EUROPEAN BIKE GUIDE
Aermacchi
Aermacchi began life as an aircraft manufacturer at Varese in northern Italy before the First World War and turned to motorcycle production after the Second World War producing small capacity motorcycles for the Italian market after the conflict. In 1960, Harley-Davidson motorcycles bought half of Aermacchi’s motorcycle division as it searched for a source of small capacity bikes. Aermacchi remained largely independent until 1973 when H-D bought the rest of the company and produced a range of two-stroke singles, before selling out to Cagiva which used the range to establish a foothold in the Italian market, with motorcycles continuing to be made at Varese.
Chimera
172cc OHV single || 300lb || 60mph || 1956-60
A delightful period piece, the Chimera saw Aermacchi adopt full enclosure with more success than the British, and the bike has a distinct 1950s space age look. Only a few hundred were made and more have been imported from Italy as classics than were ever brought in officially.
Prices low £3500 || high £6000
250/350cc Sprint
249/344cc ohv single || 320lb || 90mph || 1960-1974
The first Harley-Davidson branded Aermacchis, the Sprint and subsequent versions 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. The engine was derived from the 175 Chimera and stroked in 1969 in a less attractive cradle frame to create the 350. Never officially imported to the UK, with most of the production going to the US, these are now making their way back across the Atlantic.
Prices low £2500 || high £6000
SS/SST/SX 125/175/250/350
124/174/242/341cc two-stroke single || 280lb || 70-90mph || 1974-1982
A range of rorty two-stroke singles badged as Harley-Davidson and sold alongside Sportsters and Electra Glides. Not especially popular, the singles were good-looking little machines with a fair turn of speed and good handling, but suffered badly from poor quality control and an indifferent finish, rusting quickly. Parts are scarce, but a good one will turn heads, with the trail bike versions the best bet if you can find one. Aermacchi also made a tiddler X90 version
Prices low £1000 || high £3500
Aprilia
Aprilia was established in 1960 as a bicycle factory, and by 1975 was producing a range of machines with motors from Motori Morini Franco, Sachs, Rotax and Hiro. It really reached public attention when it took on major Japanese teams with 125 and 250cc Rotax two-stroke twins, winning both championships in 1994. The 1980s saw a wide range of two-stroke trail bikes and some ugly two-stroke US custom-style variants alongside a range of sporty two-stroke street racers. In the late 1980s it made the Tuareg Adventure sports bike with a Rotax single engine, which was a bit too tall, and the more practical Pegaso also with a Rotax engine, which was later fitted with the same motor BMW chose for its F650.
Moto 6.5
649cc OHC single 300lb || 95mph || 1995-2002
A real oddity, the Moto was styled by Phillipe Starck, designer of the famous orange squeezer. Intended to cut a dash on city streets, the Moto 6.5 had a lower seat than the street/ trail Pegaso, but found few buyers, being altogether too odd. Curiously, after being heavily discounted by Aprilia to clear stocks, it became briefly popular with London dispatch riders, who promptly thrashed it to death, but proved that as a city bike it was a practical proposition. Body work panels will be hard to find.
Prices low £1000 || high £2500
Pegaso 600/650
652cc 5v OHC single || 385lb || 1990-1998
The Pegaso was one of the neatest bikes to come out of Aprilia in its early years. A decent dual purpose single, it works well on the road and marginally well on the dirt too. Smartly styled and eschewing the garish fashions of many an Italian machine at the time, combined with a well built Austrian engine the Pegaso was widely praised on launch in 1990 and even more so when it became a 650 in 1995. A reasonably priced early dual-sport.
Prices low £600 || high £2500
Benelli
The Benelli story began in Pesaro with the first Benelli engine, a 75cc two-stroke, produced in 1920. The following year it built a Benelli motorcycle, powered by a 98cc powerplant. Benelli built race winning competition bikes throughout the 1920s and 30s, winning a TT in 1939. The factory was bombed in the Second World War but Benelli returned and by 1962 employed 550 people and produced some 300 motorcycles a day. It was taken over in the early 1970s by Argentinian Alejondro de Tomaso, who also owned Moto Guzzi and his own sports car brand. The factory turned out a wide range of four-stroke fours, heavily based on Honda’s CB range, before going out of production in the mid-1980s. Benelli has returned several times with small production runs of high performance machines and more recently was bought by a Chinese company and is making considerable inroads in to the Chinese and Indian markets.
Sei
748cc ohc six || 520lb || 118mph || 1972-1978
Honda was just about to release its CBX 1000 to the world when Benelli trumped it with the Sei, the world first six-cylinder road bike. Turbine smooth and with fine handling, it’s also brash as heck, the six-into-six exhaust and the wide engine making a huge statement. It also had a duplex rear chain, probably as a marketing ploy rather than for any practical purpose. The Sei grew to become a 900 in 1979 with less attractive hump-backed bodywork and a more restrained and longer lasting 6-2 exhaust system.
