When it comes to interesting Harley Davidsons, the Aermacchi Baja 100 could be one of the most intriguing. Aermacchi was an Italian aircraft and motorcycle manufacturer. In 1960, Harley purchased part of Aermacchi’s motorcycle division. In hopes of entering the low displacement dirt bike market, Harley had Aermacchi manufacture these bikes in Varese, Italy. There can’t be too many of these left. Reader Rich M has decided to part ways with it. It’s located in Oneonta, New York and you can contact Rich via the form below.
As you can see, this Baja is in need of restoration, but Rich claims everything is here minus the exhaust. He managed to find some new parts for the engine, including a new head. Given that these were only built from 1969 to 1972 in Italy, finding parts could be a challenge. Thankfully, it’s a very simple bike and shouldn’t be terribly difficult to restore.
The 98cc one-cylinder engine is good for about 12 horsepower and is paired to a 5-speed. While I wouldn’t want to ride one in modern traffic, it sure would be fun to take off-road! Considering one of these won the 1971 Baja 1000, they must have been decent bikes. So, if you’ve been hunting for a really unique and rare restoration project, be sure to contact Rich and make him an offer! So, would you restore this bike and take it on the Baja 1000?
- Asking Price: $5,000
- Location: Oneonta, New York
- Mileage: N/A
- Title Status: Missing
List your car here on Barn Finds for only $50!
Are you out of your.mind? Maybe a buck and a half. $5000.00 no way. $5000.00 for a basket cas e that’ll never run.
I have one of these in my Harley collection that is like brand new and has a title! The description is wrong because mine is a 1973, and there may be some 1974s, but I have not seen one! Not that I would sell mine but I would sell my whole collection to someone which includes the bikes, golf carts, every years snowmobile Harley made, and a boat!
This is a 1974 model Baja, the 1973 model had red white and blue stripes going crossways across the area of the gas cap. The 1972 model had a flame like decal on the tank and the 1970 and 1971 models had the same decals on the tank, they were identical, those 2 years were called MSRs the other years were SRs. The MSR model number started with an 8B the SR models started with a 6C. The MSR was the Competition model.
Again with the missing title. These were pretty popular for a while. Playing on peoples beliefs of H-D being an American bike, and rebadging an Italian bike, tsk, tsk. Losers couldn’t make their own, but wanted in on the booming dirt bike scene. I always thought a Sporty would have made a decent dirt bike. Back in my dirt biking heyday( ’70’s) I knew a kid that had one of these, beat the crap out of it, and still kept up with the rest of us. They were good bikes, I’m sure many motorcycle “piles” have at least one H-D Aermacchi dirt bike at the bottom.
if this was 100 percent stock and all there plus ran- then YES to the 5k……in this condition…..sorry bro not even 500.00 bucks—–the price says to everyone,i do not really want to sell this
Clearly a typo,,,(or 2)
Yessir, even 70’s vintage dirt bikes are being restored and pulling big big bucks these days. Dirt bikes were my real interest as a child early teen of the 70’s, and so many great memories! My dad borrowed one of these, man I must’ve been 5 or 6, we crashed a few times trying to climb a hill with me on the back, but no one got hurt.
Harley came out with another dirt bike further into the 70’s, 250 I think, but by then the Japanese onslaught of killer motocross bikes had taken over, not sure where Can Am’s were built.
These will most definitely remain a memory for me as they absolutely beat the living crap out of my much younger body. Ha! Neat to see.
That would have been the MX250, also an Aermacchi bike, but made in Milwaukee. It had an unusual rear suspension, like the front forks, and did surprisingly well. Some big names rode MX250’s, not many to victory, sadly..
https://motocrossactionmag.com/classic-motocross-iron-1975-harley-davidson-mx-250-vintage-bike/
Wow, never new about that ’75!
One I was thinking of was the MX 250 from 1978, which was also a very rarely seen bike, fast but heavy. 😐
I had a 71′(I believe it was) 125 Rapedo (HD) dirt bike. It had 2 rear sprockets, one for the road and one for the dirt. Had lots of fun with it until a car made a left turn in front of me one day. I paid around $800.00 for it new.
I had a HD 75′ 175 XL – back in 82 and even then the parts were amazingly hard to find. $5000!!!! that’s certainly an optimistic number. Rare doesn’t mean valuable people.
M.
I had one: we punched it out to 125CC with a rapido piston. put a larger rear sprocket and an oversized carb on it. never did reach top end speed, it just kept winding up higher and higher until I ran out of room. very tall bike for my 15 year old legs. the thing would hillclimb great. 5K is a good bit high though. maybe completely restored with a spare engine too might be 5K but not this
Well, at least Marty Tripes still has the side number plate from his MX250 hanging on his office wall!
Greetings All,
NO!
If any of you guys buy this bike for five grand, I have a genuine Harley helmet with the same pinstriping and color that I bought new back then. I’ll take 3000 dollars for it, it will match perfectly…
SR 100s are not as valuable as the MSR competition model. A lot of unintentional mis information here, it is a1974 SR100 or street model and Aermacchi only made the Baja from 1970 thru 1974.
Also Harley Davidson was family owned, then they sold the company to AMF who invested in many different manufacturing companies back in the 70s, AMF hired Aermacchi to design dirt bikes so AMF could take HD into the very popular 1970s dirt bike market. AMF hired Aermacchi to design Harley dirt bikes because Aermacchi also made scooters.
Later the Harley Davidson family bought the company back from AMF and still own it today.
How could someone write all this stuff and get it so wrong when you have the internet to research the facts?
This Ad did make me laugh,and yes the price is a restored bike price, rebuild 1974 SR 100s have to be complete to hit bids at or over the $1k price on Ebay.
I wish bikes in this condition were worth 5K, if so I have 20k in Bajas for sale lol, I own 4.
But really I love each one because my Baja was the only happy memories I had as a child , it provided me a sense of escape and freedom from an abusive father. And I worked for $1 an hour to buy my first one when I was 14, still have it. 10 cents worth of gas when gas was 23 to 27 cents a gallon and you could ride for days, the 72 tooth rear sprocket made it a wheelie bike with the torque and the MSR model would do 10k RPM, from 8 to 10k rpm the power was crazy for 98ccs.
I miss the dirt bike days and the smell of castrol burning in the 2 strokes.
I love the smell of Castol R in the morning.