Utterly In Zane?

As a bargain-buy, high-performance classic, Laverda’s 750 superbike makes a strange kind of sense

- Paul Miles

LAVERDA, LIKE MANY OTHER Italian motorcycle companies, has seen its fortunes wax and wane several times over the years. The Breganze factory, famous for its thunderous triples, finally abandoned motorcycle manufacture in the early 1980s, leaving thousands of Laverdisiti bereft.

Around 1992, after a break of over a decade, new investment from the Zanini group (and subsequently industrialist and two-wheeled enthusiast Francesco Tognon) was found and Laverda rose from the ashes with a completely new model, the mid-size 650 Sport, built in the town of Zane.

At the time this market segment was popular and 600cc sporting class machines were among the bestsellers worldwide. It made sense for the new company to avoid a re-hash of the horribly outdated, litre-plus triple so associated with the Laverda name. Instead, it launched a new, cutting edge sportster complete with a high revving, air-cooled, eight valve twin, based on the old company’s horribly outdated 500cc twin, the Alpino.

At first glance, this might be considered as an unwise move. However, the knowledge and tooling already existed for the twin. By increasing the capacity to 668cc, plus further tuning and fuel injection, the new Zane Laverda claimed a reasonable 70bhp. In order to make the most of this admittedly modest power, a brand new chassis design was commissioned from none other than Nico Bakker. The twin-spar aluminium frame was light and stiff and, coupled with the very best of Italian suspension by Paoli, Brembo brakes and lightweight Marchesini wheels, the rest of the new machine read like a Who’s Who of two-wheeled excellence. Even the bodywork was Kevlar.