Custom: AerMacchi M65 Leggero by RSD

“Yes, she’s a little rough around the edges, but that’s the beauty of it,” describes Roland Sands Design. They found this little bike buried in a scrap yard and decided to fix it up for Born Free. They’ll never admit to it, but the bike is a clever sendup of every bullshit cafe racer ever made.

“We ran across this Aermacchi as we were sifting through piles of crashed bikes looking for a suitable donor bike for the Pastrana Sportser,” explains RSD. “Peeking out between a quad and some type of small Chinese scooters that had caught fire was a faded pink gas tank with an AMF/Harley-Davidson sticker stuck on the side and 70’s era fluorescent orange flair. We immediately forgot about the Sportster and started the process of digging it out and finding out what it was. The model is an M65 Leggero and she’s a peach. As luck would have it, she ran and was in pretty decent shape for a ‘72. $700 later she was in the back of the van.”

“Talk of a turning scooters into café racers has been a topic for quite some time, so as Born Free approached we thought why not bring something completely different out to show off.”

“Faced with a tight deadline and lack of time to powder coat the rusted spoke wheels we turned to the wheel graveyard and dug out two sketchy ‘70s era Morris Mags complete with tires. They ended up being the cornerstone of the build. While we don’t recommend racing around a 600lbs chopper on 40yr old mag wheels, well take the chance with a 150lbs scooter.”

“We made our own clip ons and rear sets complete with TZ 250 racing footpegs. Extended the swingarm to fit the new 21” morris rear wheel and made hubs to accept a TZ 250 race spec rear discs and a juice brake from a motocross bike. Next we fabricated a new expansion chamber, relocated the original tail light and plate holder, inserted a little mesh screen in the carb and stripped off some excess do dads. Final piece was the aluminum number plate on the right side.”

“Total cost of the build? 300 bucks.”