greetings from italy

serpiko

serpiko

New member
Location
bologna (italia)
hi, my name is fabian and I live in Italy. the city where I live is Bologna, home of Ducati.
I am a great lover of motorcycles and engines in general, especially vintage, mechanics is also my job, I already own two vintage bikes but I would like to add a laverda in my garage. unfortunately here in Italy laverda is not a well-known brand, only people over 50 or enthusiasts like me know laverda motorcycles. young motorcyclists even ignore its existence! probably because of this there is no forum dedicated to laverda motorcycles (in general no forum dedicated to vintage motorcycles) and this is very sad. the average Italian motorcyclist has little culture about everything that has been built here in Italy ...
It is incredible that you in the UK have such a well-made and content-rich forum dedicated only to laverda! compliments.
I hope it will be accepted in your community. I hope to learn in the UK what I cannot learn on an Italian motorcycle here in Italy.
Regards
 
Benvenuto Fabian!

You could visit Veneto and spend some time in and around Breganze, lots of Laverdas and Laverda-friendly and knowlegable people there. Take a trip to Possagno at the base of Monte Grappa, to Valle san Liberale and visit "Pompone" Maurizio, a more bike-addicted guy will be hard to find. Surely he can give you leads a-plenty regarding your local classic bike scene. He knows his stuff about almost every italian marque.

We're not UK only, we're global players! ;)

piet
 
Bienvenuto Fabian

I suppose the folks of Bologna are proud of their Ducati connections and history, and rightly so. Perhaps the Italian people tend to be loyal to their local industries, like Bologna and Ducati, Mandello and Moto Guzzi, Varese and MV, Breganze and Laverda.

You could contact Riccardo Bianchi in Breganze for some Italian connections. He's the president of Laverda Club Breganze. I think the contact details I have for him are out of date, but someone here will have more recent information.
 
Hello Fabian,

as Piet mentioned, the Pompone Club (originally a Ducati Club) with "Mr. Pompone", Maurizio Bavaresco, is maybe a good address to start. Not sure if the club still exists as I only could find Maurizio's Webpage: https://www.motoecucina.it/ but on there, there is a Pompone part.

​

 
Ciao Fabian,
As Piet says, this is a forum with participants from everywhere so a global view. The UK is a group of islands. :)
Don't worry, Laverda is not well known, anywhere.
Maurizio Bavaresco of Pompone will certainly be able to give you local contacts as would probably the Laverda Club Breganze.

Paul
 
thanks for the welcome, as rightly said we Italians are a feudal country and above all older motorcyclists tend to become attached to the brands of their territory. However, I am lucky enough to meet a laverda enthusiast here in bologna whom I will soon see again after years. he has many laverda bikes and a lot of knowledge about these bikes.
in the meantime I will follow your advice and read here the many information that there are. thanks, greetings
 
" I am lucky enough to meet a laverda enthusiast here in bologna whom I will soon see again after years. he has many laverda bikes and a lot of knowledge about these bikes."

welcome, I have been hassled by Laverda ownership for now 49 years and an ILOC member since it started in 1974, that is 48 years ago. There is every possibility that your friend is known to some of us who post regularly here, and if not WOW! what a find! would be great to see some photos.

It would seem that you d not have a Laverda as yet, so what are you looking for in terms of engine size and cylinders? I have never heard of a bike going back from UK, to live in Italy, but why not? there is no reason if it works out well, go for it, it does seem that a lot of neglected bikes come in from Spain, and recently a lot of similar bikes (mainly twins) from Italy.

CLEM
 
CLEMTOG said:
" I am lucky enough to meet a laverda enthusiast here in bologna whom I will soon see again after years. he has many laverda bikes and a lot of knowledge about these bikes."

welcome, I have been hassled by Laverda ownership for now 49 years and an ILOC member since it started in 1974, that is 48 years ago. There is every possibility that your friend is known to some of us who post regularly here, and if not WOW! what a find! would be great to see some photos.

It would seem that you d not have a Laverda as yet, so what are you looking for in terms of engine size and cylinders? I have never heard of a bike going back from UK, to live in Italy, but why not? there is no reason if it works out well, go for it, it does seem that a lot of neglected bikes come in from Spain, and recently a lot of similar bikes (mainly twins) from Italy.

CLEM
Click to expand...
Quite simply Clem, bikes don't go back to Italy because Laverda motorcycles are too f...ing expensive in the UK.

Paul
 
Andy J said:
Looking at some of the prices now been asked in Italy, they’re too bloody expensive there too!
Click to expand...
Believe it or not, that's because they hope to sell to the UK.
For decades, the Italians have seen Northern Europeans turn up with loads of cash to buy their old crap and sell it off at a huge profit when they get home, so the prices shot up. Only now, prices have collapsed. Real world prices in Italy are far from what you see advertised.

Paul
 
I think Italy is not a good market for the bigger Laverdas. In The 70 th and I do not know when it changed there were extra taxis for motobikes with more than 231 cc. That was the reason that the Benelli 2C 250 did not have real 250 cc as the Yamahas and others of these days. Laverdas 750, 1000 and 1200 were not popular in that time
 
Andre, I think this was only true for bikes that were imported to Italy. That was the reason you could not find any bigger asian bike in Italy for a very long time and was meant to protect the italian brands like Guzzi (mostly 500ccm and bigger), Ducati (except for the scramblers, all bigger than 500 cc), Benelli etc. etc. etc. The market was full of used italien bikes therefore in the 90's

The point is a different from my observation: When this extra luxary tax was banned (I think) mid of the 90's, there was a big demand for Japs bikes in Italy and all the local bikes - which were mostly not able to compete in many ways with what came from Japan, were sold cheaply, because for italians, they were "just old bikes". They bought something that had twice as much power, lasted almost forever, did not shake and rattle like our old clonkers and gave them bikes that performed better than Moto GP bikes end of the 80's - just road legal.

I remember well when I first traveld down to Italy in 1991 or 1992 with my brother. He was on his freshly aquired 3 C, I rode his wifes Yamaha XT 600 (or 660? Don't know). When we parked the bikes, the italiens crowded around the Yamaha - not Robert's Laverda... Why? because this was a very, very rare bike at that time in Italy due to these regulations.

Later we met a guy on a RD 250 LC II in the mountains who guided us to Maurizzio's place. We asked him why he is riding a RD250 and he confirmed that he lusted for a Japs bike and the only one he could afford was the smaller ccm sizes ones, as they were not affected by the luxory tax like the bigger ones.

Just how I remember it, might well be I am wrong. it's 30 years since that happened...
 
You're right Lothar. I recall loads of Italian bikes being brought to the Veterama swap meet / autojumble in the 80's and 90's.
2 Italian dealers always had a large collection of
Guzzi Le Mans / T whatever, Benelli Sei, Duc Bevel 750 / 900, Laverda 750 / 1000 / 1200.
One dealer used to throw in a Duc Scrambler for free if you bought more than one big bike from him!
Another German dealer from the Taunus area ( name escapes me ) had similar bikes on offer, mostly with German paperwork sorted ;-))

Gerald
 
Gerald said:
You're right Lothar. I recall loads of Italian bikes being brought to the Veterama swap meet / autojumble in the 80's and 90's.
2 Italian dealers always had a large collection of
Guzzi Le Mans / T whatever, Benelli Sei, Duc Bevel 750 / 900, Laverda 750 / 1000 / 1200.
One dealer used to throw in a Duc Scrambler for free if you bought more than one big bike from him!
Another German dealer from the Taunus area ( name escapes me ) had similar bikes on offer, mostly with German paperwork sorted ;-))

Gerald
Click to expand...
And strangely, most of the bikes had about 20000km on the odometer. They sure found a lot of suckers at the time!

Still are, actually... :rolleyes:

piet
 
Lothar, also bikes which were registered in Italy had to pay extra taxis, as far as I know.
My knowlegde came from the 70th. The Benelli of my friend had just 231 cc because of the a. m. reason.
To be competetive, we started with motorsport in the 70th, his supporting dealer Peter Heuser from Troisdorf later found a source of zylinders and pistons with real 250 cc.
 
andre g said:
... his supporting dealer Peter Heuser from Troisdorf later found a source of zylinders and pistons with real 250 cc.
Click to expand...
Hi André,
I still remember Peter Heuser well.

1975, in my apprenticeship as a mechanic, I always passed his shop. One day, on the way back from vocational school, he was loading the first 750 Sei out of his van. As a driver of a 50s I was impressed of course (but even then I was more inclined towards twins).

In 1976 I bought a used Yamaha DT250 from him, my 1st real bike after the 50cc. Next bike was the SF1 - but this is another story ...

Cheers,
Jo
 
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Hi everyone, I take this opportunity to tell a bit of history that maybe you already know as some of you rightly said. fiat 500 even the less rich bought a car and the motorcycle industries went into crisis, their products were mostly cheap and the rich people who wanted a motorcycle bought English or German motorcycles or Moto Guzzi bikes. an economic boom, people are starting to get rich. When the Japanese arrived with their supermotos in the 1970s, almost all the Italians who wanted a supermoto wanted Japanese motorcycles, Laverda built its success shortly before the advent of the Japanese 4-cylinder by proposing a high-level, large-displacement supermoto.
as happened also in the UK the Japanese ditched the national production but unlike the UK the Italian government took steps to help local industries.
VAT was raised to 38% for motorcycles up to 500cc for imported motorcycles and it was forbidden to import foreign motorcycles with displacements below 350cc.
another phenomenon that was born after the war and reached the end of the 90s with the scooter was that of mopeds. these 50cc motorcycles built in many types have always sold a lot in Italy. there have been many manufacturers of these vehicles and also of special parts dedicated to them. today even these vehicles are now abandoned because their fiscal and management costs are comparable to those of a 250cc motorcycle

as rightly said by you, here in Italy the prices of Laverda bikes are high too. Laverda motorcycles are on average those with the highest price.
 
forgive if some sentence is not understandable but I am writing with the translator.
to a question that was asked to me, the gentleman I know and who I will meet again after years is a collector, but he does not like notoriety, if I am allowed I will take some photos, he owns more than 30 high-level motorcycles and about 20 laverda. Piero laverda also visited his collection.
I would like to have a laverda 750 or 1000 but I already own a road bike from the 70s and I find it difficult to use the gearbox on the right.
I'm thinking of a laverda rgs.
 
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