1970 m65 harley

B

bobs house of speed

New Member
Here we go my first bike build in 15 years. Base bike is a 1970 m65 Leggero A.M.F Harley Davidson. I know a lot of guys are saying what the h<>l is this guy thinking an if it wasn't for a buddy of mine I'd be the same way. Just to make a long story short friend of mine is into mopeds (I know) funny as that sounds he has a cool little Sears Allstate that is like 50cc of put a smile on you face 2 stroke h#@l azz fun. I'm not sure if those are mopeds though it has a gear box but anyway I'm getting of track so my quest began trolling the craigslist for a moped when I saw Harley Davidson 125 2 stroke. So I called the guy up settled on a price site unseen didn't even know what the thing looked like. Called up my buddy told him what I found an he went nuts so next weekend we went up picked her up now she needs a lot of tlc. So without further udoo her she is

An yes he thinks its his
 
Welcome to DTT Bob! Cool project you got there. I recently picked up a 68 Harley/Aermacchi Rapido, which is the big brother model to yours. Not sure if you figured it out, but yours is a M-65 Sport and is 65 cc (hence the name) not a 125. Either way, I'm sure it will be a fun bike once it's all done up. Any ideas about what you want to do to it (restore, resto-mod, full out custom)?
 
I'm wanting an all out cafe racer. I want to keep the original engine hoping its not to under powered. I'm have a hard time finding parts for the engine so I may just box that up an replace it with a water cooled 2 stroke. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I was wondering if I change the rear sprocket would that give it a better top end all I want is around 50 to 55 what are your thoughts?
 
I think you'll be surprised how well the little guy scoots. 50 mph is probably attainable is everything is running well. Gearing changes could certainly up that (to the detriment of low end torque though). As for parts, I've found that there is a good deal of them floating around on eBay. Since these models didn't sell that well (from either lack of popularity or lack of trying by the Harley dealerships), there are a lot of NOS parts available. I've been finding parts for my Rapido for pennies compared to buying NOS parts for japanese bikes. PM me with your e-mail and I'll shoot you a copy of the parts manual for your bike. A lot of times you can use the parts fiche to grab a part number, then search ebay or google for that specific part.
 
I just stumbled upon a Roland Sands build of one of these: http://www.rolandsands.com/wp/2012/07/12/aermacchi
 
Looks like it is all there. If it were mine I would restore it back to original. Cafe it if you must but don't permanently change anything that can't be undone.
 
I agree with o1marc, don't permanently change anything. If you think about it, it already is pretty cafe-like. There's not much extra on these bikes so it's probably as lightweight as it's going to get. You could pick up some spare fenders and chop them down a bit I guess. You could also hop up the motor a bit but I'm not sure if oversize pistons are even available anymore. In the looks department - it has a nice bumpstop seat and a trick little headlight with built in speedo. I don't think you would want to fit rearsets but with some lower bars you are pretty much there aesthetically.
 
My plan is very simple fiberglass seat pan, spring over shocks out rear , reversed levers and move foot controls back a little. Paint I'm thinking of doing it up like my sons Murray Eliminator I built for him a few Christmas's ago red an black.


What do ya'll think?
 
Never seen a Harley like that in real life! Its like the White Elephant right up there with the Harley snowmobile! Nice find.
 
That is a really cool start. I think either a cafe or a restoration makes good sense if you keep it reasonable inexpensive. That front brake looks a bit skary small, it is light and slow, but that is still one very small brake. I should think a "performance" expansion chamber could really wake that baby up.
 
What a cool little stroker, I agree with the previous comments .... don't do anything that can't be reversed .... it's too rare.
 
these are great little bikes. Mine is an ML125 Rapido. lots of NOS parts available. Sonny's has some and knows a lot about them at http://www.sunnymeadcycles.com/

i jsut e mail him direclty.

and NOS in he Netherlands. http://www.tomsnosparts.com/


my Ml in the pic.s
 

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Not to highjack, but TheCoffeeGuy, where did you get your clubmans? They seem to fit your rapido great, which makes me assume they're much smaller than a normal pair (since the rapido is tiny in person).
 
Yeah no kidding. i had a pair for a KZ560. Cut about 6 inches from the middle. Filled the tube with a solid rod, wellded back together. The headlight is in it now but you can see the proportins form those.
 

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