Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1522278
VOLUME ISSUE JUNE , P127 refers to 9500 rpm without stating that the riders twisted the throttle that far. But clearly, the Jota was the fastest of the bunch. In 2024, motorcycles that can both hit and eclipse that top speed are plentiful; such was not the case in 1976. The standard 1000cc Jota was less intimidating, and the crew seemed disappointed with its per - formance, at least compared to the Jota version. Laverdas carried their weight up in the chest, so the high center of gravity meant that the motorcycles had to be ridden carefully and correctly. The brakes were barely mentioned, and they barely worked when ap - plied—but oh, that powerplant! Moto Guzzi had recently shed its ambassador image in America, thanks to the efforts of road racer Mike Baldwin. The LeMans model was a sporting machine, one that weighed less, went faster, and handled better than the stodgy machines from the Italian company. Guzzi's shaft drive worked smoothly, and the staff mentioned that "shaft torque reaction" was only an issue when the Guzzi was putzing along, something that didn't often hap - pen during this riding impression. The placement of the Moto Guzzi's cylinders seemed to make the motorcycle "fall" a few inches when the pilot would begin his descent into lean mode. It sounds frightening, but the staff adjusted quickly. "It took me about five minutes," one rider said, and the issue was not significant enough to warrant another mention. Today, merely mentioning the Ducati 750 SS is enough to bring most Ducatistas to their knees, as if Ing. Fabio Taglioni himself had sud - denly entered the room. They are beautiful motorcycles with superb handling attributes and the right kind of power for the racetrack. But the Super Sport had issues, problems that should've been dealt with in R&D long before power was switched on in the factory. The sleek and beautiful fuel tank, for starters, didn't work. How can a fuel tank not work? Well, hard stopping and quick acceleration are what we like to do on our mo - torcycles. On the Ducati, however, the tank struggled to get fuel into the petcocks during moments like these, and the writers called for a better system of baffling for the Desmo machine. When the tank was below half full, the tremen - dous twin would transform into a sputtering single! Not acceptable (though, when the rear brake got so hot that it boiled its own fluid, the fact that the Duc was running on one cylinder likely meant that stop - ping would be a less arduous task). It isn't enough for motorcyclists to simply enjoy life and celebrate the differences between our mounts. There must be a winner, so when the riding was done, and all the pilots had spent quality time on each machine, the inevitable comparison was on—which of these beautiful motorcycles was the best Italian ride? The Moto Guzzi was a steady performer, the MV was deemed too expensive ($6500) to be practical, and the Ducati, beautiful as it was, was also deemed most likely to doom its rider with trouble, with the team suggesting that one hour of riding equals four hours of maintenance. Horsepower was king in 1976, and the Laverda Jota 1000 won this contest—if you consider a fun ride in the SoCal mountains a game that must produce winners and losers. Ironically, it is also the only brand no longer with us, offi- cially pronounced dead more than 20 years ago. In the hallowed grounds where old motorcycles are laid to rest, a headstone reads Laverda. Its epitaph: the best Ital- ian motorcycle of 1976! CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives BIKE (OF 1976) We did name a winner, but that wasn't necessarily the goal of this comparison.