History of SFC1000

[1200ts]

I happened to see a 2015 issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine. It had an article about the SFC 1000 and indicated the bike was Laverda's idea. I have always been told that the German importer asked for Laverda to make the bike? Had they not done so the SFC 1000 would have never existed? The article also said that the wire wheels on the last bikes were requested by Uwe Witt. I thought it was because they ran out of cast wheels?

So which story is correct?

 

[sfcpiet]

As the RGS was developing into a serious flop and the major jap makers had a host of new sporting models on the starting blocks, Laverda quickly needed something to fit their "sport" image.

The 1000SFC was launched by Laverda alone. It followed the fashion with cast wheels, with even a 16" at the front on the first prototypes. Thankfully, 17inchers were catching on at the time and the 16" was dropped. Reckon the transition to 17" wasn't made because it buggered up the proportions as well as raising a few more issues such as ground clearance, etc. I never rode the prototype, but I can imagine the 16" front alone to compromise clearance considerably (The rider of the Moto Witt TT F1 managed to scrape the bottom frame rails, using the widest 18" tyres available at the time!).

Uwe Witt wasn't at all enamoured by the factory end product, the chassis had numerous issues (when he questioned Massimo on the weak alloy swingarm, he replied "It's only for spectacle!"). I doubt much of Uwes' input, if any, was actually realised (I'll ask him next time when I see him). Later on, he requested Massimo to build the bike with wire wheels after discovering the cast wheels to be the cause of several handling problems, and to satisfy german punters that clamoured for them. Cast wheels then still carried a certain stigma in Germany, they were scorned upon by "real" bikers. The Koni rear shocks were Uwes' suggestion. He also requested a black version. Back then, Germany was still THE major market in Europe, Massimo wanted to sell bikes, not just display them.

The wheel hubs were manufactured in Cologne, spokes and rims came from Breganze, wheels were assembled at Moto Witt and sent back to Italy. Early front hubs were modified 3C/SF2 items, when stocks ran out, these too were made in Cologne. I well remember sawing off chunks of billet stock before carting them off for machining. Later on, assembled hubs were sent to Italy and the wheels were laced in Breganze. Under many black SFCs, a red one may be found, many red bodywork sets were simply oversprayed.

The cast wheels came from OSCAM, had stocks run out, the factory could have simply ordered new ones. OSCAM also supplied Ducati for various models at the time. Maybe it had something to do with Laverdas' financial situation and OSCAM declined... Mr.Witt was also not very happy about the manner in which financial matters were handled by Breganze.

Thankfully, the final batch of 1000SFCs seemed to fulfill the desires of many Laverda enthusiasts, but it was too less, too late to save the factory.

The pic of the 1000SFC prototype below was taken outside the Moto Witt premises ca. 1984.

piet

 

[Laverdalothar]

Mmmhh - my impression also always was that Uwe actually convinced the factory of the 1000 SFC (just like he did his own 500 SFC series as he wanted to tie it to the glory of the 750 SFC's), thought the prototype was designed by him, cause he liked the Ducati F1 (which had the same components, 16" front, same alloy swing arm, same front suspension). See:



There is even a rumor that Uwe pre-financed the production of at least one batch of the bikes as Laverda was already bankrupt and under governmental supervision. Maybe you can check with him the facts really, would be very interesting to know.

 

[sfcpiet]

16" wheels were de rigueur at the time, everybody fitted them. Until everybody realised it was somewhat of a dead-end street, with more disadvantages than advantages. Finding suspension components was simply a matter of calling on the numerous suppliers in Italy. New, lighter air- and liquid-cooled engines with 4/5-valve heads were appearing in completely new types of lightweight frames. Verlicchi would build you all the frame components you wished for, if you had the cash. Laverda was stuck with a heavy, out-dated air-cooled lump of an engine that was only barely able to scrape through world-wide emissions regulations (well, maybe not in Lower Mongolia...), coupled to a chassis more akin to a rolling garden gate than what was considered a motorcycle frame at the time, and no money to invest.

Of course, the Ducati F1 (and similar, Ducati had opened the door previously with the 600 TT2), was the way to go. The entire industry followed suit. The RGS had no hope competing (in the segment envisaged by Laverda) with either the japanese nor the newest offerings from Ducati. The 1000SFC was no better... and it was to come even worse.

The 500SFC was an exercise to shift the stationary 500s from the showroom floor. Nobody was interested in a 500 that was more expensive, and slower, than the most geriatric 750 on the market at the time. A couple of bits of plastic added just enough pizazz to make it more attractive, seems to have fooled quite a few. The glory was in the name alone. I very much doubt that it actually threw off much in earnings, at least it got the bikes out the door. The UK Montjuich, which was also a "dealer special" was far more sucessful, but only because of far laxer restrictions in the UK. I doubt it could have been legally registered for road use anywhere else, except Lower Mongolia maybe.

Lower Mongolia sounds like a hooligan bikers' paradise...

piet

 

[piranha-bro2]

I distinctly remember my first impression when i heard of the 1000 SFC - a vain attempt to cash in on the legend of the SFC750s ... and somewhat desperate and sacreligious to my mind. And nothing you've just written Piet makers me think any differently now!

 

[Paul Marx]

They should have stuck to caravans.
Much better looking as well.
Paul

 

[rocketonarail]

Lower Mongolia sounds ok .... ( Genghis Kahn ....... fair enough ........ bit of a land grabber , but no one`s perfect ....... ) ....

Meanwhile , Greater London ...( Sadiq Kahn ............ nasty piece of work , I reckon ..... Unless you`re into ULEZ zones , 20 mph limits , C40 Cities .... ) .......

Always liked the white faced ( Veglia ? ) clocks on the early SFC 1`s ....... Not so sure about twin fuel filler caps ( one was a breather , I think ? ) .... more fakery than effect ...... like ZXR 750 hoover tubes , or winglets on road going V4S `s , or fake bellmouths on CBX750`s , or air scoops on BSA / Triumph conical hub brakes , or " real sprinter " stickers on RGV 250`s ( come on , it`s still only a 250 ) , or ......... zzzzzzzzzz ............

 

[sfcpiet]

Yeah, the Vague Liars... let the 1000SFC reach 270km/h, easy. At least they closed up the holes in the dashboard nicely.

Both tank caps were fillers, one carried the primitive breather connection, which made using a tankbag a pita.

piet

 

[Laverdalothar]

Don't like tankbags anyway, they all scratch the paint and - besides on an RGS - need removal every time you need to refill. Also, they lift the weight center and make an already to high weight center even higher. Use them only if I have to.

Regarding the speedo: most 1000 SFC do not rev beyond 9.000 in last gear. Even if they do go up to 9.500, the maximum speed would be (calculated) somewhere around 225km/h. With 10.000, it would be around 230km/h in standard gearing max. No where near 270, I agree.

But who cares? There are just a few countries you can go faster than 130km/h legaly... And even if you can, it's no fun at all with the lumpy suspension and lousy brakes. In 23 years of ownership, I have only ridden the bike twice beyond 200km/h for a short distance.

That said, I know of one bike from Finland (Hanu), which was ridden at max speed on german roads all the time when Hanu was traveling down to Italy.

 

[piranha-bro2]

Regarding the speedo: most 1000 SFC do not rev beyond 9.000 in last gear. Even if they do go up to 9.500, the maximum speed would be (calculated) somewhere around 225km/h. With 10.000, it would be around 230km/h in standard gearing max. No where near 270, I agree.

Those are very optimistic RPM figures Lothar! And if it WERE possible to get a triple to 10,000RPM in top gear with std gearing it would be going a lot faster than 230 I'd imagine. Someone chime in with kph/1,000rpm figures please ... halve that 10,000 and you'd be saying that a triple is doing 115kph at 5,000. Unlikely - I don't own one so don't know.

 

[sfcpiet]

Quentin,

Stock gearing 19/40 or 16/34 results in around 28-29km/h per 1000rpm. 8000rpm is realistic under prime conditions, so around 240km/h max. Veglia tachs were just as optimistic as the speedos...

To get a stock 1000SFC to rev over 8000 in 5th., you'd need to lower final drive ratio.

Lothar, those 270km/h came about on a stretch of autobahn in Schleswig-Holstein, flat and dead straight, while I was leading on my 3C. The 3C was hard put to manage anywhere near 220 flat-out back then, the Veglia speedo was a good 20% out!

piet

 

[piranha-bro2]

Pretty much as I had thought, Piet.

 

[Andy J]

I found on my first SFC1000 fuel starvation was the main limiting factor, although that didn‘t occur until you were riding at a sustained 220+. On my second one, throwing a rod curtailed any speed testing of that particular bike.

 

[piranha-bro2]

I found on my first SFC1000 fuel starvation was the main limiting factor, although that didn‘t occur until you were riding at a sustained 220+. On my second one, throwing a rod curtailed any speed testing of that particular bike.

Tap flow insufficient or tank breathing too restrictive Andy? Or other?

 

[Andy J]

I seem to recall it was something to do with the plumbing to the carbs.

 

[chrisk]

I seem to recall it was something to do with the plumbing to the carbs.

As the RGS was developing into a serious flop and the major jap makers had a host of new sporting models on the starting blocks, Laverda quickly needed something to fit their "sport" image.

The 1000SFC was launched by Laverda alone. It followed the fashion with cast wheels, with even a 16" at the front on the first prototypes. Thankfully, 17inchers were catching on at the time and the 16" was dropped. Reckon the transition to 17" wasn't made because it buggered up the proportions as well as raising a few more issues such as ground clearance, etc. I never rode the prototype, but I can imagine the 16" front alone to compromise clearance considerably (The rider of the Moto Witt TT F1 managed to scrape the bottom frame rails, using the widest 18" tyres available at the time!).

Uwe Witt wasn't at all enamoured by the factory end product, the chassis had numerous issues (when he questioned Massimo on the weak alloy swingarm, he replied "It's only for spectacle!"). I doubt much of Uwes' input, if any, was actually realised (I'll ask him next time when I see him). Later on, he requested Massimo to build the bike with wire wheels after discovering the cast wheels to be the cause of several handling problems, and to satisfy german punters that clamoured for them. Cast wheels then still carried a certain stigma in Germany, they were scorned upon by "real" bikers. The Koni rear shocks were Uwes' suggestion. He also requested a black version. Back then, Germany was still THE major market in Europe, Massimo wanted to sell bikes, not just display them.

The wheel hubs were manufactured in Cologne, spokes and rims came from Breganze, wheels were assembled at Moto Witt and sent back to Italy. Early front hubs were modified 3C/SF2 items, when stocks ran out, these too were made in Cologne. I well remember sawing off chunks of billet stock before carting them off for machining. Later on, assembled hubs were sent to Italy and the wheels were laced in Breganze. Under many black SFCs, a red one may be found, many red bodywork sets were simply oversprayed.

The cast wheels came from OSCAM, had stocks run out, the factory could have simply ordered new ones. OSCAM also supplied Ducati for various models at the time. Maybe it had something to do with Laverdas' financial situation and OSCAM declined... Mr.Witt was also not very happy about the manner in which financial matters were handled by Breganze.

Thankfully, the final batch of 1000SFCs seemed to fulfill the desires of many Laverda enthusiasts, but it was too less, too late to save the factory.

The pic of the 1000SFC prototype below was taken outside the Moto Witt premises ca. 1984.

piet

View attachment 86147

I liked the stance of the 16” wheel version

Shame it was too low for good ground clearance

Kawasakis GPZ and Guzzi of the same ilk with 16” front never had that issue, those manufacturers had that sorted.

 

[Laverdalothar]

Those are very optimistic RPM figures Lothar! And if it WERE possible to get a triple to 10,000RPM in top gear with std gearing it would be going a lot faster than 230 I'd imagine. Someone chime in with kph/1,000rpm figures please ... halve that 10,000 and you'd be saying that a triple is doing 115kph at 5,000. Unlikely - I don't own one so don't know.

Did you read I said "and even if they would"? ;-) I said also that most do not go beyond 9.000...

@sfcpiet: I think the 28-29 per 1.000 revs are already optimistic or very theoretical (as are the 9.000 in top gear, just to make clear again...!). At that speed, rearwheel spin starts kicking in with 3-4 % loss etc. 29 would bring the bike to 230km/h at 8.000 revs. I know that mine did overstep the 8.000 once (just before the valve burned due to fuel starvation...) and the GPS showed just something like 223 or so if I remember well. But maybe the tacho is also lying - who knows (or cares...?).

I bored out the fuel taps before that happened, which did improve the fuel flow a bit but not sufficiently obviously. I added a fuel pump and adjusted the size of the float valves accordingly. Bike hasn't done it's first 1.000km though, so I can not tell what the results now would be. And honestly? I can not be bothered to care...

 

[CLEMTOG]

The SFC1000 was originally fitted with old stock Smiths clocks, (30+ years old and this caused failures, due to dried out lubrication) these were the subject of a worldwide recall and a change to Veglia, what is (EXTEMELY) common is that the kit provided by the factory including a change in ring gear and worm drive for the front axle speedo gearbox, was noit fully used, dealers could not be bothered to change them drive ratios,, so they ran with Smiths type speedo gearbox bits and hence were way out.

I rode a borrowed one (I had bought it on behalf of a friend and it lived with me for 6 months prior to shipping overseas) on a continental trip with my late wife Andrea, decades ago, and the whole feel of the SFC was very much of an RGS with a kit of parts from an aftermarket shop, like Pride and Clark or M&P, when dark and using the headlights, there was more white light shining in my face than on the road f.e. I very much preferred the RGS/Corsa, which felt (and so it should) like a proper bike/fast tourer, motorways were a breeze.
CLEM

 

[Andy J]

I agree with Clem the RGS/Corsa was a better bike and I probably should have opted instead for the Corsa sat alongside the first SFC I bought, and then I might not have bought the second SFC (that went bang) as chances are I would have kept the Corsa.
Whatever, water under the bridge now, and here is me attempting a bit of speed testing shortly before it came to a premature end. Also Ralph F-K's idea of what the SFC should have been like.

 

[piranha-bro2]

Did you read I said "and even if they would"? ;-) I said also that most do not go beyond 9.000...

@sfcpiet: I think the 28-29 per 1.000 revs are already optimistic or very theoretical (as are the 9.000 in top gear, just to make clear again...!). At that speed, rearwheel spin starts kicking in with 3-4 % loss etc. 29 would bring the bike to 230km/h at 8.000 revs. I know that mine did overstep the 8.000 once (just before the valve burned due to fuel starvation...) and the GPS showed just something like 223 or so if I remember well. But maybe the tacho is also lying - who knows (or cares...?).

Apologies if i misunderstood, Lothar. My comment was about the possibility of a std triple doing 9,000rpm in 5th on 19/40 530 rear sprockets - and you do say 'most 1000 SFC do not rev beyond 9.000 in last gear' - I would say none do, not most don't. I think Red's 130hp hyper-triples pull to 9500 but doubt they've seen that in 5th (obviously a racer bike, so geared for tracks, not salt lake speed trials). And I think Piet's gearing calc is probably close, so 8,000 would be a pretty decent clip - your 223kph sounds about right, if a little short. It's dead easy to calculate - primary drive ratio, final drive ratio and tyre circumference.

Not sure wheelspin could factor that highly with the relatively low HP output of the Laverda, but I'm no expert. Certainly at much higher speeds and HP it is a factor. I wonder how much tyre centrifugal expansion is at play at 220+

As you say, doesn't really matter, but you see some pretty wild claims out there based on what the gauges say. I recall a major moto mag here getting some insane speed out of the 1st EFI Kawasaki 1100s. They later discovered the speedo was 25kph optimistic at 200+