Every Laverda that Jean-Louis Olive lays his hands on gets the star treatment. Most of his projects are restorations, but this 1978 1200 Jota America was a full-blown custom job. And it turned out so good, it starred in the pages of Practical Sportbikes magazine in the UK.
Jean-Louis is more than a little obsessed with Laverda. He had his first encounter with the marque in 1977, and has been in love ever since. He’s written multiple Laverda-themed books, and launched the Laverdamania website and owners’ association.

Jean-Louis refers to his passion as ?only a hobby, but almost a full time job!? It took him a few years to wrap up the Jota, because he was working abroad while the project was active. So wrench time was limited to vacations, when he could return to his home in Aubagne, a small town near Marseille that’s also home to the French Foreign Legion. According to Jean-Louis, the idea was to ?build a special with the most modern technology, while keeping some strong visual aspects of the original Laverda identity. So it is a mix between modern and ancient.?

?It is a sort of opposite of the current neo-retro fashion,? he continues. ?While many of these projects offer a vintage design on a modern base, P12XX puts modern technology on an ancient base.? In other words, it’s a restomod.
Why ‘P12XX"’ The ‘P’ stands for project, the ’12’ for the model designation, and the ‘XX’ because Jean-Louis...