Laverda Motorcycle Parts

Laverda was an Italian manufacturer of Combine harvesters and one-time a manufacturer of high performance motorcycles. The agricultural equipment brand is famous for quality, simplicity, and efficiency; while the motorcycles in their day gained a reputation for being robust and innovative.

The Laverda brand was absorbed by Piaggio, when in 2004, Piaggio absorbed Aprilia. Since, Piaggio has elected to quietly close all activities related to the Laverda brand, and has publicly stated that they would be willing to sell the rights to the brand if an investor should appear. Today, despite a parking website by Piaggio at Laverda.com, the brand is no longer in use.

By the late 1960s, Francesco and brothers began sketching out a new breed of large motorcycles that would be built around an all new 650cc parallel twin engine. The brand was now sufficiently strong and well known, and Francesco's son Massimo had just returned from the USA where it was clear that sales were dominated by large capacity British and American hardware. Above all this, was a desire to produce a prestigious and powerful machine that could conceivably take on the best and finest from Moto-Guzzi, BMW and the rapidly emerging Japanese.

In November 1966 Laverda debuted the result of this thinking with the 650 prototype at Earls Court in London. While not an extreme sport bike in any sense, it exhibited all the virtues that Laverda had become synonymous with, while at the same time it revolutionised the concept of a big bore bike so far being synonymous with British. After this first appearance however, Luciano Zen and Massimo Laverda retreated until April 1968 working hard in order to perfect the bike enough to enter four motorcycles in the prestigious Giro d'Italia, with three of the four entered bikes already having an increased capacity of 750 cc. The 650 cc Laverda gained victory in her class, the three 750 cc bikes ending amongst the first 10 of their class! Two weeks after this victory the first 650 cc production models left the factory! The bikes carried the finest components available at the time, from British Smiths instruments, Pankl con-rods, Ceriani suspension, Mondial pistons, to Bosch and (revolutionary at the time!) Japanese Nippon-Denso electrical parts, thus eliminating the one problem plaguing nearly all contemporary British and Italian motorcycles at the time: their electrical unreliability. The 650 cc offered superior comfort and stability with its handling at least equivalent to the competition. Of course, it also carried a high price. A total of 52 Laverda 650 cc were produced.

The true birth of Laverda as a serious competition brand however happened with the introduction of 750cc which basically was issued at the same time as the 650. The first bikes however were produced for the American market under the brand "American Eagle", which were imported to the US from 1968 by Jack McCormack. The bikes were basicall identical to the 650 except for the cylinder dimensions and an upgrade from 28mm to 30mm carburettors. In 1969 the "750 S" and the "750 GT" were born, both equipped with an engine which would truly start the Laverda fame. Raced by the factory right from the prototype stage, the machines proved their reliability by finishing every race they entered, eventually taking some victories. Just like the agricultural machinery made by the other family business, Laverdas were built to be basically indestructible. The parallel twin cylinder engine featured no less than five main bearings (four crankcase bearings and a needle-roller outrigger bearing in the primary chaincase cover), a duplex cam chain, and a starter engine easily twice as powerful as needed. Of course, this made the engines and subsequently the entire bike heavy, heavier than, say, a Ducati 750 of the same vintage, but they were prodigiously fast and stable. The SF evolved to include disc brakes, cast magnesium wheels, and other technical novelties. Developed in parallel with the road bikes was the SFC (super freni competizione), a half-faired racer that was developed to win endurance events like Le Mans, the Montjuic 24 hours and the Bol D'Or. This they did, often placing first, second and third in the same races, and dominating the international endurance race circuit. Distinguished by its characteristic orange paint which would become the company's race department colour, its smooth aerodynamic fairing and upswept exhaust, the SFC was Laverda's flagship product and best advertisement, flaunting pedigree and the message of durability, quality, and exclusivity. The SFC "Series 15,000" was featured in the Guggenheim Museum in New York's 1999 exhibit "the Art of the Motorcycle" as one of the most iconic bikes of the 1970s.

Along with historical rival Moto-Guzzi, the Laverda motorcycle brand was purchased by Aprilia S.p.a (another Italian motorcycle manufacturer based in the same region) in 2000, restructured and incorporated into the Aprilia Group. Several projects that had been in development and the existing two motorcycles in production, were cancelled. Aprilia founded a new Laverda division business unit which shortly after began importing low cost Asian scooters and quads and selling them under the Laverda brand name, a development which upset traditional Laverda fans, who felt it diluted the prestige and quality of the original motorcycle company. It seems clear that this was an initiative designed to fund development of new motorcycles, but it ultimately didn't work, most likely because they were sold only in the scooter saturated Italian market, and because the brand name didn't resonate with buyers on that level.In 2003, Laverda presented a new SFC prototype, based on a heavily revised Aprilia RSV1000 at the Milan EICMA motorcycle show. While stunning in many aspects, in particular the attention to component and mechanical detailing, it did not generate enough positive interest to merit further development. Traditionalists scoffed at the re/use of the Aprilia engine and cycle parts, nicknaming the machine the "Laprilia". The thread connecting this ultra-high cost and exclusive superbike with garden variety scooters of Asian origin was also unclear confusing the brand image further still.By this point, the Aprilia Group was in dire financial condition and would itself be sold to Piaggio, the giant scooter manufacturer of Vespa fame and longtime Aprilia rival only one year later. Piaggio elected to quietly close all activities related to the Laverda brand, and has publicly stated that they would be willing to sell the rights to the brand if an investor should appear. Today, the brand is no longer in use.