This 1977 Laverda 1200 Jota America has been re-imagined as a period yet updated “Endurance Café Racer”. This bike is finally seeing the light of day after 35+ years of dormancy. It was, as new, a magazine test bike to showcase the larger 1200 displacement for the American market motorcycle buyer.

After making the magazine rounds it was returned the importer/ distributor Lance Weil. He then converted and mildly accessorized the bike with Jota bars, a black Jota exhaust along with a one off orange and white paint scheme. A stunning and very cool motorcycle in its day and even today! I have been fortunate enough to have been very good friends with the previous owner for many years. I pestered and persuaded him to “let’s get this thing running”. A few well intentioned attempts in his garage, beer definitely involved, to bring it back to glory but life and priorities moved on. I eventually acquired the bike and with the simple intention to get it road worthy.

The premise of the Deus biker build-off is to be creative and do the most with the least. This is a bit of what happens when you want to go the simple route but but gets out of hand and wanting to also “do it right” and as a homage to the previous owners and to the Marque this build obviously went to the opposite end of the spectrum. What I have ended up with is my vision of what and Endurance Café Racer could have been. The Laverda of this era was known as the hairy chested man’s bike, big, heavy, fast, loud etc. So, to play towards that image I wanted to evoke an endurance racer that would do battle without a fairing and two headlights! The bike is a bitsa in some ways with design upgrades in others.

Wheels have been adapted from a 1987 GSXR for period correct 18” diameter, but allowing for wider widths and modern’ish rubber. A Laverda 1000 tank was sourced, 1200 tanks were more square, for its nicer form but I grafted an endurance style quick fill fuel filler to accentuate the endurance racer vibe. Tail section was inspired by a Kawasaki 1000 Z1R of the same era. It is similar in form but the surfaces were tweaked and updated to include a rear number board. Double round taillight are from a Honda Magna. Seat is custom mated to the tail section and covered with found material that has a very cool patterned texture. Headlights are Italian Carello driving lights from a Porsche.

The exhaust headers are stepped diameter stainless in a bespoke design mated to a modified Ducati Sport Classic Termignoni muffler gifted by a good friend. As you can see this intended simple restoration grew legs and has taken me on a path that I had not set out on but truly have become happy with the results. These projects are never finished and I will guarantee that I will be trying to fix, finish or repair something just in time to arrive at the show. Enjoy, Jay Brett

Original Source [bikebuildoff]

#Moto #Bike #Laverda #Caferacer