THE Laverda name is synonymous with just one bike: the Jota of the late '70s and early '80s. Big, brutal and three cylindered, it was the archetypal he-man bike and needed muscle to throw around. Just the sound of it made women weep and grown men go weak at the knees.
But Laverda also had another iconic bike in the shape of the 500cc Montjuic twin, a slightly sanitised Formula 500 production racer for the road, originally built to race at the Montjuic Park 24-hour race in Barcelona. And the 750S Formula can trace its lineage right back to these parallel twins.
Nowadays the engine's water-cooled and has grown to747cc, but the basic layout and engine cover shape mirror its famous predecessor. Fuel injection helps produce 92bhp at the crank, but the real power is located above 7000rpm so the Formula needs to be spun to reach its 140mph-plus top speed. These velocities are accompanied by quite a mechanical thrashing from the parallel pistons, but reliability's good so any jokes about 'agricultural' tendencies can only refer to the company's origins as a harvesting machine manufacturer!
Laverdas have always been renowned for their precise Italian handling and the Formula more than lives up to the reputation. A stiff aluminium beam frame and softish, but well-damped, Paioli suspension ensure corners are dispatched with all the precision of a Carol Vorderman sum explanation: you know what?s coming and you know how to get there, but it thinks you through it without much effort.
A-list Italian hardware extends to the Brembo brakes and Termignoni carbon exhausts. At 185kg (408lb) there isn?t much to haul down, and the twin 320mm floating discs can scrub off speed faster than a flight-deck arrestor hook, the exhausts booming sexily on the over-run. Since its introduction, upgrades have been limited to a different EPROM chip for better fuelling, a reworked selector drum for more precise gear changing, and different colours.
Laverdas are always going to be bought by discerning enthusiasts who appreciate Italian style and who prefer the idiosyncrasies of a parallel twin over an inline four. But the Formula is also a viable alternative to a Ducati and might just change the preconceptions of those more used to Japanese machines. It might be different and take a bit of setting up, but since when was life with a hot-blooded Latino anything other than exciting?
Contemporary alternatives: Ducati 748; Moto Guzzi V11 Sport; Yamaha TRX850.
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Originally Posted by firestormer
- and will be doing a wee bit of research of my own in terms of price and parts availability on my sojourn across the ditch to Aussie in a week or so.... 
Laverda in NZ - website link
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