Custom Harley – 73 Aermacchi 350SX

When it comes to the history of motorcycles, and Harley Davidson in particular, the weird becomes desirable, the rare becomes rarer, and the unique stands out even more.The partnership between Harley Davidson and Aermacchi in the ‘60s and ‘70s is one such unique and weird story. The silver lining here is that, unlike many of their rivals, both companies continued on and still exist today. One of those blended classics is this beautiful Aermacchi Harley 350SX from Scott Brown.

During the late 50’s post-war Japanese motorcycle invasion had begun. Honda’s dream and their “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” loomed large. Harley Davidson was looking for an entry-level bike to market and in 1960 they bought a 50% share of the Aermacchi Company. Aermacchi was another war based manufacturer who made their way into motorcycles after the bottom of the military spending fell out. The company still produced military training jets up until very recently. The ‘Sprint’ line of bikes were made until 1978, when Harley sold Aermacchi to Cagiva.

In his own words  Scott describes how he began on his quest to tear things apart. “I had destroyed just about everything in his garage and I was eyeballing his much cherished Mercury outboards.”

“At about the age of 12, I had discovered my Grandfather’s tool boxes, and I proceeded to disassemble anything in sight,” says Scott. “I had destroyed just about everything in his garage, and all the time I was eyeballing his much cherished Mercury outboards. Needless to say, I was grounded from the wrenches soon after. Then, shortly after my banishment from the tool box, I was surprised to see him pull into the driveway with an Aermacchi basket case in tow. His instructions where clear, ‘wrench away to your heart’s content, just don’t touch my Mercury.’”

The bike you see here is the result of what Scott created from another Aermacchi basket case he purchased in the fall of 2014. Seeing it in all its rusty glory at a local swap meet, he found himself driving home with a ’73 350SX Enduro – Aermacchi’s US dirt bike model. Scott always wanted to build a Sprint cafe racer, so he snapped up the bike then spent countless hours searching the internet. He used his computer time to  change out the SX parts for SS items and fabricated the rest. (The SS is the road going version)

1973 & 1974 Sprint models were the only years that featured this double looped frame and the ‘knucklehead’ style motor. With Scott going over every single nut and bolt the build was time consuming and completely worth it. The fairing is from the ’60s, but Scott cleverly fitted it with a modern headlight and LED turn signals.

The front fender came from England’s Rickman Motorcycles as did the vintage racing tank. Scott modified it to fit with the seat and side covers. Scott fabricated the fender bracket, hand laced the 18″ rims and made the Yamaha forks & dual disc setup work in its new home.

Stop, check. Corner, check. Handling, check. All of this way better than the original setup. With a newly fabricated triple tree, LED instrument panel and tach mount and clip-on bars with race fairing, this build harkens back to the proud heritage of Aermacchi racing.

After getting the motor back Scott committed himself hours of polishing required to get a bike to this level of fit and finish. With a little help once again from the keyboard parts finder Scott was able to get a better starter to replace the weaker factory unit. God bless the internet!

“I have fulfilled a dream of mine with the completion of this bike. The combination of the American & Harley, the Italian & Aermacchi, the English & Rickman and the Japanese & Yamaha make this bike very special to me. I sure wish I could show my Grandpa what I turned that dream he gave me years ago in to. He probably would say ‘yep, it’s great – but you can still keep yours hands off my Mercury!’”