But, there were some other roads taken by Harley-Davidson through their acquisition of European companies like war reparations designs from German company DKW that later became the basis of the Harley-Davidson Hummers I lusted after as a kid and were in production from 1948 to 1966. In 1960, Harley purchased 50%-ownership of Italian aircraft manufacturer Aeronautica Macchi’s lineup of Aermacchi motorcycles and began importing them under the Harley name in 250cc from in 1961. In 1969, the horizontal four-stroke single was increased in size to 350cc and continued to be manufactured until 1974 in on-road (SS) and off-road (SX) versions.

Our 1971 feature bike, a Sprint SS 350, belonging to Vanessa Causey and built by her husband Brett shows a whole different take on custom and/or restored bikes that just puts a whole different and personal twist to any and all of those genres. “My wife Vanessa wanted a neat old classic that runs good, is dependable, gets attention, and a bike that she could easily kick start. So, the Sprint 350 was a good choice,” said Brett. “There’s nothing like antique bikes that are actually ridden. The wife loves it, rides it, so I am happy that she is happy.”

Now before all you way-smarter-than-me-purist-types start (nit)picking out that this is not correct or that isn’t stock, that’s not what this bike is about. Go back a paragraph and check out the part about Vanessa riding this bike, not owning a 100-point resto that never turns a wheel in anger. Besides knocking around, Vanessa takes this bike on weekend rides and camping trips as well as putting it in show that she rides the bike to. The choice of a solo saddle instead of a two-up or a single-pipe exhaust instead of the Siamese header-pipe twin-muffler setup is their choice and more power to them. It’s always fun to look at something including a 100-point resto, but it’s sure as hell more fun to ride it and most people are unlikely to do that with a 100-pointer so more power to Vanessa.

Making this a daily rider involved a complete engine rebuild and for that Brett turned to legendary Sprint builder, John Basor of Winston/Salem, North Carolina. With a rebuilt bottom end including new bearings, an all-new top end from cylinder, head, piston, valves, etc., to the rebuilt transmission, John didn’t skip a thing and made a drivetrain Vanessa could use and abuse (so to speak). Brett did all the grunt work of re-lacing wheels, replacing brake shoes, tires, tubes, cables, chain, shocks, electrical system, etc. including the paint over a 14-month period. Okay you purists; is it an absolutely 100%-correct 1971 paint and decal job? Absolutely not. Is it well done and cool? Absolutely!