Staff Stuff
STAFF STUFF
AFTER ONE TOO many incredibly relaxing evenings lounging in my leather wingback reading chair, sipping fine wine with wads of cash bulging in the pockets of my robe,
I had a brain spasm that would change my life: I decided it was time for a vintage bike.
Actually, the vintage bike decided it was time for me, and simply sang a song I couldn’t resist. The bike with the Voice was a Laverda Triple, owned by eccentric millionaire Ed Lutz, who, as we reported, spent a piece of his fortune on the Ricky Racer Spondon-ffamed special featured in CWback in April.
Unfortunately, his bike wasn’t for sale. Even if it had been up for buying, it’s out of a Sports Editor’s price range. But the sound that bike made stuck with me. So when Executive Editor Brian Catterson (the resident Italian-bike sicko trying to enable my own problem) strategically placed a single, ripped-out classified ad for a 1976 Laverda 3CL on my desk,
I had to act.
Here it is, in its orangepeely glory. It’s a reasonably tidy old thing, the former owner having done a fair bit of decent if not con-
cours-quality cosmetic work. Most notably, the bike is tarted up to look like a Jota, the highperf version of Laverda’s liter-class Triple, although mechanically it remains a regular old lower-compression/milder-cam 3CL.
No matter, its 180degree 981cc Three makes bitchin’ noises, and has a fair bit of go power, too. The bike is fundamentally mechanically sound, but still needs some sorting. I tried, against my better judgment and the advice of many (all) of my friends and co-workers, to ride the bike to Laguna Seca for World Superbike.
The bike’s first real longdistance shakedown run became more of a shakeoff run. Halfway through our backroad trip north, I discovered the tailsection was gone. Also, by that time the steering head had worked loose, the tach needle had developed epilepsy, the odds of getting third gear after second were getting longer and longer.
And oh, yeah, the engine was dropping a cylinder intermittently. At least with the new Keihan stainless exhaust system (not a baffle to be found within), it sounded great, even with
the engine running on two. After riding the 100 miles back to where Catterson thought he might have seen the tailsection, the rogue cylinder went offline completely. I found the rear cowl in pretty good shape. Then, when I walked back to the bike, the left rear tumsignal was hanging by its wiring, taunting me.
That was the last straw-I gave up and sputtered home to regroup.
All this after fresh oil and sparkplugs, new brakes, handlebars, tires and straightened rims, which is a story unto itself. I’ll leave it at a quote from Dr. John, our local Straight Man: “Usually we charge by the ding, but for you that would be unaffordable.”
Anyway, it’s a fun, pretty-good-handling beastie, and it will be reliable-the Laverda won’t beat me again. See you at World Superbike, 2001. I’ll be the one riding the 3CL that looks like it’s been soaking in a vat of Loctite.
STAFF:
Mark Hoyer
STUFF:
1976 Laverda 3CL
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
“The Laverda is only useful when you have the concentration and self confidence to relive the good old days,
when you were a torpedo rider or Stukka pilot." -Cycle World, November, 1977
