The Laverda V6:

Anyone who is even remotely involved with Laverdas knows about "The Vee Six".  My visit to Italy recently was to me a pilgrimage with two objectives; to meet Massimo Laverda and to see the Vee Six.  The rest was a bonus.  I am happy to say that both were achieved and those few hours spent with Massimo will be etched on my mind forever.  Unfortunately I was not able to hear the bike running but I am at least able to say that I have sat on the v-six!  I joked with friends I met in Thiene (Stefano, Francesco and Alfredo) that 'today my arse has been on the V-six and I will never wash it again', very funny at the time but, fortunately for my underpants, only partly true!

I talked with Massimo about the bike, it's hard not to when the first thing to meet you when you enter his house is a V-six engine on a stand.  I was able to pick up a few things inaccurately reported elsewhere (including here) and have included corrections in these pages where appropriate.  Two things are beyond question however; the first is that the V-six is a significant piece of motorcycling history- not just Laverda history and the second is that Massimo Laverda, a man who had so much input into the project, is a living treasure.

The V-six was designed and built throughout 1976-78 and raced just once in the1978 Bol D'or 24hr race. It's appearance and subsequent DNF represented the entire racing achievement of the project, eight and a half hours were all the world had to savour the shrill exhaust note in anger. But now, twenty years on, it remains one of the great legends of the Italian motorcycling industry viewed not as a racing failure but as a technical masterpiece. So lets take a stroll through the history of this great motorcycle... the real original legend! 
 
 

How to use these pages:

There are a total of six pages representing different stages of the bike's history, links at the bottom of each page allow you to move through the pages, or return to the home page. You will find small images amongst the text, clicking on them will generally load a full sized version. This represents what I believe is the most comprehensive collection of V6 photgraphs on the internet and all remain the copyright of their respective owners, you are welcome to view them but please do not circulate them without the owners consent. 

Acknowledgements:

Tim Parker has been a great help in the making of these pages, providing many of the photographs and the clarification of some points of which I was not clear. Thanks Tim!  Alan Cathcart also graciously allowed me to use the article he wrote in 1991 after riding the bike, most of which appears in the ride impression page.  I was also able to have a few questans answered in my brief time with Massimo.  There has been remarkably little written about the V6 over the years and being in no way connected to the factory means that this is based purely on what I have read or been told, however every attempt has been made to provide an accurate account of this historic bike.  I hope I have succeeded. 
 

Further Reading:

Information about the V6 is fairly scarce but available if you sniff around a bit, including; 

'Laverda' by Raymond Ainscoe and Tim Parker, 1991, Osprey Publishing 

'Guide to Italian Motorcycles' by CJ Ayton, 1985, Temple Press 

'Italian Motorcycles' by Tim Parker, 1984, Osprey Publishing 

'Australian Motorcycle News' Vol 33 No6 1983 (Alan Cathcart story) 

'Australian Motorcycle News' Vol 40 No23 1991 (Alan Cathcart story) 

'SuperBike' magazine October 1982 (Tim Parker story) 

Reprints of Australian Motorcycle News articles (and some back issues) are available at modest cost, contact Australian Motorcycle News on  Ph. +61 3 9567 4227  or Fax +61 3 9267 9439 

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Copyright Stephen Battisson 1997 unless noted otherwise