Labor or Love: 1976 Laverda 1000 Jota

1976 Laverda 1000 Jota
Miles: 30,000
Does not run
Bid at post: $4,000
Auction ends today at 4pm
BIN: $10,000

1976 Laverda 1000 cc triple , all original project needs restoration. Was told it was a Jota. Stored many years in a heated hangar. We at buyers expense can ship world wide , questions 503-999-0790. This a very rare motorcycle and excellent opportunity. This bike ran excellent before disassembly for restoration. Some extras. Reasonable reserve  theses bike are the Lamborghini or motorcycles.  Bid to win.!!!!! 

RSBFS
We have seen Laverdas garner a lot of attention and money. Since we were not familiar with this model, it seemed worth investigating and it proved to be worthy of a post even when this example is a project. Donn reviewed a ’79 Laverda in 2022 saying, “Laverda had been making motorbikes since 1949, and their 750 twin was a great success, especially in endurance racing. As new competition from Japan was arriving, the company created a 980cc triple, with double overhead cams and 32mm Dell’Orto carburetors. English importer Slater Bros. saw more potential and commissioned higher lift cams and 10-to-1 pistons resulting in a whopping 90 hp. A strong steel backbone accompanied the light-looking downtubes, making for a solid foundation for the usual Ceriani suspension units. Handlebars are adjustable but not too much higher, due to the 140 mph speeds expected.”

Cycleworld tested and reviewed the Laverda 1000 Jota in 1977 with a refreshingly honest and colorful review.

“We’re certain that in some only half-forgotten life the Laverda Jota 1000 was a pterodactyl. Or perhaps an Assyrian winged bull. Or a Baldwin locomotive. Or some giant from Middle Earth. Better yet, all of the above.

It’s as elemental as a rock slide and as direct as the charge of a rhinoceros. In a world of rip-snorting two-wheeled quarter horses, here is this great, gaunt brute dredged up from somewhere in the Pleistocene. Its rugged structural members put one in mind of the Bronze Age. Its power seems to deliver itself to somewhere in the region of your small intestine, as well as at the rear wheel.

Viewed as a two-wheeled appliance, this machine fails. Consider the big appliances marketed by Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, BMW et al. Like Laverda, they produce machines that will in varying degrees pull the skin of the earth a trifle tighter. But they can also be comfortably employed for much less glamorous work; riding to work, picking up the Sunday paper, giving your pre-teen daughter a ride to school, and so on. The Laverda, on the other hand, is only useful for those carefree moments when you have the concentration and self-confidence to relive the good old days, when you were a torpedo rider or Stukka pilot.

It’s a rocketship, for certain, but with little of the snakey air-to-air missile quickness of something like the Kawasaki KZ1000. The acceleration is more in the Saturn lunar booster class, starting deliberately and leaving off . . . where? Next week is a good guess. Sometime after the rider begins thinking in terms of selfpreservation is an even better guess….

…We come at last to the reckoning. The Laverda Jota 1000 lists for $4495. By the time you get through with various taxes, prep and destination numbers, you’re eyeball-to-eyeball with five Gs for a machine whose sole function, if we’re going to be honest, is escape. No matter what they do to you out there in the day-to-day jungle, you know at the end of the day you can wrap yourself around the Jota and fly away into another realm. Who can put a price on that kind of therapy?”

Considering the rarity and the cool factor, perhaps one of you might be looking for this exact project? If you have restored or owned a Laverda, feel free to share your thoughts.

Good luck to the buyer and seller!