Many LAVERDA-Enthusiasts have heard rumours about her, but only very few have ever seen her: the Hauer-LAVERDA 1200 SC. We are presenting this legend! With pictures and a bit of story.

At the Vienna Spring Fair 1976 the Kawasaki and Honda dealer Hauer presented a sensation: An extremely lightweight and rigid chassis with tubular frame and boxed swingarm for the engine of the Kawasaki Z 900.

Alerted by the race success of the LAVERDA importer Sulzbacher – Austrian National Champion 1975 Franz Laimböck – Gerhartd Tempel who at the time was Managing Director of the Hauer company, approached Sulzbacher with an offer: For the purpose of publicity in racing, the tubular frame should be modified to fit the engine of the LAVERDA 1000. Consequently a blank of the frame was given to the project-leader and race team mechanic Bertram Amorth.

But everything was to turn out completely different: In 1976 the race success unfortunately could not be repeated and Bertram Amorth left Sulzbacher. He took the chassis and used it to build the Hauer-LAVERDA 1200 SC.

After only a few kilometres the bike was offered in the ”classified“ section of the renowned German motorcycle magazine ”Motorrad“ 22/1977 and a guy from Würzburg bought it. The bike was road-tested and registered in Austria in order to allow the new owner to ride it with an Austrian numberplate in Germany. After three years however the owner lost interest and sold the bike again.

The second owner prepared the bike to have it road-tested by the German TÜV. This appeared to be very difficult. But in 1980, finally, the Hauer-LAVERDA 1200 SC passed the road test at the Würzburg TÜV and got all the modifications registered in the papers. The owner rode the bike exacty the way Bertram Amorth had set it up. However, the joy of riding this unique LAVERDA was extremely dampened by a complete engine blow up. The owner therefore sold the Hauer chassis with some own modifications, as he still had an original 1984 LAVERDA 1000.

The third owner completely rebuilt the Hauer-LAVERDA with many brand new spare parts. Modern 16" Campagnol rims with floating 280mm Brembo discs and ”Oro“-calipers were used. As a true Sulzbacher-Enthusiast he already owned a LAVERDA 1000 with a Sulzbacher 1200 SC engine. This engine was built into the frame with all of its components. Unfortunately even this engine didn't last long and so the Hauer-LAVERDA was standing much more in the garage than it was ridden.

Maximilian Volker Mahlmeister bought the bike in 2003 after it had been standing for 15 years. After a thorough assessment the bike was completely disassembled. The frame was stripped of its paint, controlled, measuerd and rebuilt in a specialist workshop. The Hauer-LAVERDA was changed back to its original 18" wheels and the Brembo-Oro components were completed. A friend of Max' stripped the Sulzbacher-engine and perfectly rebuilt it. The bike is supposed to be presented to the TÜV in Würzburg in Summer 2007.

This unique Austrian creation is supposed to live and be ridden again. We are already looking forward to the first meeting with the revived Hauer-LAVERDA 1200 SC. Everybody who might be able to contribute pictures or stories related to this bike please contact Gert Schnögl (phone +43-1-5449377, e-mail: Gert.Schnoegl@netway.at).

Maximilian-Volker Mahlmeister is a name in the LAVERDA community. He rebuilds and restores Nippon Denso and Smith speedos and tachos. For this purpose he even manufactures faces, outer caps, sealing rings and glasses. You can reach Max under phone.: +49-9324-982608, mobile: +49-175-4144936, e-mail: Max.Mahlmeister@gmx.de. You can download his pricelist here: pricelist-PDF.