Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SV650 V-twin tha t made its debut in Laverda gu ise at the Paris Show as the new Lynx - itsel f a mo dular design par excellence. But if their old air-cooled 668cc motor passed its sell-by dat e so me years ago , La verda ' s newer 750cc, wa te r-cooled, DOHC, eigh t-valve parallel-twin is u ndeniablya much fresher slice of mechanical produce, hence the compa ny's d ecision to update its stripped-ou t Strike roads ter lineu p a year ago. They've done so by ma tching the newer engine, hitherto only used in its fully fai red 750cc sportbike range in base-mod el 82-hp guise, to the be nchmark Bak ker-derived tw in -spar aluminum frame, and a lean, mean look created by stylist Lino Borg esan. Th e resu lt provided a valid alte rn a ti ve to Du cati's 900 Monster in the nudie-bike naked-roadster stakes, with a net performance advantage from the fuel-injected "otto-oatoole" mo tor. That powerplant, in spite of giving awa y a 2Q-per cen t capaci ty han dicap, had the edge on the carbureted M900 desmo, and slaughtered the M750 sto ne dead - leaving only the Monster's s tatus as a me-first d esign icon, coupled wi th clever, big-b udget marketing, to preserve its market dominance. Dynamically, the Laverda was a better bike. Though Du cati ' s transformation und er American ownershi p int o a volume manufacture r means more Mons t ers a re manufactured in a s ingle month than Laverd a ' s total production for an en tire year, th e Bologna firm ha s reacted to the Strike's lead (as w ell as th e e ve n bigger threa t of th e Su zuki-powered Cagiva Raptor) b y fu el- in je ctin g and upd a ting t h e Monst er r ang e for n e xt y ea r . Bu t Laverda had already an tici pa ted that, and th e Black Strike 750cc Cafe Racer is th e result. Launched at th e 1999 Mil an Sh ow and en tering series production (tha t is, not a on e-off limited-edition batch) in December fo r sale early in the New Year a t a n ex t re m ely competitive price in Italy of our $9000 - the same as the carbureted 900 Mon ster, $500 less than the new 900 i.e. - the Black Strike ha s not only been refined sty ling-wise by Laver da 's new ex-Aprilia d esign chief, Alberto Ca pe lla, it's also had a performance boost by adop ti ng th e most p ow erful ve rsion of the 180-d egree (so, one- u p one-dow n, piston-wise) DOHC par alleltw in motor, as fitted to the 750SS Formula an d itself updated for 2000. Th us w hile still d eliver in g 92 hp a t 9200 rpm as be fo re, a co m bi natio n of new cams hafts, altered valve tim ing and a rem apped Marelli fu el-injecti on system (though still retaining a single injector p er cy linder and th e sa me 50 m m throttl e bodi e s ) de livers im p rove d midrange power as w ell as a smo other, flatter torque curve, which now peaks with 60.5 foot-po u nds at 6500 rpm. This comes about also thanks to a new, handcrafted, tw o-in to-one exhaust system fitted with a twin-exit Shark carbon can . It delivers a fruity exhaust no te that, when you press the button to light up the motor, allows th e Black Strike to give every promise of livin g up to the "Cafe Racer " tag em blazoned on the bodywo rk. In fact, the Black Strike 750 is a blast to rid e - and I'm not jus t referri ng to the tug on your arms occasioned by red -lining the tach in sixth gear at an indicated 136 mp h down the Rijeka front straight. Besid es the eng ine mods, the benefit of w hich b ecomes im med ia tely appare nt when yo u zap off the mark an d have to stand on the foot pegs to hold the fro nt wheel on the grou nd , Laverda has also rer igged th e riding position - at least compared to the previous Stri ke s, a s well as the Formula, with the footpegs slightly lower but also farther back than befo re, and a pair of clip-on aluminum handlebars milled from so li d bill ets bo lted to th e fully adjustabl e 41mm Paioli upside-d own forks, above th e upper tripleclamp. As we ll as d eliverin g an id eal riding position that off ers both comfort and control, the bars are lo w ered ju st enou gh to deli v er a more s por tin g stance than the previou s hi gh-barred arrangement. It als o is s lig h tly more aerodynamic - and gives quite directfeeling steering in tighter tu rns, thanks to the excellent leverage of th e fairl y wide-spread bars. Trailing alo ng at 50 mph in fourth gear at around 5000 rpm d oesn 't produce anything like the same midrange transmission snatch which made ridi ng Takin T: In the cafe-race r tradition, the Laverda Is lean, mean and st ripped out: (Above) The carbonfaced Inst rument dash and the lower-placed handlebars. so many previous Laverda s in traffic suc h a chore, thanks to th e improved cushdrive in th e rea r Marchesini wheel and , p re su mably, also to the a lt ere d cam profiles and remapped injection. Th ey' ve also fixed the ha rsh gear shift from th e first 750s: The shift action is still a lit tle notchy , but it' s now quite precise, and the clutch is infinitely less stiff than on any Du ca ti or Aprilia Vtwin , making light work of town riding. But yo u still need to di al up 6000 r evs o n the w hite-faced tach before ther e' s serious power on tap from th e eigh t-valve engine - though from there to the red line (and 9500 rpm rev-limiter) is just a nano-second of acceleration, because the engine picks u p speed so quickly in its upper reaches. It ' s a bu zz to ride - on ly, not literally - wit h what ap p ears from thi s early pre-prod uction mo del to be an improved qua lity of manufactu re compared to the hitor -miss level of previous Laverdas. Eve n th e passeng er gets bette r accommodation, with good ha ndgrips and a thick enough pad to make boulevarding to the next bistro or cruising the cafes more of a pleasure than a chore. And the mirrors eve n work. Ridi ng the 750 Black Strike u nd erlin es that, after the turmoil of the pas t year, Laverda gives every sign of having se t itself straigh t. In d elivering a revvier, rortier tw in-cylind er nak ed bike option to the muscular, lazier Du cati Mons ter, Laverda has carve d itself a solid niche in the roadster mar ket. eN Commando le Black Strike cafe racer isn' t a throwback so mu ch to the ea rly-'60s era of the Ac~ Cafe and the Triton times, as .to 10 ye~rs later an d the d ays of the big British NVT twi ns . Sling a leg over the Laverda and fire up the en!?me, and you sw~ly realize this is a mo dem equivalent of the Norton Commando i.n Fastb ack form, complete ~th sporting stance and s.!l'lpped -out styling. And it' s cou pled wit h a willing engine tha t, in Latin guise. may not be as torqu ey as ItS Anglo counterpart o.f2;, years.ago, but more than ma kes up for it in term s of its appetite for revs, combined with its smoothed -.out m i d ra~ge power d.ehvery. It's Ironic, really: Whil e American-owned Norton I.S employl:,g Al Melling to c~ncoct a series of cranky designs like a 1500cc V-elght ultrabike and 1600cc V-tWIn crUISer, no ne of which have anythi ng to do with Norton 's heri tage (or a hope of Cathcart's Unlon-Jack helmet I succeed ing co m mercially , even wit h a Norton badge on the Isn't really that out of place tan k), its Italian counterpart with an equally illus trio us paralwith this Italian steed, lel-twin tradition and almost as legendary a history has prowhich In some ways duced the kind of bike Norton ought surely be concentrating out-Nortons on making today, maybe in a slightly larger capacity. It can 't Norton, be any co incidence tha t Laverda marketing boss Aurelio Lolli is a longtime Norton Commando owner, can it? You'll feel the influence when vou crouch down atop the airbox sh roud (fuel tank'is under the seat, with the filler under the pillion, as on all Laverdas) , The only thing that stops it b eing a co un terfeit Commando is the fact there's absolutely no vibration from th e parallel-twin engine even in this power-up Formula-spec guise, thanks to the very effective gear-driven counter-balancer that removes the need for any balance weights in the handlebars. Instead, you just get the sa me kind of u ltradistinctive, droning exhaust note to remind you wha t kind of bike you 're riding - only here with a higher pitch, the th anks to Laverda's a ppetite for revs. 29

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