This two‑stroke screamer is not the typical Harley

Mention the name Harley-Davidson, and it won’t immediately bring to the mind the sleek, race-winning machine presented here. Indeed, most would recall images of big, burly, throaty bobbers, speedsters and tourers chewing up the miles on arrow-straight Route 66 roads. All bandanas and leather chaps.

Not so here, thankfully. The RR250 looks every bit a race-winning bullet of a bike, and its two-stroke-twin engine ensures there’s nothing relaxing about it.

Early air-cooled versions made 50 horsepower at 10,000rpm. Later water-cooled bikes pumped out 58 horsepower at 12,000rpm with top speeds approaching 150mph. No slouch.

With Aermacchi racing pedigree behind them, Harley-Davidson enjoyed a successful period with the RR250 and 350 bikes, bringing home a run of successive world championships at the hands of Walter Villa.

Described by Enzo Ferrari as “The Nicki Lauda of the bike world – a thinking racer,” Villa earned titles in 1974, 1975, 1976 and became world champion later that year on the RR350 too, placing Harley-Davidson in the bike racing history books. 

Owner Dick Linton purchased this bike from Holland where it had been restored, aesthetically at least.“It had a lot of problems with it, and we only had seven weeks to get through them before we started racing, which we didn’t manage.” Consequentially, one of these problems resulted in an unfortunate outing at last year’s Members’ Meeting…

“My son came off the bike last year at the end of the Lavant straight. A nipple on the right-hand throttle cable pulled off – this bike gets its lubrication through the fuel – the rotor seized, and he came off with a broken scaphoid which he’s only just recovering from, so he didn’t dare ride it this weekend.”

As it transpired, the conditions didn’t allow the Mike Hailwood Trophy to run, so we’ll have to wait for another occasion to hear that two-stroke motor scream.

Photgraphy by James Lynch