Yep, you folks demanded even more STRANGE BIKES from the old archives. So I scraped up some more odds and ends from the history of bikes. Once again, let's see how many of these strange bikes you heard of. Have fun.

GILERA TOWN & COUNTRY 98
Yet another Italian bike from 1970, the Gilera advertising folks claimed their bike could do it all. This is from one of their ads:

"Here's a brand new motorcycle with a split personality. With its fantastically versatile wide ratio gear box, Gilera's Town & Country 98 flattens mountains into freeways and whips along in city traffic like a hot street bike. Gileras Town & Country 98 is exclusively designed and engineered for theAmerican Sportsman with these sensational features:

• Wide Ratio Gear Box for maximum efficiency in all gears
• Up-swept exhaust and safety heat shield to protect your leg
• Heavy-duty chrome camper rack
• Full-length engine skid plate
• Special design trail handle bars with adjustable control levers
• 98cc - 4 cycle

10 other Gilera models from 98cc to 300cc"

RUPP CONTINENTAL CUSTOM
If you had about two hundred bucks (exactly $199.95) back in the mid-60s, you could own a Rupp Continental Custom. I thought it looked like every other crappy mini-bike of that era, but the Mansfield, Ohio builders thought differently in their ads:

* Practical and fun * Larger than a trial like * Smaller than a motorcycle * Front and rear spring suspension * 5" Bendix expanding brake * Grand Prix wheels * Chrome fenders * Chain guard * More cycle ... less money

RABBIT SCOOTER
Those wacky folks from Rabbit certainly had a way with words: "The Rabbit is a hare-raising experience" and "No wonder the Rabbit is multiplying so fast." The 1965 Rabbit S-601 shown here was powered by a tiny Fuji engine and came with white-wall tires with a semi-knobby pattern for the odd off-road trip. It came in a less than tasteful shade of brown.

CAPRIOLO 100
Those clever Italian fellows figured all you had to do in 1965 was build a bike for a competitive price, and the buyers will come in droves. Well, they stayed away in droves from this bike, in spite of the scintillating ad copy:

"Why buy an 80 or 90cc when you can buy the new 100cc CAPRIOLO 4 stroke with overhead cam engine in the same price range. Powerful... Fast... Responsive... Dependable COMPARE CAPRIOLO FEATURES WITH ANY OTHER IN ITS CLASS...

• 100cc 4 cycle
• 4 speed footshift
• Overhead Cam Engine
• 7.8 to 1 Compression
• Needle Bearing Lower End
• 6-Day Gold Medal Winner
• $379.00 FOB. Phila., Pa.
• AVAILABLE IN 75cc WITH SAME FEATURES $339.00 F.O.B., Phila., Pa
• Add $10 W. of Miss."

PARILLA WILDCAT
In the late 60s and thru the mid-70s, Cosmopolitan Motors brought an almost endless string of little known Italian bikes into the US market. Sadly, I must report that I became the owner of a Parilla Wildcat Scrambler, just like this 1965 model shown here. I bought it for $25 dollars and all it needed was a rod bearing. Much to my dismay, I found out that Cosmo would not order that particular part until they had a certain minimum number from customers, and since there were only a few of them sold in the US, they could not order the dead part. It sort of made me wonder if any other Italian bike owners back then had the same sort of problems. As the years went by, I found out that, indeed, such was the case. So this exotic four stroke 250 cc dirt bike went the way of the dodo bird, like so many others.

RABENEICK GS SCRAMBLER
What you see here is the 1965 Rabeneick K-103 GS Scrambler, a bike with a name almost bigger than its 100cc displacement. It's a standard size motorcycle in all respects, even to a 21-inch front wheel of the type popular on European scrambles bikes. The engine is a single-cylinder, two-cycle German built Sachs with a four-speed gearbox, which had a lot of torque and high reliability, but not much power.

Earles type front suspension was used on the Rabeneick. These forks had a tendency to lift the front wheel under heavy braking, and actually handled rough stuff quite well. It also had a tubular frame, swing arm suspension, hydraulic steering damper, fiberglass tank, and the engine developed 8 HP bhp.

MOTO MORINI
A 250 cc machine, the MM has atubular frame, real swing arm suspension, a fiberglass tank (considered high tech back in 1965), about 11 horsepower from the push-rod four-stroke engine and a four-speed gearbox. It was considered a trials bike, but had street legal lighting on it so it could be ridden to the event and back again.

1970 BENELLI BUZZER
Can anyone argue with me that this was easily the ugliest mini-bike ever built? Honest to God, it looks like some sort of insect. But Benelli was proud of it, enough so to call it a mini-cycle for anyone. It had a 65cc engine, automatic clutch and transmission, and was said to be street legal in most states. It also folded to suitcase size. Oh yes, BUZZER JR. was the same as above, but without lights, speedometer or horn.

SHAW HAKES MINI BIKE
Style? You say you want style, dude? Then don't go here. The folks who built and sold this mini bike back in 1970 more or less just bolted parts on and figured that was good enough. The Shaw Hakes Engineering Co. powered it with a 5-speed 50-cc Sachs engine.

Steering geometry was patterned after full-sized bikes and it had fairly large tires for a mini. You don't think looks (or lack of) had anything to do with the lack of sales, do you?

CHIMERA
The early 60s saw Harley-Davidson scouting all through Europe for a partner to make some lightweight bikes to fill out their line. All the US factory made were big bikes, and they had no interest in making intro-level bikes at all. But too many customers had asked for a smaller, lighter H-D that their kid could learn on to ignore. They settled on a merger with Aermacchi for the supply of light-weights for the American market through their dealer network.

Now this is interesting: Aermacchi already had a 175 and 250 version of the Chimera ready to go. For some reason, H-D chose not to bring this weird looking 1970 Chimera into the country. Could it be because the styling was similar to a Hoover vacuum cleaner?

So the Chimera was stripped of its Buck Rogers fake space ship styling, and presented to the buying public looking more like a normal bike. They sold a 175 at first, then a 250 and eventually fielded up a full line of bikes. Believe it or not, about 25,000 Aermacchi bikes were shipped to the US each year during the boom years.

So whatever happened to the Chimera? Who cares!

GUAZZONI 100/125
A very clean and simple bike (especially for one made in 1970) the Guazzoni 100/125 was actually an impressive bike. The model shown here is the ISDT version, but a motocross version was also available. Technically, the Guazzonis were wild, with all kinds of bizarre transfer ports in their powerful little two strokes. The 100 pulled about 13 HP at 8500 rpm, while the 125 cranked out 15 plus at 8000 rpm. In fact, the Guazzoni was so impressive, it spelled the death-knoll for the exotic Italian four stroke singles at that time. Heck, it had Ceriani suspension and other goodies, stock. Too bad it never caught on.

SIMPSON 100 9-SPEED
Let's see ... the Simpson had a nine-speed gearbox when everything else had a four or five speed unit. It was high tech, with a side-mounted carb, massive finning, all kinds of neat details and plenty of power. In 1970, it was faster than any other 100 cc racer you could buy. So what happened to it? Who knows?

HARLEY RAPIDO 125
A lot of you older dirt bikers will recognize this bike, so I included it here for the younger generation. The Rapido was built in Italy by Aermacchi for Harley. It had a simple two-stroke engine, no real frame to speak of and conservative styling. How good was it? If you believed the copy in the 1971 ads, it was damn near ready to take on Baja:

"Rapido The starchy torquer. 125cc Rapido goes like twice its size. Just pick a path. Desert, woods, mountain trail. You'll see why long-time cycle buffs call it the kitten with a tiger's heart. Easy-to-start 2-cycle engine. Tuned exhaust. Wide bars. Dual sprockets. Neat new seat. Rapido. The lightweight trail machine with a high performance habit. From Harley-Davidson. Number one where it counts . . . on and off the road and in the records."

BEBE MINI BIKE
In the last 3? decades of journalism, I've read a lot of crappy copy, but the stuff for the 1971 BeBe mini-bike had to be right up there (down there?) with the worst. Here's some of what appeared in their ads:

"Your butt belongs on BeBe. We know you'd like the feel of a big bike beneath you. But you want the lightness and maneuverability of a small machine. We know you want a bike that's safe, comfortable and that's going to perform, too. But you don't want to pay too much for all these advantages. That's why we've introduced BeBe, the mini with the big bike features, except the price. Heavy-duty steel drawn tubular frame; swinging arm rear suspension with shocks; special spring telescopic front fork; comfort contour seat. For performance plus comfort. See BeBe today, in your choice of four-speed or automatic, in orange or avocado, at your nearest Premier Motor Corp. dealer. If these are all the features you're looking for in a mini cycle - your butt belongs on BeBe."

How good was the BeBe? Well, it was a single cylinder, two cycle, 48cc, five h.p., four-speed gearbox with constant mesh gears, Dellorto carburetor, flywheel magneto ignition, geared primary drive and was street legal in most states.

It hit the scales at 107 lbs. Saddle height: 24" Handlebar width: 33' Wheelbase: 37.5"
Heavy duty steel drawn tubular frame. Swinging arm rear suspension with shock absorbers. Front suspension: special spring telescopic front fork. Stainless steel front and rear mudguards. Fuel tank capacity: approximately one gallon.

In spite of all this, it was yet another Italian mini bike that had poor distribution, poorer dealer structure and a wretched parts situation. Gone, and deservedly forgotten.