Little Green Wing - Aermacchi Ala Verde

[Canuck750]

I have been interested in the early 60's Aermacchi European models for a long time, prior to Harley Davidson aquiring the controlling share of Aermacchi in 1960 the Italian bike builder had a range of 175cc and 250cc models all based on the same horizontal single four stroke.
Prior to the now familiar single Aermacchi produced a range of small discplacement bikes under the design lead of none other than Lino Tonti.

After Tonti left for FB Mondial it was Alfredo Bianchi that designed the familiar horizontal single. The first motorcycle to carry the lovely single was the futuristic 'Chimera'



as cool as it was, described as a jet engine with a wheel at each end sales were dissapointing. Bianchi redesigned the motorcycle by stripping off the futuristic cowling and ditching the single sided swing arm to offer the 'Wing' range of bikes, 175cc Ala Rossa (red wing), 250cc Ala Azzura (blue wing), 250 cc Ala Verde (green wing) and the over the counter race bike 250cc Ala d'Oro (gold wing).

In 1961 Harley Davidson imported the Ala Azzura (blue wing) under the name Wisconsin, in 1962 it was sold as the Sprint



The Ala Verde was not imported to North America, it had a long steel tank, clip on handle bars, 17" wheels and a sporty hump back seat.

I am building a replica of the early Ala Verde, as lose to stock as possible. Ala Verde parts are very hard to find.



I am starting with a 1966 Harley / Aermacchi  frame and swing arm, this bike had been in a fire and came with no engine and a rear wheel from a 350cc moto cross model. I won't be using the original Sprint gas tank, the big rear wheel or the flat wide seat pan.

I found a H motor for a 1965 a couple years ago and fully rebuilt it, found the correct carb and heel / toe shifter. I am on the hunt for an engine side cover that has 'Aermacchi' cast in the side along with 'Harley Davidson', I saw one a year ago on Ebay and should have bought it then



I was lucky to find Leslie Bull of Moto Italia in California, Leslie supplied me with an Ala Verde gas tank, the foot pegs, a rear wheel from a 1961 Sprint and the lower forks castings unique to the 1961 . I found the upper fork shrouds and tripple clamp on UK Ebay.

These forks are not correct they are off a post 67' Sprint and are for an 18" front wheel.



These are the correct forks and tripple and are for a 17" wheel,I put them together this afternoon



I cut down the 67' forks by 32mm in my lathe and re-cut the lower snap ring into the tubes and bored out the base of the tubes for the damper rod stop. I made new replica chrome lower shrouds from 304 stainless steel thin wall tube,

Trimming the stainless tube over an aluminum slug and a wrap of copper sheet to protect the stainless surface





the stainless slid perectly over the fork lowers and a wee bit of epoxy will permanently secure them once the parts are painted.

The headlight is NOS and model crrect from Santo di Motorcycle, the Benelli go to guy on Ebay,



I found a used Aermacchi Ala Verde seat base on Italian Ebay this week and I had previously sourced a correct repro seat cover from Italy as well. I found a repro Ala Verde header and muffler in Italy and the correct decals for the tank and tool box.

The rear fender I have is not quite correct and will need to have the brackets repositioned and some holes filled in, new ones made. The front fender is very hard to find, I am going to start with a Benelli front fender of similar vintage and style and rework the fixings.

I don't realy like the handle bars bars I found, too narrow, I will cut them in half, weld in a slug and widen them.

The front hub is off a Honda CB450 Black Bomber 2ls brake and a popular upgrade in the day for racing an Aermacchi, I will have Buchannans supply spokes and a new rim.

Many, many things to find, build and repair, its going to be a slow process.

[cliffrod]

I'm ALL in for this build, Jim. 

Those early Aermacchi bikes are a real special soft spot for me.  A friend in Knoxville (the one that got my old HD Sidecar body) had a complete 61/62 that drove me nuts for years.  He would not let me own it.   Maybe your bike can bring me some vicarious resolution.  I know it will be fantastic.  I'll be watching.....

[Michael Moore]

You might enjoy a couple of photos of my friend Jim's Tony Foale-framed 350 racer that were taken at Willow Springs

:








share images free

[Frenchfrog]

Lucky man ! I love those machines but sadly nearly everyone that comes up for sale over here is well above a reasonable price. I'm going to follow this rebuild like all of you previous immaculate ones !

[Canuck750]

You might enjoy a couple of photos of my friend Jim's Tony Foale-framed 350 racer that were taken at Willow Springs

:

Wow that is one special Aermacchi, amazing frame on that red rocket! Thanks for the pictures.
Jim

[Canuck750]

Lucky man ! I love those machines but sadly nearly everyone that comes up for sale over here is well above a reasonable price. I'm going to follow this rebuild like all of you previous immaculate ones !

Thanks French, I would never be able to get a real Ala Verde so this is going to be ‘close enough’ and as close as I will ever get to throwing a leg over one of these beauties. Shame that Harley didn’t bring the Ala Verde over to North America.

[Canuck750]

Moto Italia from California came through again for me, a complete rear hub, brake plate and axle for the 1961 Aermacchi 250, for a 17 inch rim, just needs some cleaning up



a half hour of vapour blasting and stripping and more blasting, ready for polishing and then lacing the new spokes to the new rim Moto Italia provided



The threaded bearing retainer was a bugger to get out, lots of heat from the butane torch and using the right pin wrench helps, the nut had been bashed with a chisel in many spots before, I redrilled two holes 180 degrees apart for a snug fit to the pin wrench 4mm studs



pulled the blind bearings

[Muzz]

I am in awe.  What more can I say.

The way you casually fix insurmountable problems (to me anyway) never ceases to amaze me.

[Canuck750]

Thanks Muzz, having the right tool for the job makes difficult jobs so much easier, I never knew there were so many uses for a simple pin wrench, indispensable for opening up shock absorber reservoir caps too.

[riguzzi]

I'm just putting my 68H back together before I start on my v50's. Nice little bikes!

[Canuck750]

I'm just putting my 68H back together before I start on my v50's. Nice little bikes!

 

[Canuck750]

A liitle bit of progress with the Aermacchi, I put a new pair of wheel bearings into the rear hub that Leslie Bull of Moto Italia provided,



Polished up the aluminum hub, deglazed the brake shoes



Moto Italia also provided a new Radelli 17" chrome rim and a set of new stainless steel spokes and nipples from Buchanans



rear wheel all laced up, next to true the wheel and then mount a new tire and tube



I need to call Buchanans and find out if they can make a set of new stainless front wheel spokes from measurements I provide or if I need to send the Honda Black Bomber CB450 front hub and the 17" Radelli rim to them.

Anyone know where I could find a new rear sprocket for this 1961 Aermacchi rear wheel?

[Canuck750]

I found a Benelli front fender on Ebay that looked like it might fit, I think it will be ok, the top mount has a single tab rather than the double screw tab that wouldbe on the original



Got the rear tire on the new rim, 17 x 3.00, I think it looks ok



I have a couple Harley 250 Sprint rear fenders but none of them fit correctly or look right. I removed the mounting tab on the 62 ~ 66 rear fender I have to try and massage the location of the fender and mount but its not going to work, the 68 on rear fender alos is too big



I think I will look for a Sears 106 SS Gilera fender, my 106 SS rear fender looks like it will be a better fit, the Gilera also has a 17" rear wheel

I screwed up ordering a natching new 17" rim for the front wheel, I was planning on using a Honda CB450 Black Bomber 2 LS front hub but didn't check that it is a 40 spoke hub and I ordered a 36 spoke rim, I might look for the Aermacchi front hub for the 1961 17" wheel
Looks like 17" rims with 40 spoke holes are very hard to find

[Canuck750]

I took the big valenced rear fender I have to a motorcycle bone yard today in search of a smaller diameter fender that looked more like the slim Ala Verde fender. The bike wrecker in town is a disaster, two storeys of mostly 70'e Japanese parts stacked high on wood shelving with hardly any identifying marks and parts just piled on top of one another.

My search did go pretty quick, I found a rear fender, Japanese, probably early 70's by the signal light mount bracket that was bolted to the fender and it appears to be from a bike with a 17" rear wheel, much smaller than the Sprint rear fender. It is free of dents, appears to be stainless and was mine for $50

I think this will work with some fiddling, I need to weld up some holes, drill new holes, weld in some backing plates etc...



I had a rear lamp holder and plate bracket that has the bottom 1/4 rusted off, it is of the style that came on the Ala Verde, I cut off the rusted bottom and foled over a lip, the upper bracket holes actually line up with existong hloes in the fender, perhaps some good Karma?



There are many variations of rear fenders on Ala Verde motorcycles on Google, This is one example that sort of looks like the fender I found



I need to fabricate a bracket for the bottom of the plate holder to bolt it to the fender. The seat cover is sitting over top of a smaller Aermacchi seat, I am waiting on a used seat frame for an Ala Verde to come from Italy.

I am pretty happy with how its coming together

[cliffrod]

It's looking really good, Jim.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Thanks Muzz, having the right tool for the job makes difficult jobs so much easier,

I've said many times that having the right tool is generally 2/3 of the job. Sometimes, you just have to make it.. 

[Canuck750]

I was still not happy with the rear fender I found, the Ala Verde has a rear fender with shallow skirts set into sheet metal folds of the main fender body, and it has to be suitable for a 17" rear wheel.



I took a look at the rear fender on my Sears Gilera 106 SS, another Italian motorcycle with17" wheels and thought maybe it could be made to fit. I was lucky to find a very cheap Gilera 106 SS rear fender on Ebay, it was split at the rear and twisted buit salvageable. I welded up the original mount holes in the Gilera fender and removed a rear fender bracket from another later model Aermacchi Sprint fender and went to work with the hammer, dolly and welder.

The brackets fitted



I was also very fortunate to find an original Ala Verde seat frame (year unkown) on Italian Ebay, I blasted it clean and then I removed the rear seat bracket to position it over the center of the rear fender main support



I need to remove the front seat brackets and reposition them as well to align with the Sprint frame seat support, should be an easy job



I found a reproduction Ala Verde hump back seat cover in Italy, it fits great, seat cover loosley fitted for alignment



Ebay turned up a correct 1961 Sprint front fender that I will use (the blue fender I have on the bike is from a Benelli) and Moto Italia sent me a complete front hub and axle for the 17" front wheel,

The Honda Black Bomber front hub is now surplus, if anyone needs it let me know, willing to let it go for cheap with a pair of new shoes.

Getting closer to sourcing all the hard to find bits. I need to modify the front fork shrouds to expose the top of the fork tubes and fit the original type clip ons. I would alos like to find an emgine case side cover with "Aermacchi / Harley Davidson" cast into the alloy, this would be correct for the Ala Verde circa 1961, if anyone knows where I can find one please send me a pm.

[Canuck750]

I took a closer look at the seat before rewelding the support brackets into position, the years of use had resulted in the hard spring steel cuting the mild steel frame,I  rewelded up the frame at the spring mount locations



Two of the horizontal springs were missing, there are four different lengths of springs and the two coil vertical main support springs are missing as well. I had a spare sprung seat that came with another project that is surplus so I removed the missing springs I needed from the spare



All the springs fitted, and the front support brackets were removed from the seat frame by drilling out the spot welds, reshaping the brackets and then cutting down the width of the bike frame seat mount to fit the Ala Verde seat



I used four vice grips and a spirit level on the bike frame and a level on the seat top to level the seat brackets mounted on the bike prior to welding the whole seat back together

I can’t rotate the image but this is the final fixing of the seat, now to paint the frame and then permanently mount the new seat cover

[cliffrod]

Sure is looking good, Jim.   

I got a 66C a few days ago, to have as another canvas.  Don't think it will go as far towards original as yours is going, but you've got my wheels turning..  Thanks for all these great detail pics.

[Canuck750]

Thanks Clint! Glad to hear you got yourself a Sprint, parts availability is pretty good and should you choose to go with the Ala Verde look I think Leslie at Moto Italia has one more Ala Verde tank available.

[cliffrod]

Mine is pretty not pretty, Jim, but the engine is complete with no fin damage. 

Right now it's likely going to be the platform for custom bodywork when the time comes, maybe something along the lines of a Linto 500.  Don't know that it would be feasible for a hack like me to marry a pair of engines together like Millyard (sp?) does to make it really authentic.   Just having a somewhat fitting partner to my Tonti-inspired Corsa Record will be enough for me.

[Canuck750]

Right now it's likely going to be the platform for custom bodywork when the time comes, maybe something along the lines of a Linto 500.  Don't know that it would be feasible for a hack like me to marry a pair of engines together like Millyard (sp?) does to make it really authentic.   Just having a somewhat fitting partner to my Tonti-inspired Corsa Record will be enough for me.

A Linto replica would be very special!

I powder coated the seat frame today, my shop oven is just big enough to take the frame, black powder about to be cured



I fitted the seat, I had to remove the cover and trim down the center upper spring bar and move the outer springs in about 8mm to get a proper fit, it is not perfect, I don't think the frame was actually for an Ala Verde but its close enough



Upon remounting the seat to the chassis I found the rear hump is too tight to the rear fender, I extended the rear center mount bolt, fitted a spacer and then redrilled the seat side lugs to the fender bracket, a couple more holes will need to be welded up in the fender.



I got a 1961 Sprint front hub from Moto Italia, the hub outer surface had some deep nicks and corrosion



I mounted the hub in my lathe and starting with 100 grit dry I spun the hub and used a foam rubber backer with the sandpaper to sand out the nicks, it took about a half hour on the lathe working up to 220, 400 and then 1000 grit wet



I finished off with the bench polisher



Reassembled the brake plate and test fitted the hub and installed the 1961 Sprint front fender



It is starting to look a little more like an Ala Verde

[cliffrod]

Yup- very cool. 

[Canuck750]

A little progress towards getting the Aermacchi to rest on two wheels, it will need a stand, the original stand bracket was partialy cut off the frame I started with, Harley Davidson offerd the side stand bracket as a separate option to weld to the frame, found this one on Ebay



Zipped the remainder of the old stand off and welded n the new bracket



I removed the mock-up motor to weld the bracket and swapped in the 250cc Sprint engine I had rebuilt a couple years ago





I fitted the repro header and muffler and the heel toe shifter I found on Italan Ebay



side stand and brake linkage cleaned up



I dropped the front wheel I laced up on Saturday, getting a new tire and tube installed and then the little Green QWing can be rolled into a corner

[Canuck750]

On two wheels (and a side stand), the little Green Wing moves to the backburner now to make way for other projects

[cliffrod]

Sure does look good, Jim.   These pics will pester me about what could be done with my rusty old pile....

[Canuck750]

Merry Christmas Clint!

And thanks for the kind words.

 I will keep doing small things and adding parts to the Aermacchi to the point of getting it running then disassemble for cosmetic work down the road. I want to finish the Airone before I get into the full deal on the Aermacchi or Benelli, and that oil consumption issue with my Ducati 860 has me occupied right now.

[cliffrod]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Jim.    It's lots easier to be happy with my old piles when I can have them in sight, doing a little at a time until the real time comes.  We had a similar inexplicable oil leakage issue that turned out to be the mentioned small crack that only leaked after engine was hot and under pressure.  But in my well-developed state of crs, right now I can't remember what bike/engine it was...

No matter, I would have a hard time focusing upon either the Aermacchi or the Benelli with that Airone around.  They're just not in the same league.  That's such a nice looking old single- it's coming out great.

[Bob Wegman]

I am a big fan of the Aermacchi sprints.  Don't have one at present but did have a 1972 ERS350 sprint new.  Rode it at local dirt track races and on the ice. Sold it pre internet days, because I was worried I wouldn't be able to find parts if it broke, and have regretted that ever since. 

[Canuck750]

I am a big fan of the Aermacchi sprints.  Don't have one at present but did have a 1972 ERS350 sprint new.  Rode it at local dirt track races and on the ice. Sold it pre internet days, because I was worried I wouldn't be able to find parts if it broke, and have regretted that ever since.

I have not made any progress on the Aermacchi, busy finishing other projects but I will get back on to it.

I have a ERS frame - serial number *7B10021HO*, I have the HD/Aermacchi guide book that list serial numbers, this is one of some 400 +/- of these that were produced,I think it is a 72'  it has the swing arm and the rear wheel but nothing else.





I can probably get the tank and rear fender from the original owner if someone wanst to build one of these flat tarcker / MX bikes

If anyone is interested in it send me a PM, shipping could be expensive from Canada but I won't be asking too much for it, it would be nice if someone would assemble a racer out of it.