Fastest Confirmed Speed on a Laverda

One of the brothers featured in that Performance Bike Article popped up on one of the Facebook pages discussing Rob's speed runs. It's a small Laverda World out there.
Yes he did.
John Nutting also gave an interesting back story to his 140 mph achievements for Slater Brothers.
And, I've seen the fairing that is pictured above on the red 120.
 
One time I was riding my Jota on the autostrada Venezia ver Milano at 160 kph when I noticed a Carabinieri car coming up behind me, I eased off the gas and they eased up alongside me, gesticulating...

Gesticulation was a hand twisting and cupping of an ear. OK, they are were wanting musica... I dropped a gear and gave the Jota full throttle.

Massively grinning Carabinieri.

:D
Not an uncommon story, happened to me several times...

Years ago (2000 I think?!?), we went down to the Pompone Meeting in September. We got into heavy rain in Austria and all our leather was still wet the next day. So we decided - as it was a lovely sunny day in Italy - to go from Santa Eulalia to Andreghetto's Place in Jeans and Pullovers. That year (or the year before!?), they enforced decent gear for riders as mandatory.

As we were approaching a roundabout, we saw an alfa on the left side of the street with a Motorbike behind, both in blue and white: Policia... The Motorbike cop saw us coming, took out his "lolipop" from his belt and we were already counting mentally our money we had with us...

The cop stepped onto the roundabout, stopped all cars coming and waved us through :oops: We thanked with a "thumps-up" and as beeing the last one in the group, I recognized in the mirror (yes, on mine I could really see something...) that he was waving back and then let the cars go on.


I recall being told that an out of town member of the Polizia di Strata had given a Laverda rider a speeding ticket during a Breganze rally. He was given a severe talking to and told in no certain terms not to ticket a Laverda again. Speeding ticket was annulled.

On that same tripp, we were going from Santa Eulalia to Maurizio's Place, when we saw someone walking on the right side of the street, obviously hiding something under his jacket. He heard us coming, turned around, took a Laser/Radar scanner out of his jacket, focused us, looked up again, lowered the speed testing device and hid it again in his jacket. We waved a "thank you" to him (or better a "gracie" and he smiled and waved back...

On the way down to Italy, we decided - as the weather cleared up - to leave the highway. Unfortunately, we did it at the worst place ever and were just driving in parallel to the highway... Traffic jam all over the place and that year, they also enforced that motorbikes were not allowed to bypass a line of cars to be first at the traffic lights. Guess what we did... And guess who was standing on that crossing with a lolipop, waving cars out of traffic onto a parking spot for controles...?

Peter P., who just had finished the "750 SFC look-alike 1200 reconstruction with a VERY loud exhaust, moved to the very front, even stopping behind the stop-line at the traffic lights with a lot of throttle pulling, creating a massive noise... The carabineri in the middle of the street looked at our group, looked at his team mates, everyone was raising their shoulders and when the lights turned green, Peter (who was wearing a "Agostini" AGV helmet) pulled throttle wide open and started off with loads of noise, shifting into 2nd and showing the police-man a "thumps up". He smiled, showed "thumps up" back and we all passed the police without being stopped...

Good times back then...
 
Not an uncommon story, happened to me several times...

Years ago (2000 I think?!?), we went down to the Pompone Meeting in September. We got into heavy rain in Austria and all our leather was still wet the next day. So we decided - as it was a lovely sunny day in Italy - to go from Santa Eulalia to Andreghetto's Place in Jeans and Pullovers. That year (or the year before!?), they enforced decent gear for riders as mandatory.

As we were approaching a roundabout, we saw an alfa on the left side of the street with a Motorbike behind, both in blue and white: Policia... The Motorbike cop saw us coming, took out his "lolipop" from his belt and we were already counting mentally our money we had with us...

The cop stepped onto the roundabout, stopped all cars coming and waved us through :oops: We thanked with a "thumps-up" and as beeing the last one in the group, I recognized in the mirror (yes, on mine I could really see something...) that he was waving back and then let the cars go on.




On that same tripp, we were going from Santa Eulalia to Maurizio's Place, when we saw someone walking on the right side of the street, obviously hiding something under his jacket. He heard us coming, turned around, took a Laser/Radar scanner out of his jacket, focused us, looked up again, lowered the speed testing device and hid it again in his jacket. We waved a "thank you" to him (or better a "gracie" and he smiled and waved back...

On the way down to Italy, we decided - as the weather cleared up - to leave the highway. Unfortunately, we did it at the worst place ever and were just driving in parallel to the highway... Traffic jam all over the place and that year, they also enforced that motorbikes were not allowed to bypass a line of cars to be first at the traffic lights. Guess what we did... And guess who was standing on that crossing with a lolipop, waving cars out of traffic onto a parking spot for controles...?

Peter P., who just had finished the "750 SFC look-alike 1200 reconstruction with a VERY loud exhaust, moved to the very front, even stopping behind the stop-line at the traffic lights with a lot of throttle pulling, creating a massive noise... The carabineri in the middle of the street looked at our group, looked at his team mates, everyone was raising their shoulders and when the lights turned green, Peter (who was wearing a "Agostini" AGV helmet) pulled throttle wide open and started off with loads of noise, shifting into 2nd and showing the police-man a "thumps up". He smiled, showed "thumps up" back and we all passed the police without being stopped...

Good times back then...
That's Italy.
There's a lot of countries more focused on law and order where it's best to stay at home.
Paul
 
Well - a good balance is for sure not a bad thing... Italy for a long time had one of the highest mortality rates for bikers, which droped significantly when they increased the number of traffic and speed controls. Also, making proper gear mandatory lowered the number again, also the number of significant consequences on surviving bikers after a crash.

Also, I can understand that people who live at a "bikers paradise" place are totally annoyed by the noise they are faced with at weekends. I know a moderator on here that lives at such a place and turned from a fan of loud machines to someone who actually hates people speeding (for a reason, as he has to live with their consequences when they smash into his garden or kill his cats etc.).

So - yes, i like the freedom we had in the past with our bikes but I am not sure we can go on like that for the future. And yes, my bikes are loud, too. I tend to think though, that when I go into towns/villages in 4th or even 5th gear, rolling through them in idle, it might be less disturbing than the hundreds of trucks that come along at the same time... But maybe it isn't and I am just fooling myself - who knows...
 
Well - a good balance is for sure not a bad thing... Italy for a long time had one of the highest mortality rates for bikers, which droped significantly when they increased the number of traffic and speed controls. Also, making proper gear mandatory lowered the number again, also the number of significant consequences on surviving bikers after a crash.

Also, I can understand that people who live at a "bikers paradise" place are totally annoyed by the noise they are faced with at weekends. I know a moderator on here that lives at such a place and turned from a fan of loud machines to someone who actually hates people speeding (for a reason, as he has to live with their consequences when they smash into his garden or kill his cats etc.).

So - yes, i like the freedom we had in the past with our bikes but I am not sure we can go on like that for the future. And yes, my bikes are loud, too. I tend to think though, that when I go into towns/villages in 4th or even 5th gear, rolling through them in idle, it might be less disturbing than the hundreds of trucks that come along at the same time... But maybe it isn't and I am just fooling myself - who knows...
Trucks, and cars = $, and votes.
Paul
 
In the October 2023 Classic Bike magazine on pages 32 too 39 there is an article on the Cropredy Liberator and on a side bar is " How Fast is a Jota, really?"
Roger Winterburn's son recalls the best he knows is a 1200T with a bit of porting did 154 mph at West Raynham, suggesting the engine was putting out 95 HP.
In 1990 Martin and Stuart Clark maxed their bikes out at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground. Martin's 120 with a polished head, bored carbs, high compression pistons and Cico fairing did 152 mph.
The author goes on to say that he got a SFC 1000 to reach 143 mph. and a 1/4 mile in 12.4 sec @ 119 mph.
I just read this article as it came up on a well known social media site.
I'm pretty sure this would be the 1200 you refer to Chris albeit from an earlier report.

Probably a bit more than just porting 😄 but certainly an interesting article from way back.
 

Attachments

  • 1761573499739.jpg
    1761573499739.jpg
    218.1 KB · Views: 28
Last edited:
The overfilled oil and resulting smoke was a bit of a shock, though. From memory, that happened to the 180, zero issues with the slightly faster 120, no comment on that result, bloody hell. loved that Magazine, sadly well missed their insightful tech stuff.Learned so much from John Robinson's writing.
 
Different article Vince. That's the Clark brothers 1990 That's also been mentioned .

This article refers to much earlier ( probably 82 ish) at West Raynam Airfield where endurance races were held. In this case a 180⁰ 1200 pulling 152 but can't find the rider of said bike.
 
That's a whole lot faster than the stock 1200 I raced in the 1978 Castrol 4 Hour proddy race in Perth!! I reckon that one on std gearing woulda struggled to hit 200kph (125mph).
 
The bike was ridden by Rodger Winterburn I had the article s few years ago it was a red 1200T in mirage spec and lowered gearing revving to about 8600 apparently but must have had other mods
 
Hi, here in Austria in 1977 a Sulzbacher tuned 1200 racebike was measured at the Amstetten-Zeillern race with 248 km/h. But I have to find out the rider, maybe Franz Laimboeck ...
Ciao, Gert
 
We have Lake Gardiner salt races once a year if it doesn't flood. Deserts in the middle of South Australia flooding is more common than you think. Not good travelling a couple of thousand km with the last 300 on Dirt Farm Tracks to arrive to find the event cancelled. I have never heard of any airport-closed speed test events in Oz. The way Speed is regulated in Oz, people's heads would explode if that happened. Found one bit it's just as remote, The place has an interesting history few know, Its were the Poms tested the Nuclear Bombs in open air detonations. Thanks for the fallout.
https://isi.net.au/events/the-maralinga-mile-ii-test-tune-2025/
 
See production race results.

Location: 48°7'36.31"N / 14°48'53.53"E
Motorcycles raced on a 6.4 km circuit near Amstetten from 1975-1980. The course ran through Zeillern and Ludwigsdorf. The races
were titled Jim-Beam-Motorrad-Rennen as of 1977.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20251028_105217_Chrome.jpg
    Screenshot_20251028_105217_Chrome.jpg
    33.5 KB · Views: 14
Last edited:
Hi Gert.
Please see post before last to link.
I simply googled it and pulled up the table of riders.
Looks quite official. Might help jog some memories.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20251028_105217_Chrome.jpg
    Screenshot_20251028_105217_Chrome.jpg
    33.5 KB · Views: 17
California desert, road is straight and no traffic for many miles. And more importantly no police as there is nowhere for them to hide. My SFC has shown 143 MPH on the speedo going down this road. How accurate is the speedo, who knows? My fastest on this road is 158 on a BMW K1200RS. I knew a guy on a modified BMW S1000RR who did 202 on this road.

A picture of the road below:

 
Last edited:
Back
Top