The latest copy of Motorcycle Sport and Leisure dropped through the letterbox. No surprise there though, it was about due. I had a quick flick through it to see if there was anything of immediate interest and found an article about the Laverda Montjuic. I used to own one - lovely bike, set off car alarms as I road past 'em! And VERY orange! Read through the article and was quite surprised to see that 'their' bike was easy to start. Twin Dellorto pumper carbs made mine a right royal PITA to start. Indeed, the shop I bought it from had never managed to start it but had said to take it back for a refund if I couldn't get it going. Eventually I did, thanks to Slaters. Happy days .... sigh. Then I noticed a small photo showing (most of) the number plate. It looked familiar. PR? 66? - it had to be a two digit number plus suffix letter from the way the numbers/letters were lined up on the plate. I had to check if I still had the sales invoice for my Trident as the Laverda was used as a p/ex. Low and behold there it was, PRL 66Y, and I got £1800 for it! Whilst not conclusive, the evidence seems to support the theory that it was indeed my old bike - probably. Made me come over all reminiscent it did. Nice to see the 'old girl' is still alive and well though, but now waaaay out of my price bracket! (Okay, I know, it was 22 years ago). It is a strange feeling to see one of your old bikes being featured as a 'classic' in a magazine like that. SIGH!
I wondered about that - checked it myself - but it could be an old story or it was on trade plates. Who knows? At least it still exists!
Around £8,000 - £10,000 for a Mk11 (which it is) and £10,000 to £12,000 for a Mk1. I'd love to have the money to do it, but hey ho. It doesn't bear thinking about the current values of some of the bikes we have owned in the past ..... if only we'd have known then what we know now!
