1965 Harley/Aermacchi build

Let me put this out there right at the beginning, as a young adult my sole form of transportation was a motorcycle. I gave it up because local drivers are inept and I value my life. Now, 25 years later my wife decides to get into bikes and that we MUST buy these two 1965 Harley Davidson Sprint 250's to fix up and ride. I already built a race car, how hard could this be? So, Here is a picture of my bike on the day I bought it:

And where it is now, heavily bobberized:

Here is the build blog. It's not as detailed as my race car blog but it gives you an idea: http://twocustombikes.blogspot.ca/

noice

Loosecannon, you actually got an audible gasp out of me from your "after" picture. That is quite the transformation; great job!

dculberson wrote: Loosecannon, you actually got an audible gasp out of me from your "after" picture. That is quite the transformation; great job!

Thanks, It will look even better with tires, lights and exhaust on. I'm no good at wiring so I'm dreading that part of it.

So much winning going on there...very cool.

Wireing is the easy part! Your profile don't list where your located... Looks like your working at an indoor go kart track.

Wow, that bike is going to be quite airy looking. Nice job.

44Dwarf wrote: Wireing is the easy part! Your profile don't list where your located... Looks like your working at an indoor go kart track.

I own an indoor kart track in Winnipeg, Canada. When I'm not fixing karts, running races or working on my race car, I tinker with my bike. It's all a result of having to be at work 50-60 hours a week, I gotta keep busy. I mounted the headlight and front tire today. The back wheel is painted but I have to wait a few days to mount the tire.

winning!

NICE COLOR CHOICE!

JohnInKansas wrote: NICE COLOR CHOICE!

Thanks. The turquoise (aqua) is actually my favorite color, probably from early exposure to shoebox chevys, and I have never owned anything this color. Now I finally have something. I am trying to get the right balance of white/black/aqua and aluminum so there may be some bits getting a color change before the bike is done. I was originally going to polish the wheel hubs, get stainless spokes and have only the rims aqua but I couldn't find new spokes and nobody locally wants to re-string the wheels.

I don't know what I like more, this or the MG. They are both incredibly awesome.

I noticed the indoor cart track.

Nice! At one point I really wanted the 350 off road version bad.

When I was in college I went and looked at a Harley 250. It was in pretty average shape at the time and I didn't buy it. Seems like it was $500 which was pretty high at the time.

That is awesome looking. One thing, the headlight ears would look better in silver or natural aluminum. They are so big and jump out that they pull your eye to them.

Rusnak_322 wrote: That is awesome looking. One thing, the headlight ears would look better in silver or natural aluminum. They are so big and jump out that they pull your eye to them.

You are right, I'll stare at it a while and figure something out

loosecannon wrote:

44Dwarf wrote: Wireing is the easy part! Your profile don't list where your located... Looks like your working at an indoor go kart track.

I own an indoor kart track in Winnipeg, Canada. When I'm not fixing karts, running races or working on my race car, I tinker with my bike. It's all a result of having to be at work 50-60 hours a week, I gotta keep busy. I mounted the headlight and front tire today. The back wheel is painted but I have to wait a few days to mount the tire.

You sir rock! It must be a pain in the ass to deal with the public but your one lucky guy.

So will you end up with two Sprints, or are you combining the two to make one finished piece? It looks great, by the way. The color choice really is superb.

Mitchell wrote: So will you end up with two Sprints, or are you combining the two to make one finished piece? It looks great, by the way. The color choice really is superb.

Funny, it was all my wife's idea to get the two bikes and she was quite good about taking hers apart, not so good at the cleaning, painting and putting back together. She claims she will do it over the winter and I hope she does but I'm skeptical. She wants to resto-mod hers and go with Harley orange.

I foresee one of two things happening here based on my SWMBO experience. Leave yours sitting in view to give her inspiration to finish hers or she claims yours leaving you to also do hers.

dculberson wrote: Loosecannon, you actually got an audible gasp out of me from your "after" picture. That is quite the transformation; great job!

Same here...I avoided this thread for awhile because the lack of interest in HD bikes.

But...Damn! Nice work!

I have been wondering about the "tuneability" of these Aermacchi bikes for a while now.They are cheap and attractive.

An old coworker was forced to buy one as a kid in the 60's. He wanted a honda but his dad wouldn't have any of that foreign crap in his house, so he took him to the Harley dealership and bought him a two stroke italian bike. He remembers that there were pamphlets in the dealership that said raising the exhaust port 1/4" would increase the top speed by 9mph.

ditchdigger wrote: I have been wondering about the "tuneability" of these Aermacchi bikes for a while now.They are cheap and attractive. An old coworker was forced to buy one as a kid in the 60's. He wanted a honda but his dad wouldn't have any of that foreign crap in his house, so he took him to the Harley dealership and bought him a two stroke italian bike. He remembers that there were pamphlets in the dealership that said raising the exhaust port 1/4" would increase the top speed by 9mph.

There is a business called Lancaster Aermacchi that used to have all kinds of performance parts for these bikes but they have recently downsized and only do engines now. A local Harley builder (Thunder Road Cycles) built a Sprint 250 that did 88 mph at Bonneville, not bad for 2 valve 250cc engine.