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Roger Viehl and Peter "Piet" Herrmann share a passion: the love for classic bikes from the northern Italian city of Breganze.
Dom-Esch is the name of the little spot on the northern foothills of the Eifel that Laverda lovers know from all over the world. Because behind the barren facade of Dom-Esch-Strasse 83, the "Orange Cycle Team" (OCT), founded in 2000, is hiding in an old square farm.
What awaits visitors there is unique: there are classics from the Italian manufacturer Laverda everywhere. Founded in 1949 by Francesco Laverda, the brand gained worldwide fame with the orange 750 SF and SFC. In 2004 Laverda became part of the Piaggio group, the glorious history was over.
With 170 things about the city highway
Many machines in the yard are covered with tarpaulins, some no longer have an engine, others look like scrap metal. But nothing is thrown away at OTC. Founder Roger Viehl, born in Antwerp and grew up in Leverkusen, fell in love with Laverda in 1981: "A buddy came by with a 3CL, 1000 cubic, three cylinders, should have run 8000 kilometers. I came back from the test drive with a big grin "says the car master. He bought the machine - even though, as he later learned, it had 48,000 on the clock - and used to heat 170 things over the Leverkusen city highway.
He also indulged his passion for the robust two- and three-cylinder under the motto "once Laverda - always Laverda" at the Cologne importer "Moto Witt", for whom he worked for a while. When the end of Laverda became apparent, Roger bought all the remaining parts that he could find: "Moto Witt", that of the Danish and the Swiss importer, and the factory stock from Italy. Since then, the increasingly rare parts have been stored in the former tobacco barn, above the stable - today's workshop - and in the cross-section.
Meanwhile, in the workshop the German-Australian Peter "Piet" Herrmann, mechanical engineer, precision mechanic and automotive master, placed new valve guides in a previously heated cylinder head with practiced hammer blows. He has been working for Roger since 2009, and they met at Witt in the mid-90s.
At that time Piet, a jack of all trades - he was also a gas station attendant, locksmith, taxi entrepreneur and auto parts dealer - took over the Witt workshop management. "I bought my first three-cylinder 1000 in 1980," he says. Today Piet owns 13 bikes - including a Laverda Tourismo 100, with which he successfully participated in "Milano - Taranto" in 2015 in the footsteps of the legendary historic motorcycle race.
Roger particularly remembered the 50th anniversary of Laverda in 1999. "We both crashed down to Italy. During a tour of the vineyard it happened, and suddenly a black cloud of hail grenades unloaded," says Roger. "The damage was great, many machines had broken panels and sheet metal damage." Piet's 1000 did not start, the hail had destroyed a plug. However, this was not a problem for the two professionals. We went home at full throttle.
When the two Laverdisti dodged a speed trap on the highway in Austria and ignited on the country road, they lost sight of each other. "We had no cell phones. I didn't see Piet anymore and I'm full of pipe. When I got there he called, the police had stopped him and said: 'You stay here!'" Says Roger with a grin. It was expensive for Piet.
The two Laverda friends were always on the go, whether on overnight rides to the Bol?d Or on the Paul Ricard circuit or around 4,200 kilometers over all passes in France within seven days. Roger and Piet have little time for such tours today. One reason: her OTC colleague Dirk Schreiber, merchant and dispatcher of spare parts, died in January 2016. Since then, Roger has also taken care of his tasks.
Piet, on the other hand, worked on Dirk's estate even in his rare spare time: a Laverda with extremely rare racing frames and a two-cylinder 750 SFC factory engine that started at the Imola GP in 1973. "Dirk had bought the part, it was in the hands of the collector for 20 years," says Piet. When OTC was invited three months after Dirk's death to present the Laverda 750 SFC Special at the "2017 QBE International Festival of Speed" in Sydney Motorsport Park, it was clear: the one-off must be completed.
And indeed, from March 23 to 26, Piet demonstrated the machine to more than 22,500 enthusiastic spectators in the daily demo runs. The best moment for him was "sticking to Giacomo Agostini's ass in the penultimate curve!" On the straight, however, he could no longer keep the speed of the 15-time Italian record world champion on the 500 MV Augusta. In a figurative sense, the late friend Dirk was always there. Because the following dedication is painted in large white letters on the red racing hump.... "In Memorium Dirk Schreiber 1963 - 2016".
