Put the words “racer” and “HD” together in a sentence and visions of dirt tracking will likely come to mind. If road racing jumped into your head, it was likely a smokey failure or a Buell – or both. Truth be told, The Motor Company’s history with sport bikes and racing same has been a pretty consistent catastrophe (to put it kindly). However it was not always this way. There was a short time in history when HD owned a stake (and from 1974 – 1978 outright as AMF) the Aermacchi brand. Aermacchi was an Italian aircraft builder that branched out into motorcycles post WWII. Offering small two strokes (including race bikes like the one pictured), Aermacchi was to be the small bike direction of AMF HD moving forwards. Success was was not to be found in smaller displacement models, and HD divested itself of its satellite brands (including Aermacchi and DKW) to focus on the big iron. This survivor of that AMF era claims to have Daytona racing history and would look great in any bike collection.
1975 Harley Davidson Aermacchi 250 Racer for sale on eBay
From the seller:
1975 Harley Davidson RR250 Daytona Road Race Bike
Motor turns nicely. Over all bike shows little use.
2 stroke water cooled 2 cylinder
No race damage, excellent over all condition
#1F100xxH4
Race #53 raced at Daytona in 1970s, some history.
Has not been run since 1970s.
Dealer owned since new
-MI
Harley did have quite a bit of success with these 2-stroke twins. Walter Villa won the 250 GP championship from ’74-’76 and the 350 in ’77. In the early to mid ’80’s I think Jay Springsteen had some good races on Lucifer’s Hammer in the BOTT class, then Gene Church with some success on an XR-1000. I won’t even mention the VR1000 debacle in the ’90’s.
Geez, at first I looked at this and thought it was POS. But, upon further examination, I can see why the Harley faithful punted it. It actually showed some promise. If it was anything like Yamaha’s 250 & 350’s of that era, it was probably a lot of fun! I still cannot believe that Harley actually got rid of Buell and MV Agusta lately! Same sort of business sense. I believe they may regret those moves. If they had any brains, Harley could’ve sold the V-Rod line with the Buells, MV Agusta’s and even an electric bike line through a separate dealership. But now I’m being silly!
Housing MV was a stupid idea in the first place. There is a very good reason to get rid of MV, who the hell goes to a harley dealership for a nice sportbike??… Add look how they have ditched supporting buell repairs so how can you trust HD with your significant MV investment.. I knew a guy who blew a 06 buell xb9 motor this year and all 8 harely dealerships he called near his area told him to beat it, it was the engine based on the sportster…
HD is not to be trusted with their add on manufacturers ever!!
“Excellent over all condition”, “shows little use”. Really? What the few, piss poor pictures that are provided say quite the opposite.
How much steering lock does it have? Looking at the clipons it looks like 5-10 degrees. Maybe that is an optical photography trick. Yes i realize it is not a streetbike. I was puzzling on if my personal anatomy could actually ride the thing. Not sure my hands would fit and allow to operate the controls anywhere but Bonneville.
For whatever reason though, I like it.
It is surprising how little lock a guy needs at speed. I agree this is not a bike for a 230 pounder!
I believe the clip-on’s can be rotated out for more steering lock. I must know enough about what collectors of everything “Harley’ are willing to pay, but $30K?