Laverda - Odds and sods from the WWW

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Resurrecting old brands can be done well- Triumph, Royal Enfield and the new BSA Gold Star all have a enough of the original to be cool but are new,modern bikes. Badging up a soulless plastic bike with a generic engine and calling it a Benelli, Laverda etc doesn’t work.
I like the name E- Beast, got a certain ring to it..
 
I respect your opinion, Piet, it proofs though what I said: you are obviously NOT embracing the change. And that is OK.

However, I think there is room for more than black and white here. My first car was a 1976 Mini 1100 Sport. I loved the car though it was actually totally crap. My wife drives a 2010 Mini Cooper. She likes the car much and it's actually not crap. It's better than the original in almost any regard. She falls for the design (which is in principals very similar to the old one, just a lot bigger and a bit more modern). She loves the round center instruments, the small switches etc. etc. - she is very emotional about the car. She does not drive it because she thinks its "hip". She just likes it. So what? She never drove an old Mini. I would assume 95% if not more of the owners never did. They still like the car.

The "retro trend" is I think one of the longest lasting things in history of mankind... There were allways such times where you looked back and tried to bring back the glory (or glorification) of a past time. "Historism", "Classicism" "Neo-xxx" - all styles that copied old styles... Excalibures in the 70's tried to copy Mercedes from the 20s etc. - and it works, still until today. Why should Laverda be an exception? And why would you want to forbid people to buy a Mini, just because it's not from the 70's? Or a "Neo-Laverda"?

It's nothing for you - I get it. However - why shouldn't others be able to buy a bike that they love with a name Laverda on it? Has nothing to do with the old brand - I agree. Same with MV, Benelli etc. etc. etc. ;-)

If it works or not has nothing to do with us here. The market will decide.
 
Exmoor beast said:
Resurrecting old brands can be done well- Triumph, Royal Enfield and the new BSA Gold Star all have a enough of the original to be cool but are new,modern bikes. Badging up a soulless plastic bike with a generic engine and calling it a Benelli, Laverda etc doesn’t work.
I like the name E- Beast, got a certain ring to it..
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Royal Enfield never stopped, they weren't resurrected.
As for the rest, just names.
It seems that the new " Gold Star " has the Rotax single used in the BMWs, revamped for the 21st century. Something positive.
I tried typing e-beast in Porn Hub.
It works!
A lot more fun than that pseudo motorcycle thingy.

Paul
 
Laverdalothar said:
The market will decide.
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That sort of market is just produce and sell. There's no value of any sort to it.
I'd rather they paid teachers more and advertising teams a lot less. It would certainly make more people buy less crap because of better judgement.
And the market might ask for durable products, not New Mini today, wider TV screen tomorrow, holidays on the other side of the planet tomorrow to find the same things as at home with just a tinge of exoticism, but not too much.

The days of the Trabant appear ever more appealing. Has nobody made a New Trabant yet? But bigger, more confortable with just the right quaint styling cues thought up by the commercial department?

Just produce and sell, to people most of whom cannot even read or write properly and no desire or need to do so, have no idea of the world around them, but that doesn't matter, as long as they can buy.

Paul
 
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Paul Marx said:
Royal Enfield never stopped, they weren't resurrected.
As for the rest, just names.
It seems that the new " Gold Star " has the Rotax single used in the BMWs, revamped for the 21st century. Something positive.
I tried typing e-beast in Porn Hub.
It works!
A lot more fun than that pseudo motorcycle thingy.

Paul
Click to expand...
Royal Enfield stopped, Enfield India continued building bullets but Royal Enfield has been recently resurrected.
I was very involved with Hinckley Triumph, they are very much “ real “ Triumphs, they have the passion.
I typed E-beast in Porn hub and it said you have already registered with that password!
 
sfcpiet said:
Sorry Lothar, I don't buy into all this retro crap. Thinking a new product is desirable just because it carries a legendary name is stupid imho. "Retro" cars such as the Mini, Beetle or Fiat 500 have nought to do with what they are impostering, the companies may have just as well conjured up new names for them. But there's loads of suckers that consider themselves hip because they buy a product, be it a motor vehicle, pushbike or other high-priced appliance, that suggests to them they have exquisite taste, but in reality most have more money than taste, and the industries are more than happy to milk them. They'll happily throw the product away as soon as their taste changes, they're following fashion, nothing else. They have no taste of their own, they are acting as the advertising industry wishes in our era of over-abundance.

As for Porsche or BMW, I care for neither. I don't think the planet would stop revolving if they, along with dozens of other products and companies, disappeared. It didn't stop turning when Breganze closed the doors for the last time either...

piet
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Think you forgot the whole MG embarrassing debacle Piet....
Fully agree.
 
Paul, let's face it: that's simply todays world. There was a time where people thought that 30km/h was the maximum a human could stand without at least getting unconcious or even die. Then there was a time where 20Hp for a motorbike was enough and 2-stroke engines where THE definite future for bikes. Then there was the son of a small bike factories owner that thought, 750ccm for a motorbike would be the right thing to do. Short after he even produced an insane 70hp producing 1000ccm triple, that surprised the world and was more than what people could cope with... just 10 years after, the very same guy produced a V6 with 145hp - twice as much as the street bike! and so on and so on and so on...

You see - this problem of bigger and more is better is nothing new. And Laverda actually was not only supporting it, they were actually DRIVING it!

So - if you do not like this, you better sell all whitness of this aera, the sooner the better...

I remember well when in 1993 when I had my first privately owned cell phone and asked my company (who was constantly calling me on the cell phone) to at least cover the monthly base costs. My then boss refused it with the words: "I don't know why everyone thinks they need a phone - it worked without one, too, in the past!"

You have a cell-phone? Why? When you were young, you did not need one.

It is simply called progress. That is the driver of mankind: you are allways try to secure what you have and get what you don't yet have. Human nature simply.

Royal Enfield stopped, Enfield India continued building bullets but Royal Enfield has been recently resurrected.
I was very involved with Hinckley Triumph, they are very much “ real “ Triumphs, they have the passion.
Click to expand...

Great you see it that way. Neighbor of mine has a Triumph. A bit of a "china-bike" as it has LED turn signals, but else a very nice bike with a lot of design similarities to the old ones. For some though, a "real Triumph" has to leak oil on the ground, be harsh on shifting, needs a kick-starter and must be crap to ride, else it's not a Triumph or "has character". I can appreciate a no-oiling, well shifting, well riding bike. Still, I also like the Laverdas... 😁
 
Exmoor beast said:
Royal Enfield stopped, Enfield India continued building bullets but Royal Enfield has been recently resurrected.
I was very involved with Hinckley Triumph, they are very much “ real “ Triumphs, they have the passion.
I typed E-beast in Porn hub and it said you have already registered with that password!
Click to expand...
The Indians were allowed to stick Royal on the bikes they never stopped producing.

Paul
 
Laverdalothar said:
Paul, let's face it: that's simply todays world. There was a time where people thought that 30km/h was the maximum a human could stand without at least getting unconcious or even die. Then there was a time where 20Hp for a motorbike was enough and 2-stroke engines where THE definite future for bikes. Then there was the son of a small bike factories owner that thought, 750ccm for a motorbike would be the right thing to do. Short after he even produced an insane 70hp producing 1000ccm triple, that surprised the world and was more than what people could cope with... just 10 years after, the very same guy produced a V6 with 145hp - twice as much as the street bike! and so on and so on and so on...

You see - this problem of bigger and more is better is nothing new. And Laverda actually was not only supporting it, they were actually DRIVING it!

So - if you do not like this, you better sell all whitness of this aera, the sooner the better...

I remember well when in 1993 when I had my first privately owned cell phone and asked my company (who was constantly calling me on the cell phone) to at least cover the monthly base costs. My then boss refused it with the words: "I don't know why everyone thinks they need a phone - it worked without one, too, in the past!"

You have a cell-phone? Why? When you were young, you did not need one.

It is simply called progress. That is the driver of mankind: you are allways try to secure what you have and get what you don't yet have. Human nature simply.



Great you see it that way. Neighbor of mine has a Triumph. A bit of a "china-bike" as it has LED turn signals, but else a very nice bike with a lot of design similarities to the old ones. For some though, a "real Triumph" has to leak oil on the ground, be harsh on shifting, needs a kick-starter and must be crap to ride, else it's not a Triumph or "has character". I can appreciate a no-oiling, well shifting, well riding bike. Still, I also like the Laverdas... 😁
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Change is not progress.
Progress needs culture and education to discern.

There is no such thing as human nature, humans are programmable animals and the vast majority of them are programmed to the lowest level necessary to survive and please themselves and they rush head down into any totalitarian system as long as it appears to bring them satisfaction, whatever it may bring to others.

Yes, I have a cell phone because there's a certain number of every day actions I cannot do without one.

An old Triumph can be perfectly oil tight, reliable, easy to start and will run circles around a Laverda. And like our Laverdas, it's indefinitely repairable.
The problems with old Triumphs, like many old Laverdas, are their owners and riders.

Paul

Paul
 
Not everyone can rebuild an old bike to work well, so some either pay an expert a lot to do it OR buy a modern look alike. I don't mind anyone doing either with their own money and free will.
 
you can either buy a new bike that is built to last and not to oil or pay some specialist a lot of money to actually fix your engine. I know very well what is cheaper and that is not fixing an old bike...

in addition: It will be more and more difficult to find people that are able to actually repair bikes. Mechanics in Germany are meanwhile trained on plugging a computer to a vehicle that reads out all the faults and tells them which part to exchange. They do not know anything about piston ring gaps or similar. So - the question for the users are: do I really want to work on the bike or simply enjoy riding. I spent probably more time waiting for my bikes being fixed than driving them in my life. Not a good balance... Currently waiting for an engine fix again since 5 months, no end in sight... My son just goes into the garage, checks the tire pressure, unplugs the battery charger and goes on a ride...
 
I think its great to see brands like Porsche still exist, they are in cars what Laverda's are to me in bikes, I would buy a classic 70's porsche, just as soon as I would buy a new one , I would look at a Laverda if the brand was to offer something that I like. So i don't see why it shouldn't be resurrected, but the E beast rendering doesnt do anything for me at all, subtlety is a lost art, and who ever made the new Brough things should have been shot, no subtlety there
I like MV and some of their new offerings, Im not a fan of their dragster, and nude bike offerings, but I like the F3 etc, I even put myself on the waiting list for a new 9.5 lucky explorer with them , remains to be seen if I get it or not, but its a good looking offering.
My wife has a 2020 mini clubman, and its really excellent. If things are done right I welcome them , if its just a label on a plastic item, I dont want to know about it.
Im in favour, it doesnt need to look retro, but that said if you were to do a modern retro bike the sfc 750 and the triples lend themselves to that immediately. If done properly they would sell.
 
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Exmoor beast said:
Triumph buy in gearbox internals from Japan, same company supply Kawasaki and maybe more.
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BMW bit the bullet and bought a Honda design for their latest liquid-cooled twins. Took them close to 100 years to realise they were running around in circles with their yearly gearbox revisions.

German motorcycle manufacturers have bigger sticks up their arse than brit manufacturers ever did... :rolleyes:

piet
 
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