Harley-Davidson has always had problems with sport and off-road motorcycles. In the 70s, Harley-Davidson wanted to enter the fast-growing motocross market, so they worked with their Italian branch, Aermacchi, to build a 105-kg Harley-Davidson motocrosser with a 32-horsepower 2-stroke motor and chromoly frame. Despite having been tested by famous rider Rex Staten and marketed as a Harley-Davidson, the bike didn’t manage to impress much on the circuit, and was discontinued one year and roughly 1,000 units after it entered the market. There was little success in racing, but Bruce Ogilvie managed to win the Baja 500 on an MX250 in 1975. Many said the Harley-Davidson bikes simply needed more time and tuning to compete with other rivals.

Takuya Yonezawa, founder of Japan’s Bull Original, grew up riding motocross and found himself in a Bōsōzoku gang. In 1999, after moving to the United States, he founded a workshop. One of his projects was a 1000cc Harley motocross bike, based on a 1977 Harley-Davidson XLH1000 (Ironhead) Sportster.

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