The Lutz Laverda
The Lutz Laverda
From Breganze, via Burbank
FORZA ITALIA
GREAT WORKS OF ART REMAIN GREAT EVEN AFTER they’ve traded hands-possible exception of Liz Taylor. And so goes the legend of the Lutz Laverda. Ed Lutz made his fortune in the computer network security business and squandered it on a garageful of European motorcycles. Before he got into the megabyte biz, though, he did a tour of duty on the SoCal sportbike scene, turning wrenches at Harry Mallet’s Performance Works, a shop that campaigned Suzuki Katana Superbikes and later specialized in Bimotas. Lutz rode a 1978 Suzuki GS750 at the time, and was blissful in his ignorance until a chance meeting on the Angeles Crest Highway forever changed his mindset.
“I met this guy who was a musician and rode a Laverda Triple,” Lutz recalls. “I rode with him for a while, and when he finally asked me if I wanted to ride his bike, I was hooked. Eve always liked basic, brutish sorts of bikes, and the Laverda definitely was that.”
Having been bitten by the bug from Breganze, Lutz acquired an ’82 Jota, then an ’84 RGS Executive, and then an ’80 Montjuic, the latter inspired by a stint on Peter Davies’ pit crew at the 1988 La Carrera roadrace. He also created a website (search Eds Motorcycle and Truck Stuff) with a section devoted to the Italian marque.
Now, the circle of Laverda owners isn’t that big around, and our Laverda guy eventually came to know the Laverda Guy, Lance Weil of Ricky Racer in Burbank, California. And, more pertinent to our purpose here, Lutz came to know Weil’s masterwork, the 1200 RRSP (for “Ricky Racer Special”), winner of the Sportbike class at the 1998 Cycle World Readers’ Collection Series show in Long Beach, California. When the bike became available for purchase shortly thereafter, Lutz added a fourth Laverda to his collection.
The Ricky Racer Special had taken shape four years earlier, when a chiropractor named Keith Butterfield paid Weil $60,000 to build the ultimate Laverda, the superbike the company could have concocted if it hadn’t run low on lire. The project began with a one-off Spondon twin-spar aluminum chassis that employs the British firm’s customary concentric countershaft/swingarm pivot. The single-sided swingarm utilizes the rear hub from a Honda RC30, flipped around to accommodate the Laverda’s right-side drive. An Ohlins shock, GCB fork and triple-trees, ISR and Brembo brake components, and Marchesini wheels complete the top-shelf running gear.
Weil laid the carbon-fiber bodywork himself, while Jack Hageman crafted the aluminum ftiel tank. The front fender, clip-ons, hand controls and instruments are all Ducati items, the headlight is from a Yamaha and the taillight is from a Suzuki.
The three-cylinder engine started out as a 1984 RGS 1000, and was enlarged to 1144cc via a set of oversized JE forged pistons. Weil lightened, polished and balanced the internals, modified the combustion chambers to accept twin sparkplugs, installed oversized stainless valves and re-ratioed the hydraulic clutch actuator to give a lighter pull. Legendary flow-bench maestro C.R. Axtell ported the heads and spec’ed a set of relatively mild, low-lift cams that he settled on after discovering the Stockers opened the valves farther than would flow. A variable-curve Witt/DMC ignition provides spark, a trio of open-bellmouth Keihin 41mm flat-slides provides fuel, and exhaust gases exit through a custom-bent, tapered-tube stainless system capped off by a carbon-fiber muffler.
Weil claimed the engine was good for 100 horsepower, so Lutz was pleased when the CW dyno verified it pumps out 98.1 bhp and 68.9 foot-pounds of torque at the rear wheel. Furthermore, the magazine’s certified scales showed that the bike weighs just 427 pounds dry. But while the Laverda's specifications are impressive for what is essentially a 15year-old motorcycle, its sound is even more so, the howling exhaust note resembling that of a V-12 Ferrari-only louder.
Lutz rides his new pride and joy fairly regularly, but admits he is reluctant to push it hard. “It feels a lot like a racebike,” he says. “It’s a lot faster than my other Laverdas, but then it’s 100 pounds lighter. I can’t really say how it handles, though, because I haven’t cornered hard enough on it. I don’t want to risk crashing it.”
Understandable, considering all the hard work that went into the bike, not to mention the money. Oh yeah, the money: Pressed for a figure, Lutz laughs and says, “Let’s just say I paid less than the original price and more than I want my wife to know.” —Brian Catterson
