1980 LAVERDA MONTJUIC

Breganze’s middleweight ticks all café racer boxes

Laverda’s Montjuic is proof that you don’t need massive cubes to fashion a sublime sports machine. Derived from the mild-mannered 497cc Alpino twin of 1977, the Monjuic (like the Jota before it) was the brainchild of UK Laverda importers, the Slater brothers.

To boost sales of the rather expensive Alpino, Laverda had launched a one-make race series in Italy featuring identical, tuned Formula 500 versions of the sixspeed twins. Roger Slater brought one of the bikes into the UK for evaluation and concluded a streetlegal spin-off machine might appeal to British riders more than the more softly-tuned Alpino. He was right – and the Montjuic was born. Power was up, thanks to high compression pistons, S1 cams and a matt-black two-into-one Sito exhaust; either the close-ratio gearbox from the Formula racer or the standard Alpino ’box could be specified. Triple Brembo discs provided ample stopping power, there was a handlebar-mounted fairing, race seat, clip-ons, rearsets and Jota-style orange paint. The MKII version has a larger fairing and revised seat unit, but is less sought-after than the raw MKI.

If you fancy one, they don’t come much better than this superb 1980 MKI being offered for sale on behalf of its owner by Italian bike specialists Motori di Marino in West Sussex. Completely restored and with just 9708 miles on the odometer, it’s up for sale at £18,000. dimarino.co.uk