David’s Laverda Montjuic

Montjuics have this wonderful purist appeal, which is directly related to the brilliant 1980 road test in Bike magazine. It famously said the Monty is best ridden after you’ve taken your brain out and left it in a safe place. The ‘brain’ in the accompanying pic was made by designer Patrick Smith, who I worked with when I was a kid reporter on Performance Bikes.

David, who owns this Montjuic, has had it for years and says he’ll never sell it. But it’s a tricky thing to keep in perfect condition, with petrol burping out of the open carbs and the ravages of time gnawing away at rubber parts. Not to mention the electrics.

He’d fitted Sachse ignition, which is a smart move as it gets round the Laverda 500 tendency for its original pickup wires to crumble to dust. (This pickup cable crumbling is strange because the 180 triples don’t suffer the same issue, so you can use the cheaper Ignitech ignition. But I digress.) The Sachse also gives you a much better ignition curve. Unfortunately the coils David had been sold were for a CDI system, which is very different from the Sachse battery ignition. We discussed this, and David took the plunge to get the coils Sachse (and I) recommend: Dyna 3 ohm Mini Series.

I fit these to triples all the time, using custom plates made from 3mm aluminium sheet. Easy enough job, and they tuck in nicely behind the headstock. But on a 500, it’s a bit more tricky. I’ve done three or four Laverda 500s before, but never with Dyna Mini Series coils.

The original coil brackets are no good because the Dyna coils have an offset (rather than central) HT lead. So after a lot of puzzling and iterative making of cardboard templates, I got to an up-and-over arrangement. The plates are also handy as a carrier for cable guides.

The rest of the build was normal for a Laverda: rebuild/rewire both handlebar switches, and revive the wiring for the dash warning lights. All Laverdas need surgical care in these areas.

It was great to see it fire up – but I had noticed the crankcase breather had been getting very oily, and the plugs were a bit that way too. After chewing this over with the David, the bike is going to ace mechanic Rupe Farnsworth up the road, who is going to run a leakdown test to determine the health of the rings and guides.