Part two due to message length limitation:
Passion and vision
Cultured and brilliant, Massimo, however, has noticed several signs that make him understand how the motorcycle market is experiencing not a temporary crisis, but an epochal change that will overwhelm companies unable to adapt to the new course. The utility vehicle is destined to be swept away by the spread of small-displacement cars, also benefited by installment sales, which car manufacturers and their sales network are able to support to a much greater extent than motorcycle manufacturers.
He is an avid motorcyclist: in his garage there are, among others, a rare and very fast Vincent 1000, progenitor of modern superbikes, and a BMW R69S, of which he perfectly knows its strengths and weaknesses. In addition to buying some of the most popular motorbikes in those years, he often has the opportunity to also try those of his friends and listen to their complaints.
Realizing that it is not with a peaceful 200 and even less with a 125 that Laverda can still think of facing a decade that sees historic names such as Moto Guzzi and Gilera enter into crisis, Massimo was just twenty-five years old in 1964, when he decided that it was necessary to get a better idea of new market trends.
Stars, stripes and bikes
Thanks to the common knowledge of Carlo Perelli - then editor of the magazine Motociclismo, of which he will then be director for a long time - the young entrepreneur from Vicenza contacted the editor of Cycle Word, Joe Parkhurst, with whom he goes on a long tour to visit the major dealers of US motorcycles.
In those three weeks, traveling from New York to California, Parkhurst opens up to him a completely new world, the tempting opportunities of which the Japanese manufacturers, and in particular the aforementioned Honda but not only, have already begun to seize. One thing that does not escape them is that their efforts are still concentrated on small and medium-sized engines.
But it is mainly two things that strike him; the clever advertising campaign of the winged company is erasing the negative perception of motorcyclists by the general public - historic from this point of view will remain the slogan You meet the nicest people on a Honda, or Meet the most beautiful people on a Honda - and as with its CB 77 Super Hawk of just 305 cubic centimeters, the Japanese company is depopulating on the American market, undermining even British models with more than double displacement.
Clear ideas
Returning to Italy full of enthusiasm, he tries to persuade his father Francesco to enter a market segment that, in the face of certainly considerable investments, could offer margins far higher than those of small displacements.
The reaction of the parent, who considers the choice to produce vehicles with a purely playful connotation almost amoral, as well as risky, is not the one hoped for, but Massimo does not give up. Luciano Zen, who has designed all the bikes that Breganze has released up to that point, and has become technical director, also supports his idea.
Laverda turns the page
In the end, as an extremely intelligent man as he has always been, the father understands that the time has come: it will be Massimo who will take over the management of the company and this gives the green light to the project for the new bike.
<Photo: ML, LZ and PL with the 650>
Massimo Laverda, Luciano Zen and Piero Laverda
(Massimo Laverda, Luciano Zen and Piero Laverda with the 650 which will debut at the London show in 1966)
The idea is to develop a 650 cc twin-cylinder, front-facing twin, similar to that of the Honda CB77 and ultimately also to the English competitors, with respect to which, however, the project will have to be much more modern. No valve actuation controlled by the dear old rods and rocker arms, no separate gearbox, even the classic kick-start, the bugbear of many aspiring motorcyclists. Massimo also demonstrates that he possesses the pragmatism that characterized the family: no one in the company has experience in developing an engine with these characteristics. He then decides on the spot to go to Switzerland to buy an example of the Honda that has impressed him so much. This should not surprise too much, given that even the Japanese engineers led by Soichiro Honda, designing their first engine with overhead camshaft, had taken their cue from an engine of the German NSU Rennofox, seen in 1954 at the Tourist Trophy. Brought to the company, in the same way the Japanese motorcycle is therefore disassembled and carefully examined.
However, if the mechanics of the small 305, given due proportions, are taken as a reference for what will be the new 650 - and even today this fact can be noticed by observing the two engines - as a motorcyclist with a fine palate, Massimo is aware of how, both from an aesthetic point of view and for its chassis, the Japanese bike is less suited to the tastes of the much more demanding European clientele.
The genesis
Under his constant supervision, starting from April 1965, Zen then traces a project that includes an engine that looks very similar to that of the Honda, although with its internal parts arranged in a clever mirrored way, while for the bodywork, the chassis and suspension, we look at what is the best of European production, capturing the most successful aspect of each model.
After eighteen months of hectic work, the first prototype is ready. We have already mentioned the front-facing twin-cylinder engine with chain-driven single-camshaft drive. Apart from the indispensable increase in many dimensions, made necessary by the more than double displacement - and on this aspect it must be said that the good Zen had even abounded - only the appearance of the fins of the thermal group is made pleasantly thinner. For the castings, the FLAM foundry (Fusioni Leghe Alumino Magnesio) in Gallarate is used, of which Laverda will take control a few years later.
<Photo: Second prototype>
Laverda prototype
(The second prototype with definitive instrumentation, while other details are still provisional)
The bodywork is a successful mix of tried and tested styles, but not devoid of its own originality: the tank, which will be subsequently modified, has a thin steel tube rack on the back similar to that of a Triumph. The square-shaped rubber knee pads, although also used in the United Kingdom, instead denote a vaguely Teutonic taste. The rear light with its support is also German, identical to that adopted by the BMW R69, while the shape of the cigar-shaped tailpipes of the Lafranconi - curiously similar to those fitted to the new Moto Guzzi V7 and destined to disappear - has a more British look. Similarly, the combination of dark color and silver side panels and mudguards recalls the Norton Dominator SS650, rightly considered a benchmark for class and grandeur.
It should be remembered that in the first half of the sixties, the production of components for heavy motorcycles by Italian companies was almost non-existent, so not only for the instrumentation - which in the prototype is embedded in the headlight but then will be placed in a raised position - we must turn to the English Lucas, while to have a reliable electrical sector, the choice of the German Bosch is almost obligatory.
<Photo: Third prototype>
Laverda 650
(The third prototype is now very similar to the production bike. The exhausts are no longer "cigar" but "salami slice")
Wanting to free itself from the wavering performance of English components and the limits of 6 volts systems, always with a view to prudential oversizing, the Vicenza twin is therefore equipped with a car-sized battery and a powerful starter motor, which allow you to permanently retire the old kickstarter. As a generator, the choice is strangely less innovative, given that it adopts a dynamo placed in front of the crankcase and driven by a short belt: this will always remain a prerogative of the large twin-cylinders from Vicenza, but without ever giving rise to particular problems.
For the brakes, we turn to Grimeca, while the suspension department of the first prototypes initially foresees a Marzocchi fork equipped with the classic sleeve covers at the front, then replaced in the series production by a more modern Ceriani, which will also supply the shock absorbers, from which will be eliminated the antiquated cap present in these test specimens.
<Photo: Third prototype>
London 1966. The debut
The first prototype made its debut at the London Earls Court Show in November 1966, shortly after the debut of the Moto Guzzi V7 at the Milan Motor Show and the presentation of the four-cylinder MV Agusta 600. Thanks also to the fact that the Mandello twin-cylinder, derived as it is from a project created for military supplies and police forces, is of a grand touring orientation, and the same goes for the one presented by Meccanica Verghera, light years away from the renowned models of Grand Prix, the new Laverda arouses unprecedented interest. Reservations and requests from aspiring dealers are pouring into the stand: the first super-motorbike with a sporting setting has been created.
<Photo: London exhibition, model on 650>
Laverda london 1966
(November 1966: at the London show Laverda amazes the world of two wheels with the prototype of its brand new 650)
Upon returning to the factory, a production must be dealt with which, however, is still to be organized, so before the actual entry into series, another two years pass, during which the prototypes pass through two other stages of evolution, both technical and aesthetics.
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