as Marnix knows I owned drum brake SFC 750 8334 here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, finished a comprehensive rebuild well started by a previous owner, added a Ceriani four leading shoe front brake, John Wilson of Intelligent Ignition Systems (IIS) of Australia built a custom digital ignition for the bike, and Wolfgang supplied a pair of new 36 mm Dellorto's that I replaced the Amals with. I had it street registered here in Alberta with a custom plate, "SFC", and I street rode it quite a bit west and south of Calgary, and into British Columbia. Marnix supplied information for the rebuild, Wolfgang supplied many authentic drum brake SFC 750 bits. My concession to modernity and street information is I had a cheap small digital speedo mounted, a horn, and mirrors. Still did not have turn signals, or even an ignition switch, to power it you plugged in a coil wire onto a terminal through the opening in the side panel, beside the charge indicator light that was also visible though the same cut out in the side panel.
For Wolfgang's annual rallies in Nakusp BC I would trailer it there, then make a heck of a racket in the hills and valleys with the sound booming through the entire area. I took it to local Harley rallies, where it was always the loudest bike there. It was a lot of fun, but really uncomfortable for more than a couple of hours, half a day of smoking through the twisties around Nakusp would cripple me for a couple of days.
The bike was bought from me several years ago by Mike C, and lives in the NW USA with what I understand to be a substantial number of Laverda's including other SFC 750's. While my mechanical "improvements" were not necessarily well regarded by some SFC 750 purists, especially to such a rare bike, they made the bike an easy starter, it even idled well, and it ran incredibly well. Its engine performance far outstripped its braking abilities. On one occasion not far outside Nakusp on an unfamiliar road I was spanking the bike hard, came around a turn to find an unexpected "Stop" sign which I blew through with both brakes full on at probably 100 mph plus, shouldn't even have bothered with the brakes...... I did manage to resist the urge to fit a double disc brake front end, although if I had kept the bike longer, I probably would have grafted one on, the bloody thing was dangerous being ridden hard on the street with the drums. I can say I was riding the bike as intended by its builders, it was never treated as a collector's piece in my ownership, although each winter for a couple of years it did live inside in my den in my house........
John Wilson of IIS is still a forum member here, as is Mike C still a forum member here, who publicly identified himself on FaceBook recently in a thread about this bike. Hopefully Mike will come along and report on the current state of the bike. I don't know if Mike rides it much, although I sure hope so! He did mention to me that after my fettling and changes it is the easiest of his SFC 750's to start......
I will dig out photos of the bike as it was in my care around 2010 and post them.
I still have three Laverda triples registered and insured for road use, but I have to admit my "modern" bikes see more annual mileage these days. My current fettling project is a 2022 Kawasaki H2 SX SE supercharged, it is on my motorcycle lift table half disassembled at the moment, I am shooting for 250+ real rear wheel hp by spring..... I got 228 real rear wheel horsepower out of my since sold 2018 H2 SX SE, hoping to better that significantly with the slightly redesigned 2022. The H2 also has real brakes, none of this drum brake nonsense
Paul LeClair
