Cycle World Article on Laverda

I'm pretty sure some of DePrato's article was a bit thin on the truth. Meeting Joe Parkhurst in 1959
and getting toured around ? Joe Parkhurst was involved if I remember with go karting and dabbling
in publishing. The first copy of "Cycle World" was January,1962. In 1959 American Honda was brand
new to the U.S. opening a storefront on Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles. All that existed then were British
mom and pop bike shops,Harley Davidson agencies and offbeat small bore European brands plus
a very few BMW dealers. Jack MacCormick was probably still in the military at that point. Many of the
people around in the late 50's and early 60's are now long gone that could flesh out the details.
Guys like Irv Seaver, Lou Branch,Skip Fordyce,Floyd Clymer et al are all deceased. The article certainly
was written by a very old time contributor to "Cycle World" with his "Report from Italy" column so I
don't mistrust most of the article just maybe things got a bit hazy.
 
ADDENDUM

Bruno DePrato was as I recall now a correspondent later on in the 70's. In the mid-60's a man
named Carlo Perelli was the "Cycle World" reporter in Italy prior to the 650/750 model being
produced. I met Tim Parker at Barber in 2013 as an aside he told me Jack MacCormick never
paid Laverda for the American Eagles he distributed.....BAD JACK !!
 
many of us met Jack MacCormack at the NALOC event in 2005 in Los Angeles. Interesting fellow. He rode to the event on some big bore Japanese bike as I recall. He arrived at the event and wandered in looking a little lost. I approached him and greeted him not knowing who he was, figured it out quickly, and had a very nice chat with him.

some of the detail in the Cycle World article were not necessarily 100 per cent accurate, (like the 1200's supposedly being 120 cranks) but I really enjoyed the family history back to the beginning.
 
One last bit about Jack. He joined American Honda very early on and could be considered
the North American catalyst between Japan and the West. From Honda Jack moved over to
U.S. Suzuki in more or less the same capacity about 1964. So MacCormick was a key man in
many regards to the introduction and understanding of the North American culture to the
Japanese manufacturers and their marketing methods. In 1969 the American Eagle 150
Renegade was imported with it's one piece fibreglass tank/seat bodywork....WAAY COOL !
who knew then it was a Laverda. Or was that a Garelli...?
 
KLEINDORF said:
One last bit about Jack. He joined American Honda very early on and could be considered
the North American catalyst between Japan and the West. From Honda Jack moved over to
U.S. Suzuki in more or less the same capacity about 1964. So MacCormick was a key man in
many regards to the introduction and understanding of the North American culture to the
Japanese manufacturers and their marketing methods. In 1969 the American Eagle 150
Renegade was imported with it's one piece fibreglass tank/seat bodywork....WAAY COOL !
who knew then it was a Laverda. Or was that a Garelli...?
Click to expand...
Bob Andren has (had?) several of the American Eagle Renegades with him at the NALOC 2005 gathering. Weird looking things, cool in a very 60's heavy metalflake way. When my garage was gutted by fire in November 2020 I was then building a 1966 Garelli 150 intended to be run in the Moto Giro. The Garelli was about 2/3's built but got cooked in the fire. The bottom end of its Laverda 150 motor survived the fire s did a bunch of other bits. I am slowly gathering bits and bobs to maybe resurect it eventually. Kind of an ugly bike, not nearly as pretty as the 1957 Gilera 150 Sport I recently finished, but interesting. Anyway, it was nice to have met Jack McCormick at NALOC in 2005 and put a face and personality to the name
 
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