Italy boasts some of the most storied marques in motorcycling, many of which are still prolific today. But the annals of Italian motorcycle history are also littered with companies that didn’t quite stand the test of time?like Aermacchi.
If you don’t know the story yet, Aermacchi was an aircraft manufacturer that started producing motorcycles after World War II. US readers will know the name, because Harley-Davidson bought half of the company in 1960, and started selling rebadged Aermacchis stateside. You’re looking at a 1961 Aermacchi Harley-Davidson 250 Sprint, masterfully reworked by Christian Schwarzenlander at ExesoR Motorcycles in Austria.

Christian picked the Aermacchi for this restomod project, specifically because he’d been itching to do something with a rare Italian classic. ?The style of the 60s single engines and the pure design of this era is unmistakable,? he tells us. ?I always played with the thought of one day building an Aermacchi.? ?But it is getting harder and harder to find an affordable Aermacchi nowadays. Some of them have been modified as classic race bikes, and some of them stand fully restored in private collections.?

Christian scoured the internet and stumbled across the 1961 250 Sprint by chance. It was in a terrible state and the price was far too high, but since they’re so hard to track down, he bought it.
Luckily there was a client funding the project; unusual, since Christian usually prefers working on bike...