about 150 km
north west of Venice at the foot of the Dolomites.
It was mid-1972 before the first of the production
1000s appeared, at a point where much of Italy’s
manufacturing industry was in the grip of strikes,
which meant supplies of various components were
difficult and in some cases, impossible to obtain. In
production form, the DOHC triple had reverted to a180-degree crankshaft, achieved by the expedient
of placing the centre cylinder 180 degrees out of
phase with the outer two which ran at the same
360 degree layout as the 750. The camshafts, driven
by a single-row chain, ran in plain bearings in the
heads, while the crank ran on two outer ball and
two inner roller bearings. Although many of the
components were similar to the 750, few were
identical. The cylinder head was redesigned to
incorporate a narrower valve angle, with (like the
750) a cast iron “skull” combustion chamber which
incorporated the valve seats.
Strictly speaking, all the 750 and 1000cc Laverdas
were hand-built, as there was no production line
as such, even at the new factory. Bikes were
constructed in batches, with each engine built by a
single employee. But despite the attention to detail,
the 1000 was not without its share of problems. In
cold and wet conditions, ignition failure was not
uncommon, which further strengthened the
reputation of ‘Italian electrics’ which was a little
unkind as it was not the electronic unit itself that
gave trouble, but the insufficient attention toTwin Voxbell horns do the squealing.