There's nothing quite like the feeling of getting a bargain, is there? That probably goes at least double if you're a person with a very specific, very niche interest, and you think you've somehow managed to find a diamond in the rough for an extremely tiny amount of money. It's not that you necessarily want to put one over on whoever you're buying it from, but more the feeling that they didn't know what they had, so you just got the bargain of the century.
Or maybe it's just your eternal sense of optimism, poking its stubborn little head up every once in a while to remind you that there's always a silver lining, right? Well, some of the time, that's true, of course. And other times, those suspiciously cheap finds you dig up are priced exactly as cheaply as they should be, because you're not going to like the horror show you're about to find if you dig in just beneath the promise of that shiny, candy-coated exterior.
We've shared some 2Vintage videos in the past, and frequently stand in awe of some of the really cool examples of random Japanese bikes (in particular) that he's been able to dig up all over Wisconsin and breathe new life into. And I've said before and will say again, if you're the type of person who appreciates a methodical, process-oriented approach to diagnosing old, disused powersports vehicles, then hopefully sorting them out and getting them running again, then this is definitely a YT channel you should be watching.
But what if there's even a question about whether the bike in question can be saved or not? That's not something every channel like this ever shows you. What if what's lurking inside that cylinder head and/or engine cases is a nightmare far beyond what your local haunted house industrial complex could hope to show you around Halloween?
Friends, what you're about to see here is not one, but two super rare 1973 Harley-Davidson small-displacement motorcycles. To be honest, they look super charming, and it's easy to understand why you might go "oh, they're $200 apiece? SOLD." and queue up to bring them home. I mean, just look at them!
Now, if you're looking at these and instantly thinking, "oh, that's a pair of Aermacchis!" then congratulations. You're absolutely correct. And if you're unfamiliar with the story of Harley-Davidson and the AMF years in the 1970s, then you may want to read this overview in our explainer on That Time Harley-Davidson Made A Motocross Bike. You may also want to make time to visit the AMF Years exhibit that's currently on display at the Harley-Davidson Museum if you'll be in Milwaukee any time soon, too. But I digress.
For the short version, though, Harley had had an interest in the Italian motorbike firm Aermacchi since 1960. But by the time 1973 rolled around, it was deep in the throes of trying to figure out how to handle the influx of small-displacement, inexpensive motorcycles from Japan's Big Four that were making inroads into the US market. From 1968, the Motor Company had a deal to be acquired by AMF (that's short for American Machine and Foundry), but 1973 marked a very specific turning point in its relationship with Aermacchi, because that's when it took over the other 50% of the Italian firm that it hadn't already controlled.
That's also when Harley stuck stickers on some small-displacement Aermacchis that already existed, as you'll see 2Vintage point out in this video, noting that they were made in Italy by Aermacchi for Harley-Davidson. How do you fight off the competition's small-displacement bikes? By pivoting to offer your own, of course!
I wasn't around in 1973, but you don't have to look around for very long to find folks swapping stories in forums about how the TX125 didn't exactly go over well when it was new. And diving specifically into the two featured in this video, well, to say that they've seen better days is a mega understatement.
On the outside, they look promising! One of them (the one with the solid blue tank), a previous owner even went to the trouble of lining the inside of the fuel tank, which is a cool thing to see! But something made them give up on the restoration, and as 2V digs into it, he begins to uncover why.
See, the one with the tank that looks a bit cooler on the outside (the one with the sweet retro stripes and Harley-Davidson text on it), the engine is completely seized. So he's hoping that the other one's engine can actually run, and that he can manage to cobble together one good bike out of the parts of these two put together.
It's a good thought, but as he starts to chase down the reason why the blue-tank bike's engine has such low compression, the problems go from bad to worse. Seeing deep gouges in the cylinder walls with a borescope are a strong indicator, but even that wouldn't necessarily prepare you for the horror of a disintegrating piston, would it?
At the end of posts like these, I often ask if you have stories or memories of the bike in question that you want to share, and I'll ask that here, too. But I'll also open it up and ask if you have any project bike horror stories, where they looked promising on the outside but only got worse and worse when you opened them up and started to really dig in. Let me know in the comments, and remember, pain shared is pain halved! I think, anyway.
