Harris F1 Kawasaki
History
Yet another original and rare race bike rears
its lovely head. A mate of mine was selling this as his wife was giving him
ear ache about it sitting in the shed and him having too many bikes. So knowing that one of the TJR members was looking for something like
this we duly picked it up (in bits) and once home Lloyd came to have a look. The
horror on his face when he realised that it was actually a jigsaw
puzzle and there’s me saying I didn’t want to buy another bike that needed
rebuilding. So guess what, not only have I not bought a bike, I’ve ended up
building one for someone else. Little history is known of the bike but it is a Harris F1 with a cantilever rear suspension. We’ve never seen one of these before and don’t believe there were many made. The motor is a high compression Z1,
believed to have been built by Jim Wells (top Kwaka tuner) and it’s never been
run until the bike was built recently. Arrangements were made for Lloyd to give
me a hand and after myself and a mate had completed a dry build, Lloyd
turned up on the arranged Sunday. I asked him to lift the cover off while I made
a pot of tea. ‘You’ve got the wheels on then’. As the cover came off there was a fully assembled bike ready to run. So fuel, in battery on, engage starter and
nothing. Added an extra earth and she fired into life and a sweet motor as well.
The bike had its maiden outing at Mallory Park in March 2011. see news article.
Technical Specification
Engine Kawasaki Z1101 CDI
Capacity 1000cc
Carburation Mukini smoothbores
Body work Harris
Frame Harris F1 with cantilever swinging arm
Suspension Betor forks and De Carbon shock
Wheels 18" Speedline
Brakes AP Lockhead 4 pot
Harris F1