Laverda  LZ 125

Translated from Motoblog.it

After the Zündapp KS could not miss the "Italian version" of this 125 German popular from the mid-seventies and the early eighties. At that time the "Laverda brothers" Massimo and Piero, who had astonished the world, including that of Japan, with its SF 750 and SFC 750 '70 '71, wanted to enter the market of small sports with a new model that combined a typical Italian design with a reliable engine and good performance, even as the market was beginning to affect many of the 125 houses, after the decline in sales of superbikes. In 1977 the fashion of regular bikes began to be overtaken on the road for the models, of course with two-stroke engines.

Previously Laverda had already started a joint venture with the then Swedish Husqvarna, for the construction of its 125 Regularity. For the road model was chosen instead of the German Zündapp, also to differentiate themselves from competition at that time often used the Franco Morini or Minarelli engines, the most popular on the 50 but also on the eighth of a liter of the time. In the early summer of '77 Laverda brothers bring you then travel to Monaco of Bavaria with the technical manager Luciano Zen.

Obtained the consent of Zündapp urgently needed an engine for the construction of the first prototype that was to be presented on 19 November at the Milan show, so the three went back to Breganze Zündapp with an engine in the trunk of the car. The work was speeded up, and soon came the first LZ125, whose initials indicating the binomial Laverda-Zündapp. The new LZ went on sale in the first months of 1978, also in the displacement 175 (though he got less successful), initially in a single version and only in red color.

The performance of the engine, liquid cooled and fed by a Mikuni VM28, were almost identical to those of its German counterpart, with 17 hp at 7,600 rpm and a maximum torque of 1.6 kgm at 7,400 rpm while the chassis used a classic single-beam frame with upper double cradle steel tube, Marzocchi fork with 32 mm, two adjustable shock absorbers, brake disc 260 mm front and 160 mm rear drum, alloy wheels from 18 inches to 7 spoke with 2:50 tires front and 3.00 rear. The weight also in this case was only 108 kg, the maximum speed of 120 times and the acceleration on the 400 meters of slightly more than 15 seconds.

Over the seasons were changed several details like saddle, tail, tank cap with key, lighthouse square instead of the round and fork with preparation for the second front disc brake, is also enriched the range of colors and the following years saw a succession different versions: Sport, the most successful, distinguishable by the dome, Elegant, the more touristy, with rectangular headlight, rims and gold trim, and Wild, a sort of custom Italian with a longer front fork and handlebar style ape hanger.

One of the reasons for its success was not only in price, lower than the German (1.72 million pounds the LZ Sport in 1981 against 2.1 million of KS), distribution in the Italian territory, much more widespread than the Zündapp, which had very few dealers. It established a substantial difference between the two bikes, mechanically identical: the German was preferred, since even the higher price, the young wealthy, such as future "paninari" of the eighties, with whom he became a real status symbol to Like the Timberland and Moncler, while the Laverda was destined to a wider audience and heterogeneous. Paradoxically, today the price is more or less the same as that required for a Zündapp, around 2000 euros, although it is certainly more difficult to find well-preserved specimens from more than 20,000 products.

Among the defects that became a distinctive feature of this model was the exhaust system very long, with chrome end that went beyond the rear wheel and was regularly filed by impennatori most hardened asphalt. Furthermore, when the engine is turned off always had to be careful to close the tap of the tank, not to meet the flooded engine of mixture. In 1981 the LZ 125 list also saw alongside in version 50, which will remain in the list until 1984, a year before the production of the LZ125, which will be replaced by LB. Unfortunately, the company Laverda share, albeit many years later, more or less the same fate as its German sister.

Source Motoblog.it