After WWII the aircraft factory began building three-wheelers with horizontally opposed twins. In 1956 the Chimera 175 ohv made its appearance. Harley-Davidson acquired 50 per cent of the factory in 1960, and assumed complete control in 1974. HD sold Aermacchi to Cagiva in 1978.
To whoever first asked about the H-D/Aermacchi:
Harley purchased Aermacchi in 1961 or so to produce small bikes for the American market, in an attempt to capture a piece of the youth market back from Honda, et al. Harley sold Aermacchi in 1978 to the Castiglioni brothers, who built Cagiva from it, which in 1985 bought Ducati, and later Husqvarna and Moto Morini.
At first, H-D only imported the 250-cc Sprint. These are nice little bikes, with a spine frame, and a laid-down four-stroke engine that is similar to that used in the Moto Guzzi Falcone. These were imported and improved every year from 1961 through 1974. In 1969, the motor was stroked to 350 cc.
About 1966 or so, H-D brought in some smaller two-stroke Aermacchis, which aren't as desirable, in my opinion.
If it is a 1968 model it is either a 250-cc Sprint or a 125-cc Rapido, hopefully the former.
Sprints are fun little bikes, especially the 350-cc version that came along in 1969. While they are not climbing in value as rapidly as the other Harleys of the era, they have a dedicated following, and can be very fun to drive.
If it were mine, I'd ride it while gathering spares and NOS parts at swap meets before they are all used up.
Little-known fact: Lino Tonti designed a race bike called the "Linto" just before he was hired at Moto Guzzi. The engine in the Linto was essentially two Aermacchi top ends grafted onto a single crankcase (an approach later used by Fabio Taglioni, who grafted two Ducati top ends onto a common crankcase to create the Ducati L-twin). If it's good enough for Tonti, it's good enough for me.
Hope the Tonti stuff was a sufficient Guzzi angle on this whole thing.
See also Aermacchi History
Aermacchi Harley-Davidson models include:
Aermacchi Model Codes 1970-1978 (Courtesy Charleston Custom Cycle)
Courtesy Ivar de Gier, October 1997.
M-50, M-65; M-50 Sport, M-65 Sport '65-'72. Rapido, ML, MLS 125, Shortster X-90
Baja MSR-100 '70-'74. SXT 125, SS 125 '75-'76
Z-90
MODEL CODE
MODEL
2D
X-90
3C
Sprint SX-350
3D
Z-90
3F
SXT-125
4F
SS-175
5C
Shortster
5D
SX-175
6A
Sprint SS-350
6D
SX-250
6F
SS-125
7A
MLS 125 (1970-72)
7A
TX-125 (1973)
7A
SX-125 (1974 to early '75)
7D
MX-250
8A
M-65 (Leggero)
8B
Baja 100
XX YYYYY
HX*
MODEL CODE INDIVIDUAL ID# YEAR
*Where "X" is a digit from 0 to 8. H0 is 1970, H1 is 1971, H2 is 1972, etc.
Therefore: 8A-11157-H1 is an M65 Legero 1971
