Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Other Bikes Hardley Question (first bike)

I've done some googling but haven't found an answer. i haven't looked at any HD boards, but thought i'd ask here just for kicks:

In the early '60's i had a Harley at about the age of 13.
All i can remember was it was one cylinder and a two stroke engine. When you removed the gas cap a filler tube was attached that you filled the 2-stroke oil into to a level line then dumped it into a full gas tank and screwed the cap back down. The bike seemed big to me at the time, big wheels & tires. Seems like it had a round sticker on the rear fender saying 'not exceeding 5 bhp'. It did a fair amount of polluting the atmosphere, too.
Don't think it had shocks, but a spring seat. When it was running, it seemed pretty fast. Later i got a Honda 50 super sport and my dad sold the HD to someone. An old biker my dad knew (who owned an Indian) said it was called a 'Cub'. This was around '64 or '65...the HD looked quite a bit older. btw, i hit a big dog (not the chopper!) on a dirt road doing around 40 mph on that bike. I dusted off and got back on.
the dog trotted off with a worried look on his face.

Of course, i have the TBA now!

My first was a Harley 125cc 2stroke. Known as a Hummer.Sounds similar to yours, could that be what you had?

Harley had a line of 2 stroke singles from the late 40's to the early 60's made by Aermacci in Italy. They ranged from 125 to 250, maybe 350 CCs. Some had a rear swingarm, the first HD labeled bikes to do so. Some had a rigid frame like this Sprint, http://www.vft.org/Sprint/SprintCRPage.html and some were little more than a motorized bicycle. I guess they qualified as a real Harley because HD ended up buying the company.

So far as I know, the Hummers, Aermacchis, and Toppers (scooter) were the only two strokes HD had.

and for the most part junk when new. the one with the almost horizontal cyl tended to burn the rings. All tended to fall apart if used hard.

That was an Aeromacchi motorcicle. I had a 1958 2 stroke 175cc. Great bike for the time with a sprung tractor seat.
Great ride for that age, I couldn't figure out why my back tire would bounce out from under me? No rear shocks!
I would love another one but I wouldn't ride it.

Yep! they did go to 350cc as I worked with a guy in the sixties who owned one,
Kent-Qld Aust

My dad's first bike was a Hummer! He put many miles on that thing before getting married and leaving the biker scene. After all the kids were grown he is now back into HD and really can't believe the changes--price and the whole disney land ownership feel compared to when he rode. Anyhow, he loves his new sportster and is driving the tires off of it.

Kevin...

Anybody remember the old TV show "Then Came Bronson" and specifically a few episodes where the title chartacter would enter his '69 XLCH Sportster in some kind of off-road race???(between getting involved with some guest character's personal family problems, that is)

Yeah, I remember those old episodes, alright! And I also remember wondering how on earth his Sportster "magically" changed into a H-D(actually, as has been mentioned here, an italian-built Aermacchi product) 350 SS Sprint whenever those old Dunlops o' his hit the dirt!!! Strange, huh?!

(oh, and BTW...the Aermacchi 350 Sprints were FOUR-stroke, pushrod horizonal singles)

i had an italian hd 50cc, for a first bike.