I realise this bike falls outside the scope of this category. Being a post Meriden 1986 Devon bike.
It’s very important none the less. It enabled Triumph to claim to be the oldest manufacturer in constant production. Not strictly true if you want to split hairs.
Anyway, it had the potential to be the best bonnie ever. And in many ways it was. With Harris having access to the best components available from all of Europe in the mid 80s. If anyone’s interested I’ll tell you about my bike and the tribulations of getting it back to health.
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Ok then
I bought it from a dealer about 4 years ago. It had a new MOT
every single thing that could leak did.
The electrics mostly didn’t work. The loom was burnt in many places. One of the highlights was the 2 white wires to the kill switch had been joined together with massive red wire and run to the back light and powered it permanently. How the thing didn’t burn to the ground I don’t know.
One of the top yoke pinch bolts was broken and half was stuck in and the rest of it was screwed in about 2 thread turns.
I bought it from photos and picked it up in the van having seen it start. My advice, don’t do that.
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Oh my the dealer must have known. Anyway, yes I look forward to your story with lots of pictures.
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I guess the problem with these things is years, mileage but mostly too many owners.
Anyway the first parts I found where the ultra rare original Lafranconi exhausts. You occasionally see a left hand one for sale (don’t know why) but I found a pair, possibly the last on the planet being sold by an ex Harris dealer who had kept hold of a few parts after he retired. I bought these before I’d even agreed to buy the bike.
I’ve only trial fitted them to date. For some reason I’m reluctant to run the engine with them. I’ve also replaced the headers which where the none linked performance type with the original type. Interesting that I sold those for more than I paid for the new ones.
This piece of ephemera is what I’m basing the build on. This is the same model as mine except it has the larger petrol tank. This one also has the Gilardoni barrels that John Bloor forbid Les to use. It’s rumoured that he had some of them painted black to disguise the fact he was using them. I find this hard to believe as these alloy/Nikasil barrels would have been one of the selling points.
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Bear with me cos’ there follows a series of pics showing the Harris special parts.
These are the F08 Brembo calipers and the Paioli forks. 38mm rather than the T140 35mm. Even the discs are slightly larger than T140 standard.
And the rear with the Paioli shocks.
And Brembo rear master cylinder.
Lafranconi exhausts and special brackets.
The really expensive cheap plastic indicators (I’m not bitter) and showing the slightly beefier forks.
Oh and Stainless steel mudguards front and rear.
That’s all for now. 
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The tank’s quite interesting. Les had these made in Italy.
The first thing you notice is the filler is in the middle rather than offset to the right. And the Monza cap of course.
And the Paioli taps are set further forward than with the Triumph tank. The reserve function doesn’t work as the adapters are so long it drops the pipe so low, out of any useful volume of petrol. Apparently it’s the same with the T160 that used the same taps. I know of someone on a T160 went on to reserve on a motorway and didn’t make the 10 miles to the next service station.
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These guys are extremely hard to find
I bought the switch new from Hawkshaw. But the Master cylinders are impossible to find. There must be dozens of them chucked in the back of sheds because for a long time the rebuild kits were unavailable. Anyway I managed to find this one off, I think, a Moto Guzzie Mille. It’s the same 2 piece m/cylinder but with a different reservoir, the Harris should be a round plastic job. It’ll have to do for now. I’ve learned to never give up.
This switch was broken and they’re not available anymore. This switch is for a Royal Enfield and just for fun was wired completely differently to the Harris. Fun and games were had I can tell you. It came from a used parts dealer in the USA.
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You might have noticed I don’t do restoration. I like my bikes to look their age but be functional.
So on getting the bike home and checking it out I found; forks leaking, brake calipers leaking, front m/cylinder leaking and made in China, the aforementioned top yoke issue, handlebars bent, indicators not working (new MOT remember?) loom destroyed, both PRTs leaking, rocker shafts leaking, rear shocks leaking, front wheel ran out by about an inch and a half, rear m/cylinder leaking and brake light not working, rear caliper leaking, swinging arm bushes worn out.
Apart from that it was fine.
Oh and the front tyre was fitted the wrong way round.
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Just needed a wipe over with an oily rag then…
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Just a rag, she provides her own oil.
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So got stuck in. First removed the forks and stripped them. Straight forward design so nothing I haven’t done before. They checked out straight, chrome good and within tolerance so just fitted new seals. The top yoke was replaced with a good late T140, same type but slightly bigger ‘oles. Thought about getting it reamed at the machine shop but just opened it out with the Dremmel in the end.
I’ll try to get the original fixed at some point. It’s a stainless bolt that’s stuck so won’t be easy.
The front calipers had a rebuild kit but I couldn’t get the joint to seal. It has an o ring between the Half’s and it wasn’t leaking fluid but bubbles were appearing so I got a new pair of calipers from an Italian supplier. Again I can probably fix the old ones when I get around to it. After that I got the pistons out of the rear one without splitting it and replaced the seals. And that worked fine. Apparently it’s common for the joint to leak after they’ve been split. New seal kit went into the rear master cylinder. These are a nightmare to blead as there is not enough movement in the lever. I ended up taking the whole thing off with the pipe and caliper and hanging it on a hook and manually operating the short lever. I took the opportunity to replace the rubbish stop lamp switch with a hydraulic one at the same time. Phew, this is going to take a while.
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I’d like to replace the front brake lines, they’re 2 individual braided hoses currently.
They’d look tidier with a single from the m/cylinder to a splitter and 2 to the calipers. One supplier failed to understand what I needed and sent me a set for a standard T140. I’ll make my own Goodrich set when I get around to it.
While I’m thinking about it, I’m keeping the aftermarket seat. It’s (I think) Norman Hyde and uses the original seat pan. It’s very comfortable for my er..ample frame.
Another great upgrade is the Akront unflanged rims and Stainless spokes. They look standard if you can get them shiny enough. They replace the original poor quality chrome efforts that never lasted.
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It’s very useful to document all this BTW because it is all just in my head. Which is a very strange and untidy place. My wife sometimes asks me what I’m thinking.
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Well it’s got compression and a spark and fuel…why won’t it start?
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The next job I tackled was the PRT tubes leaking. Off with his head. The only thing noteworthy is the head had been skimmed a lot! So I replaced the tubes as they were a bit distorted at the top circumference and the ‘wedding rings’ as they were cheap and the correct seals and O rings. I decided to use a thicker copper gasket to get the crush right. One of the exhaust inserts was loose but that was just a matter of screwing it in tight. So far so good it hasn’t leaked yet. I also replaced one rocker shaft and both seals. I also treated it to new head bolts and nuts.
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The handle bars were bent as mentioned, they’d been heated and straightened so I scrapped them and fitted a standard UK low bar.
The loom was toasty. I was going to build a new one myself but then found a new Harris loom. There are various differences to the last Triumph loom.
Anyway I struggled to fit it as it was very stiff in the wrapping and there were numerous connectors that had hard insulators that took up too much room in places like the back of the ignition switch. Oh yes, it had the late switch which caused problems with the lights. I’ll not go into it but an earlier 30552 switch fixed it. (After I got another one because the first was faulty). ‘Genuine Lucas’ is anything but! Further problems on the lights were traced to the headlamp plug being wired incorrectly in the factory.
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