Quattro Stagioni
Italians are masters of the art of living. No other nation in the world knows how to elevate even the most ordinary things in life to an art form the way Italians do.
Be it art, food or even motorcycles, the Italians want to revel in aesthetic perfection all mated to breathtaking technical ingenuity. With this philosophy in mind, we’re riding a revered and precious quartet of classic Italian thoroughbred sports bikes the way they’re meant to be ridden: respectfully, beautifully – and as fast as we dare!
Laverda 750 SF
For a time, there was a tendency to classify bikes between 350 to 750cc in the broad category of ‘middleweights’. But to call the Laverda 750 SF a mere ‘middleweight’ would be a grave injustice.
From a modern slant, a parallel twin with 60 stampeding Italian stallions under the tank may be considered as a suitable mount for a novice rider, but in the early 1970s the blazing beast from Breganze was considered a machine to be reserved for highly experienced motorcyclists only.
The story behind the creation of the legendary Laverda twin (and its equally legendary three-cylinder stablemate) reads like the Great Italian Storybook for Boys. The company was formed in 1873 as a producer of farm machinery – Laverda is still a leading manufacturer of combine harvesters to this day. In 1949, after a long and ruinous war, the company diversified and started successfully building small-capacity two-wheelers alongside their combines. In 1964, Massimo Laverda – great grandson of founder Pietro Laverda – returned from a trip to the US armed with insight into the large and rapidly expanding luxury and performance motorcycle market. Massimo persuaded his father, Francesco, to invest in developing a big-bore bike engine for use in a full-size, long-distance motorcycle, one that reflected the indestructible DNA of an agricultural machinery manufacturer.
When a 650cc prototype overhead-cam parallel twin Laverda appeared at the London Motorcycle Show only a short (and rather un-Italian) while later in November 1966, the shape and construction of the engine turned out to be strongly influenced by Honda’s CB72 and CB77 engines.
The reason for Laverda’s choice was two-fold: the machine not only had to
