Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

cooled 750cc engine, which is in tended to power a range of new bikes recalling Laverd a's famou s mo dels of yesteryear. First up is the 7505 base model, delivering 80 bhp at the rear w hee l at 8800 rpm, and just now entering produ ction in tw o-seat er form; it w ill retail for a keen 7499 pounds (abo u t $12,375) in Laverda ' s top e xp ort market, Great Britain, against 69,95 pound s ($11,540) for a Hond a CBR600 a nd a whoppin g 10,800 ($ 17,820) fo r the Duc a ti 748 Bipost o, wh ich Laverda eng inee rs say provides the performance benchm ar k at which its own 750cc ottovalvole is targeted, Next will come the costlie r 750SF du e to be launched at the Mila n Show in September - with 92 bhp at the whee l at 9200 rpm, and available in bo th singleand dual-seat gu ise, Fina lly, the company's single-seat 750SFC superspo rt contender wi ll be pr oduced, pr obably making its debu t a t th e Munich Show in Sept ember ' 98, This model will almost certainly be p ainted oran ge - lik e th e classi c bik e of the same d esigna tion and homologated for World Su persport racing in 1999, Laverda is maki ng n o predictions about its performan ce, but expect a minimum of 100 bhp at the wheel in stree t form and over 112 bhp in raceguise. The first of thes e mod els, the 7505, is the bike that Tog non will be us ing to relaunch the Laverda marqu e in key markets like the United States and japan (deliv eries began in june in both countries), with Laverda starting up its ow n lOo.dealer U.s, operation based in Daytona Beach, Florid a, un der direct factory contro l. Thi s will augmen t the ex is ti ng 14nation La verda export network , w ith Britain, Germa ny, Aus tra lia and - per-. hap s su rp risingly - Malaysia bein g the co m p an y's ke y existing ma rke ts a t w hich th e new 7505 w ill be targe ted , with pr oduction rising from the presen t 22 bikes bein g bu ilt each day by the factory ' s 100-m a n wo rk fo rce u p to a planned 30 per d ay by the sta rt of the new-model year in Septembe r, By fast-forwa rd ing the 750 and waiting until it was production-read y before expa nding into cruc ial mark ets like the ,United States and japan, La ve rd a ha s imp lici tl y ad mi tted that th e old a ircooled eigh t-valve parallel-twin motor w hich has acted as the company's lifeline over the past half-decad e - is now frankl y pa st its sell-by date, at least in terms of performance, It's not surp rising, really, considering it started life in 500cc form back in 1977 and was pr ogressively upsized in capacity through 600cc and 650cc variants to the present 668cc of the Gho st and other ba se mod el s in th e r evi ved Lave rda range, But as capaci ty increased a nd ou tput climbed, inevitabl e overheating problems led to a drop in power, thanks to cylinde r-head distortion and a loss of com p ression: This was only pa r tia lly cured by s up pleme nta ry oil -cooli ng, p a rtic ul arl y in the a rea a rou nd the exhaus t valves, Also, the need to go for horsepow e r figures up hig h to keep pace with the ma rketplace competition .resulted in a lack of torque below 5000 r pm that mad e rid ing th e 668 or a ny othe r Lav erda fit ted with the air I oilcooled motor more like bein g aboard a pea ky two-stroke th an a fo ur-s trok e twin. :~, Time for a change. A half m ile down the road from the Zan e factory on the '.firs t custom er 7505 off th e p roduction line tells you a pa ge has be en turned: ,This is a m otorcycle dr ama ticall y im proved over its pred ecessors, w hich (Above) There's neve r bee n any quest ion that the twin-spa r aluminum, Nlco Bakkerderived chass is was compe tent. Now It's got the motor to go with it, and eve n better handl ing due to a lower center of gravity, a side benefit of the lighter powerpla nt. (Right) The new twi n will pUll right through the 9200- rpm redll ne on the white-laced 11 ,O o-rpm tach . Th ough not O yet ava ilable from Brembo, the front brake lever will be adjustable. for the first time bears comparison on a le ve l p laying fi eld w it h it s m iddleweight oppos ition, For a start, it's less clattery than the o ld air-cooled motor, w hich always let you know (even th rough a full-face helmet) that there we re bits inside whirring up and dow n and round and rou nd . Inevitably, bei ng liquid-coo led , the 750 is quieter, as w ell as less vintage and more so phis ticated in feel. But it also doesn 't feel as if it's straining a t an y revs, whereas the old 668 engine certainIy let you know w hen it wa s working hard - which wa s mos t of the time. Getting mid -'90s performance from an engine des igned in th e mid-70s mea nt yo u had to w ork the gearbox ha rd to keep it revving up high - and put u p with the fact ther e wa s pretty b r utal tra n s m ission snatch and n o power to speak of below five grand. N ot o n the 750 : This is a modern motor for modern times. For a start, the power d eli ve r y lo w down is m uch cleaner and crisper than before, in spite of the fact that the throttle bodies on the We be r I Marelli fuel-in jectio n system (which still u ses a si ng le , in jector pe r cylinder, but has an uprated CPU with faster and more precise engin e management) have increased in diam eter from 40mm on the old 668 motor to 43mm on the new one. This means that, stuck in a line of traffic at 40.50 mph, the Laverda engine runs cleanly a t low r pm on a co nsta n t throttle o pen ing , ins tead of hu n ting in and ou t of the p owerban d anywhere below five gra nd . You d on ' t have to keep clutchi ng it or changin g down to grab more revs to pr event the engin e from hiccuping or snatching the transmissi on like on the firs t Ghos t roadsters; now , it'll pull cleanly away in top gea r from as low as 3000 rpm, and w ill run ha ppily a s low a s 2500 r p m without fuss - though if you want brisk acceleration to zap a truck or deal wi th tr affi c, you s till ne ed to hook down a co u p le of g ea rs and g e t th e en gine revv ing on a Wide-open throttle. Obv ious ly, there isn' t the low-down tor que yo u ge t wit h a bigger one-liter twin . However, when you do go for the rev s, you ' ll notice that on the 750 there isn't the s tep in th e powe r d eli very aro un d 5000 rpm that the re was before. Wha t yo u get now is just a completely linear, smooth power bu ild -up a ll th e way thr ough the rev ran ge, righ t up to the 9400-rp m rev-limiter - which you're invited to hit, because the top-end poke on the 7505 is so ad dictive. Even though th is 80 -ho rsepowe r 747cc motor, measuring 83 x 69mm, has a 4.5mm bigger bore but the sa me stroke as the old 66-bhp air- cooled motor, it's a mark of how much better engineered it is tha t itrevs even h igher - a nd th at ' there' s a real pa yoff for doing so. Th e power incre ases pr ogr essively right up to the 88 00-r p m p e ak, a n d h old s it beyond that , d eliverin g a rew ard for usin g the gea rbox to keep the pa ralleltwi n e ng in e revvi n g high, if it' s s park li ng p erformance you' re after rather than loaf-along traffic manners. Gear ratios are all new , wi th a di fferen t selector mechan ism, more evenly spaced than on the old engine, reflecting the improved torque, less-peaky nature and cleaner power delivery of the 750cc motor, bu t the gearch a ng e on each of the two bikes I tested was stiff and balky in the bott om three gears, th ough acceptable in higher ratios. This was a surprise, given tha t, apa rt from a stiff clutch , the Lave rda six-speed cluster previous ly swapped ratios ea sily, thou gh neutra l was always pretty hard to find , w hereas now it's just impossible at rest and hit-and-miss on the move. It tu rns out, Laverda says, th at a ll thi s is a payback for the lighter clu tch action and smoo ther, more progressive take-up on the 750, obtained through a compro mised operation tha t d oesn 't s u p p ly s uffici en t le ve r a ge to the hydrau lic sys tem to pump eno ug h oil to wo rk the clutch pr op erly. The com pa ny is aware of this - it couldn' t not be - but . the pr oblem is that Brembo can' t deliver th e ri ght p ackage un til a utumn. But ra ther tha n hold up p rod u ction, bikes wlll b e re t r o fi tted with the co r rec t clu tch-lever mechanism when it comes on line in October. Meanwhile, 7505 owners must try to not let this irritating gli tch spoil their enjoy me n t of an otherwise radicall y im p roved motorcycl e. Because when 35

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