Looking for Laverda mechanic in Southern California, Nevada or Arizona

B

Bertram

New member
Location
Los Angeles, California USA
Forum members in the U.S. I am new to the Laverda marquee, I presently own a 1974 SF1. I am trying to find if there are any mechanics located in my neck of the woods, who would take on a new client . I reside in Los Angeles. Any help would be appreciated.
Bertram
 
It's been decades since I was in SoCal, but in your shoes I'd ask ProItalia for advice. I once bought a Laverda there. All those folks there have since died or retired, I'm sure. But, it could be a place to start searching. Good luck.
 
Hi Bertram, maybe not exactly what you're looking for and please bear in mind that most of the people on this list do the majority of maintenance work on their Laverdas themselves. The Laverda 750 twin is not a complex machine and was designed to be user maintainable for all but a few major jobs and no more complicated than other bikes of the period so anybody working on older motorcycles should be able to handle tuning and even fairly significant rebuild work on the 750 twins.
I don't know your skills or whether you may have a place where you can do the work but guided by the green book, a copy of the original user and parts manual and with some basic tools you should be able do most of the jobs to maintain the bike. This forum can advise if you run into a problem not in those guides and where to get parts if needed.
What type of jobs are you looking to get done on it?
If you'd be prepared to go a little farther, one remaining Laverda specialist in USA who has now spread his expertise to other brands is Scott Potter, he's now working in the Denver, Colorado area.
 
As for as I know, there are no shops left in Southern California that will touch one. European Cycle Specialties in Garden Grove was the last shop that would work on them and they are gone. Lance of Rickey Racer who used to be in Burbank is dead and I was told back in 2018 that Pro Italia in Glendale, the old mechanics are either dead or retired. The shops in the San Diego area are all gone. As for Northern California, I don't know. Scott Porter is in Denver but that's a long way from Los Angeles to get your bike worked on.

There are not enough Laverda's left on the road here to support a shop to work on them.

Now before I can give advice, you say that you are new to Laverda's? I am assuming you just bought the bike? Is it a nice running bike that needs minor maintenance or was it sitting in someones backyard for 40 years and is a plile of rust?

I do work on them but am retired and only when I have the time will I take the job. I am in Southern California.

So what work does the bike need? If by chance it's a bad crankshaft, in a couple months I will have all the tooling to fix them.
 
1200ts said:
As for as I know, there are no shops left in Southern California that will touch one. European Cycle Specialties in Garden Grove was the last shop that would work on them and they are gone. Lance of Rickey Racer who used to be in Burbank is dead and I was told back in 2018 that Pro Italia in Glendale, the old mechanics are either dead or retired. The shops in the San Diego area are all gone. As for Northern California, I don't know. Scott Porter is in Denver but that's a long way from Los Angeles to get your bike worked on.

There are not enough Laverda's left on the road here to support a shop to work on them.

Now before I can give advice, you say that you are new to Laverda's? I am assuming you just bought the bike? Is it a nice running bike that needs minor maintenance or was it sitting in someones backyard for 40 years and is a plile of rust?

I do work on them but am retired and only when I have the time will I take the job. I am in Southern California.

So what work does the bike need? If by chance it's a bad crankshaft, in a couple months I will have all the tooling to fix them.
Click to expand...
1200ts, thank you for the response. The Shops you have mentioned, I was familiar with back when they were open. As for Lance Weil, I had him do work on my Morini 3 1/2 Sport back in 1992 when I bought it. His shop back then was in Hollywood on Western. I took the bike to him on a referral from Pro Italia at the time, to go over it. He repaired the issues that were on it, to my satisfaction. In fact at that time he was pleasant to deal with. The work he did put my bike at a good base level, in regards to maintaining it. Later when he moved to Burbank and then out of State. I heard some major business/ personal issues came up, that affected his reputation. I was hoping to do the same with my Laverda; and have someone go over it and inform me as to how it is condition wise. I can maintain bikes as I have a number of them. There are issues that came up after purchase unbeknownst to me. This was totally my fault, I didn't question the previous owner or test the bike. I was dazzled by its appearance and had already committed to buying it. You say you live in Southern California, would you mind if we talked over the phone. If you want to this is my email address: Clark.Bertram@ladwp.com you could give me your phone number, and a good time to phone you. Again thanks for your response.

Bertram
 
arancia said:
Hi Bertram, maybe not exactly what you're looking for and please bear in mind that most of the people on this list do the majority of maintenance work on their Laverdas themselves. The Laverda 750 twin is not a complex machine and was designed to be user maintainable for all but a few major jobs and no more complicated than other bikes of the period so anybody working on older motorcycles should be able to handle tuning and even fairly significant rebuild work on the 750 twins.
I don't know your skills or whether you may have a place where you can do the work but guided by the green book, a copy of the original user and parts manual and with some basic tools you should be able do most of the jobs to maintain the bike. This forum can advise if you run into a problem not in those guides and where to get parts if needed.
What type of jobs are you looking to get done on it?
If you'd be prepared to go a little farther, one remaining Laverda specialist in USA who has now spread his expertise to other brands is Scott Potter, he's now working in the Denver, Colorado area.
Click to expand...
Arancia, thank you for your response, this forum has been helpful to me on issues.

Regards Bertram
 
Hello, Bertram,

I knew Lance very well, having first met him in about 1974, I think. The quality of his workmanship varied greatly depending on his bank account. By the time he was in Burbank there we few if any Laverda's on the road and hence few if any customers. This caused him to do shoddy work to get the bike back out the door as fast as possible and get paid. When he was unable to keep the doors open on his business and could find no other work, he left for Pennsylvania and Cosmopolitan motors. Unfortunatley he was killed by his metal lathe a few years later. The part came loose and hit him in the head. I will contact you off the forum.
 
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