„You were the first, you’ll be the last...“ According to these lyrics the Laverda 500 Montjuic was his first true motorcycle-love, and she’s still the one. Almost 85,000 km they have covered together. He has been faithful to her through all the years and never ridden another bike.

1980, because Werner Sulzbacher could not deliver the desired road-legal, light equipped 500 Formula, the phones got red hot. Finally, with Klaus-Michael Schenk in Wiesbaden Franz got lucky. He had a 500 Montjuic on offer. Now everything had to happen quickly. Organise a transfer number plate, apply for credit with the bank and persuade his friend Ronnie to give him a lift in the car to Wiesbaden.

„Blimey – the Austrians!!!“ Schenk exclaimed, when he saw Franz and his friend Ronnie, standing dead-tired in the court of his workshop. After an oil-check and some adjustments, they mounted the number plate and Franz carefully rode the 500 all the way home. 900 km on a brand new motorcycle which had 0 kilometres on the clock.

In Austria the LAVERDA was legalised and underwent countless changes throughout the years. Only the orange colour stayed the same. The experiment with 600 cc yielded the desired increase in power, however the head-gasket was not up to it. Changing to 36mm Dell’Orto carburettors and machining the inlets was a success. Today you can see her in classical optics with bikini fairing, clip-ons, single seat, footrests and exhaust system of the 500 Formula – the sound is music.