Why a Tractor Company Built the Fastest Bike on Earth

The Laverda Jota was the fastest production motorcycle in the world, built by a company that started out making tractors, and almost nobody in America ever knew it existed. This is the story of the Italian motorcycle that beat Honda and Kawasaki at their own game in 1976, and the strange, reckless V6 race bike that came after it. Laverda started in 1873 as an agricultural machinery company in Breganze, Italy, before Francesco Laverda founded its motorcycle division in 1949. His son Massimo would go on to build the Laverda 1000, a three cylinder engine with an unconventional 180 degree crankshaft, and later partner with UK importers Roger and Richard Slater to create the Jota, the first production motorcycle officially timed at 140 miles per hour since the Vincent Black Shadow decades earlier. This video covers Laverda's origins, the engineering behind the 180 degree crank triple, the Jota's UK racing championships, Francesco Laverda's death in 1976, and the rare Laverda V6 endurance racer that hit over 175 miles per hour at the 1978 Bol d'Or before being called unrideable by its own creators. If you've owned, ridden, or seen a Laverda Jota in person, share your story in the comments below. Timestamps: 0:00 The Machine Nobody Remembers 0:42 From Tractors to Racing Legends 2:05 Massimo's Bold Vision 2:50 Copying Honda to Survive 3:29 1969: The Industry Turns Upside Down 3:58 Building the Impossible Triple 5:10 The Crank That Broke the Rules 6:49 Born in England: The Jota Is Made 7:34 140 MPH: A Record Is Set 8:16 The Year Everything Changed 9:28 The Unrideable V6 10:16 The End of an Era #LaverdaJota #MotorcycleHistory #ClassicMotorcycles #TheKazMotoDiaries #VintageMotorcycles