Mille frame numbers? and Harley-Aermacchi

[Testarossa]

The frame and engine numbers on my '89 Mille GT don't fall within any of the groups listed on Greg Bender's list.  I understand that all frame and engine number lists for Guzzis are works in progress, so I'll throw in these data points: Frame VH 100212, engine 24240.

[analog kid]

Were you looking for others? Mine: Frame 100284; Engine VT 024970

[Testarossa]

Analog:  Your numbers fall within the Mille range in Bender's list.  See http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzitech.dk/gb_en_technical_moto-guzzi-frame-numbers.htm#frame_#_list

[kfz]

Not really surprising.  Dogs dinner bike. Im sure they just had a big tidy up at the factory, swept the floor and said  " The first guy to make a bike out of all this **** gets to go home early(er)".

BTW mine is 232

BBTW why did you sell the Aermacchi are you mad?

Kev

[Testarossa]

The Aermacchi wasn't worth much in 1972 -- the 350 to have then was the RD. No one expected the Sprint would become a classic. I was dirt poor and needed the money to buy a clapped-out '64 TR4. I think I got $300 for the Sprint and paid $800 for the car.

[kfz]

Not worth much now in the uk (in comparison with other comparable classic bikes). I just like the look of them, think they look the dogs bollocks.

Maybe its the Harley moniker that did them in???

[Testarossa]

1969 may have been the nadir of Harley's quality control and general reputation. It was the year the company was sold to AMF. The Aermacchi brand on its own was pretty much unknown in the US except to GP fans. Sprint production ended in 1974 and in '78 Harley sold the Aermacchi factory to Cagiva.





The bike was all torque and a lot of fun to ride, but a bear to kick-start -- and since it was my only means of transport, winter was awful. I lived in Cleveland and had to ride in heavy wet lake-effect snow. Hence the need for a car. But the bike forced me to learn how to rebuild a top end and clean a Dellorto.

What intrigues me most about the Sprint now is that it was a Tonti design.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

What intrigues me most about the Sprint now is that it was a Tonti design.

I didn't know that, only that the Linto 500 GP, Lino Tonti's racebike, used Aermacchi parts in a horizontal parallel twin configuration. I always thought that the Sprint was derived from the '55 Chimera 175 designed by Alfredo Bianchi.

[Testarossa]

I always thought that the Sprint was derived from the '55 Chimera 175 designed by Alfredo Bianchi.

You're right about this. Tonti designed the first Aermacchi motorcycles but left in 1955, and the 250 single racers didn't come out until 1960. I guess the only thing he can be credited for is starting Aermacchi with the stamped steel frame.