1988 Laverda SFC1000

In the 1970s, Laverda rose to become among the most famous names in the motorcycle industry. Following the 1968 introduction of a 650 twin, Moto Laverda in Breganze, Italy, quickly proved it could manufacture motorcycles that were as good, if not better — and perhaps more importantly that were as fast — as any other maker. The brilliant but fated SFC1000 was the last of the line.

In hindsight, Laverda’s now legendary fame as a quality manufacturer of high-end, high-speed motorcycles was actually quite short-lived. Although the company had roots going back to post-war Italy, manufacturing its first 75cc pushrod single in 1950, Laverda was a relatively unknown make until 1968 when it introduced a 650cc parallel twin that was almost immediately boosted to 750cc capacity. That engine, and the bikes it powered, including the legendary SFC750 production racer, put Laverda on the international motorcycle stage. Yet a short 20 years later, the company was quickly running out of breath.

Setting the stage

A small company bent on manufacturing high quality motorcycles, Laverda production numbers were always low. Lacking the economy of scale enjoyed by major manufacturers like Honda or even Norton in the early 1970s, Laverdas were always more expensive than their similar-sized competition. Yet the 650-cum-750 twin found rapid favor with both road and race enthusiasts, and the reliability of the 750 twins helped to cement the company’s reputation as a quality maker. The 750s proved particularly successful in endurance racing, and their winning capacity quickly spawned the SFC750 factory production racers, the first of which appeared in 1971.

The twins were only a suggestion of the best to come. In 1969, company head Massimo Laverda announced plans for a 1,000cc triple. The first prototype was a single overhead camshaft triple based on the 750 twin’s layout, followed by experiments with a belt-driven twin cam. By 1971, Laverda engineer Luciano Zen, also responsible for the 650/750 twin, had settled on the final design. Now distinct from the 750, it had a centrally located timing chain driving twin overhead camshafts operating two valves per cylinder. Valve adjustment was shim under bucket — the camshafts must be removed to change adjustment shims.

Although a few triples were produced in late 1972, regular production didn’t start until early 1973, and even then, initial output was minimal. Laverda did not have a production line per se, with engines and bikes literally hand-assembled, often by a single employee. Lighter than the 750 twins (472 pounds against 480 pounds), the new 1000 was predictably more powerful, giving 80hp @ 7250rpm versus the twin’s 65hp @ 7000rpm. The 1000 was a game changer and the new king in the big-bore battle. Outside of Harley-Davidson, it was the only 1000cc production road bike on the market, and compared to Harley’s aged pushrod V-twins, it was thoroughly modern, even if first-year bikes were equipped with drum brakes, notably of Laverda’s own design as used on the SFC750 production racer. Disc brakes became standard for the 1974 model year.

The beat goes on

Laverda continued developing the triple, and with the 1976 introduction of the now legendary Jota it could boast bragging rights for the world’s fastest production motorcycle after Motor Cycle magazine recorded a top speed of 140.04mph. It wasn’t all roses, however. Up to 1976, the triples (as with the 750 twins) had a cast iron “skull” with integral valve seats cast into the cylinder head. A move to all aluminum heads resulted in cracking between the spark plug and pressed in valve seats on some heads. Worse, a change in crankshaft bearing design in 1979 led to premature bearing and crankshaft failure, with resulting warranty expenses eating up precious resources. Subsequent engines reverted to skulls and also switched back from the troublesome inner crankshaft ball bearings to roller bearings.

By the early 1980s, the Laverda triple, once in the vanguard of motorcycle development, was aging out. In a new world order dominated by increasingly sophisticated multi-valve, liquid-cooled, and even fuel-injected engines from Japan, the air-cooled, two-valve Laverda triple was becoming a rolling anachronism. A contemporary criticism of the triple was its 180-degree flat-plane crank design, with the outer two cylinders rising and falling together and the inner 180 degrees opposite. Starting with cylinder #1, the engine fired every half revolution, 1-2-3 left to right, and then paused for a full revolution before going through it all again. This gave the engine its signature lumpy idle and high rpm vibratory character. To smooth things out, Laverda changed to a 120-degree crankshaft and a 1-3-2 firing order with a combustion cycle every 240 degrees. While the 120 crank was much smoother thanks to perfect primary balance, it introduced secondary rocking couple vibrations. Internal changes strengthened the engine mechanically, and rubber engine mounts removed almost all traces of vibration.

First used in the 1982 Jota 120, the new engine was designed with the upcoming RGS1000 in mind. Given the fast-moving changes in the motorcycle market, Laverda decided its best chance at survival lay in establishing itself as a maker of refined, high-end sport-touring bikes, and the RGS was the result. With the new 120 engine installed in an all-new frame that was lower and more rigid than previous bikes, the RGS was Laverda’s hope for the future. Draped with expansive — and expensive — flowing arrest-me-red bodywork designed by RG Studios (hence the RGS designation), the RGS was a visual tour d’ force. Made of Bayflex, a highly flexible, rubberized plastic, the bodywork incorporated novel features such as an automotive-style fuel filler door incorporated into the fairing.

Beautifully made and endowed with fine handling, its low volume and correspondingly high price put it out of reach for most. In 1983, $4,499 bought a Kawasaki GPz 1100. A Suzuki GS1100ES sold for $4,350. The RGS carried an eye-watering list price of $5,950 U.S., and it didn’t help that it was slower than either the Kawasaki or the Suzuki. To help stir sales, Laverda introduced the RGA for 1984, a plain-Jane, lower-cost variant sans the sexy bodywork. There was also the RGA Jota, but it was a Jota in name only, not performance.

Laverda hadn’t completely abandoned its performance roots, however. With encouragement from U.K. importer Three Cross Motorcycles, in 1984, Laverda introduced the RGS1000 Corsa. Forged 10.5:1 compression pistons replaced the standard 8.8:1 pistons, and the cylinder head was treated to smaller exhaust valves (34.5mm versus 35.1mm) and larger intake valves (40.5mm versus 39.5mm) along with larger inlet ports for a claimed 95hp at 8000rpm, a 14 percent boost over the standard triple’s 83.3hp. Built in small numbers (perhaps no more than 200 total), the menacing-looking Corsa — all were painted black — was an RGS on steroids.

When Laverda introduced the SFC1000 in late 1984, the company was in dire financial stress, and by the time bikes were being built in 1985, Laverda was in bankruptcy. Moto Laverda was originally part of a larger — and profitable — family business, farm machinery manufacturer Pietro Laverda SpA, with roots going back to 1873. In the late 1940s, post-war Italy’s hunger for basic transportation prompted family member and technical director Francesco Laverda to lead a push into the growing motorcycle market, resulting in the formation of Moto Laverda in 1949. Moto Laverda was reputedly heavily subsidized by the parent company, but when Fiat took over Laverda SpA in 1981, the purse strings were cut and Moto Laverda had to stand on its own. The SFC1000 would be the last of the line.

Considered by many Laverda enthusiasts as the ultimate Laverda triple, the SFC1000 was powered by the Corsa-spec engine and featured new — and, importantly, less expensive — bodywork. The fiberglass fairing eschewed the RGS’ novel automotive-style fuel filler door, and dual fuel filler caps — strictly a styling exercise — adorned the revised gas tank. The frame was the same as the RGS, but painted gold, and the SFC1000 featured a new box-section aluminum swingarm with Marzocchi remote reservoir shocks at the rear and a state-of-the-art, rebound adjustable 41.7mm Marzocchi M1R fork up front. Braking was by uprated 300mm full-floating Brembo twin discs at the front with a single 280mm Brembo disc at the rear. The RGS’ FPS aluminum wheels gave way to three-spoke Oscam units.

Despite never being officially imported to the U.S., a surprising number of SFC1000s made their way here. Manufactured in small batches through 1989, total SFC1000 production is thought to be around 450−500 machines, the majority of that between 1985−1987. Laverda went into receivership in 1987, and it’s suggested that no more than 60 triples were built in 1988−1989, with the very last bikes assembled by Nuova Moto Laverda, the company formed by former workers with help from local banks and the government after Moto Laverda’s collapse. The last machines included a batch requested by German importer Uwe Witt equipped with wire wheels and painted black. Two final SFC1000s were put together in 1991 by Nuovo Moto Laverda at new facilities in Zanè, Italy.

Matt Jonas’ 1988 SFC1000

Chicagoan Matt Jonas fondly remembers his first powered two-wheeler, a Cushman Eagle scooter. It may not have been a full-sized motorcycle, but for a 14-year-old in 1958 it was a dream bike. “It had a windshield, a 1-into-2 exhaust, bags, a buddy seat, and a chrome tip on the fender,” Matt remembers. “I used to ride it to high school. Back then, if it was under 5hp you didn’t need a license.” Matt rode the Cushman even in winter, but by the time he was 16, cars had taken center stage and the Cushman gave way to a 1956 Dodge Royal Lancer.

The Dodge started a love of cars that put bikes in the background until the summer of 1969, when a friend of Matt’s bought a Honda CL350 and started parking it in front of the Jonas family’s trailer and hitch manufacturing shop in Villa Park on Chicago’s west side. Matt remembers the Honda cost his pal $745 out the door, and it got him thinking again about two wheels. “I passed Elmer’s Honda in Elmhurst (Illinois) going home from work one night, and I stopped and bought a 1970 Honda CL450 Scrambler. Blue, with a gold stripe on the tank,” Matt remembers.

That Honda was the beginning of a major re-entry into the two-wheeled world. “I started getting motorcycle magazines, and I saw an ad for a Norton Commando, yellow, with a blond model in high boots draped over it, and I thought, ‘I need to get one of those.’ So I ordered a Commando, but when it came it was purple! The dealer said they didn’t have any choice on color. I was thinking you’ve got to be kidding, but they just said if you don’t want it, somebody else will take it, so I took it.” That was in August 1970.

Fast-forward 55 years and Matt’s “down to 20” motorcycles. “I had 24,” he says. Nortons have been a staple since that first one, including a 1967 Atlas, a ’68 Fastback, a ’71 Fastback, a ’73 Dunstall Norton, and a ’75 NOS frame he planned on using as the basis for his own special. He also got into scramblers, riding hare and hounds on a ’72 Husqvarna CR250. He has the ’77 Harley-Davidson XLCR he bought in 1983 with only 199 miles on it, still on its original tires today, and a 1986 Ducati F1 Montjuich, no. 200 of 200 made.

In 1984, he came close to buying a new Moto Guzzi LeMans III, opting instead for a leftover 1983 Yamaha Seca 900 because it was more comfortable for touring. “I sat on the Guzzi and I knew I wouldn’t be able to ride it to California and back. My knees were about an inch and a half off the rocker covers and the handlebars were below the top of the gas tank,” Matt says. He still has the Seca, now showing 143,000 miles, plus a second with over 18,000 miles. He also has a 2008 Yamaha FJR1300 with 80,000 miles on it. Matt, if you couldn’t tell, likes to ride, but age often brings concessions; at 81 he’s not throwing a leg over his bikes like he used to.

Although he didn’t know then that it would later become his, Matt first saw our feature SFC at the 1989 USGP at Laguna Seca Raceway. “Pro Italia (an Italian-focused shop in Glendale, California) was displaying, and they had a German-spec SFC with gold Oscam wheels, a red SFC, a blue RGA, and a yellow SFC with black Oscam wheels and a black exhaust.” Matt didn’t take a shining to the yellow bike. “The black wheels and exhaust, the bottom half of the bike looked dead.” It was the black bike with gold wheels that drew his eye. “It was fantastic, a stunning combination,” Matt says. The bug had bit.

The yellow bike belonged to actor and motorcycle enthusiast Robby Carradine of Hollywood’s famous Carradine family, and it was Carradine who had it painted Ferrari Fly Yellow with black wheels and exhaust when he bought it in September 1988, Matt says. Fast forward to 1992 and Carradine’s SFC was listed for sale by Laverda tuner Lance Weil of Ricky Racers in Cycle News. Matt discovered Weil didn’t actually have the SFC but wanted to broker it for Carradine, who stored the SFC at Pro Italia’s club house for weekend rides on the Angeles Crest Highway. Pro Italia put Matt and Carradine together and after several calls Matt bought the bike.

The first things to go were the black wheels and exhaust. Matt sourced a set of correct gold wheels from Slaters Brothers (the Laverda importers in England up to 1982), and he had the exhaust stripped and rechromed. He thought about repainting the bike black, but according to Matt, Carradine said to him “why would you want to ruin a beautiful paint job like that?” “Once I put the correct-colored wheels on there was no way I was going to paint it,” Matt says, and he left the yellow paint alone. Bar-end mirrors were swapped for the correct fairing-mounted units and custom graphics were added to the tank, tri-colored roundels in the Italian flag colors of green, white and red, but red on top and green at bottom versus green on top and red at bottom as used on earlier Laverdas. The fairing is an aftermarket item Carradine installed because of the poor quality of the fiberglass original, which was included in the sale. The original features a recess above the headlight opening for a “Laverda” badge that’s not on the replacement. Carradine had also installed a set of Fournales shocks, but included in the sale the original Marzocchis the bike now wears.

This SFC is something of an enigma in that it carries engine number 3439. According to the online Laverda registry at laverdamania.net, engine numbers 3437 and 3443 were 1989 production and the last triple built in 1989 carried engine number 3452. That puts it within the last 14 made, suggesting it should be a 1989 model, not a 1988.

The SFC’s rarity has kept it in the garage more than not, but Matt used to ride it regularly on Sunday mornings to Highland House, a once-famous biker restaurant in Highland Park, north of downtown Chicago. “It was like going to church,” Matt remembers. “You’d see MV Augustas, Vincents, almost everything, just hundreds of bikes. Burt Richmond was there and so was billionaire investor Sam Zell and radio personality Bob Collins.”

The SFC’s aggressive riding stance doesn’t work for everyone, but it does for Matt. “There’s a lot of thought in it and I like the size of it, it’s a man-sized motorcycle,” Matt opines, adding, “I’m very comfortable on it. Really, the only problem I’ve ever had with it is the mirrors — one fell off at 75mph.”

So what are Matt’s plans for the SFC? Simply to just keep enjoying owning it. “You don’t see them come up for sale often. I’ve only seen two since; they were very rare. To me, it’s one of the most stunning bikes in the garage,” Matt says. It’s a pity Laverda couldn’t weather the market storms, but fitting that its final product was possibly its very best. MC