Harris fp1 race bike

[Markz9]

Hi all in October last year a Harris fp1 popped up in the xr69 forum on faceache, I had been looking for some time and almost given up when this one came up only slight complication was the bike was in Ireland 

Move forward about three months after trying lots of different ways of getting it back to uk and dupersunc was able to suggest a couple of contacts and a week later the rolling chassis is now with me

I had contacted Harris and they confirmed the build date etc and it had originally been built to take a triumph 900 triple engine 

my plan is to race this as it was designed and intended for but with my Gsxr 1216 engine I might swap the one from my slabby into the Harris and put my spare 6 speed  race engine in its place, I have dymags and some adjustable acc billet yolks coming from Donovan in South Africa the plan was Ian Simpson would be able to bring them back for me but we ran out of time 

It does have a koni rear shock but I’ve spoken to Maxton and they can help with the front and back ends 

so that it for now and I will update when I’ve stripped it down a bit more 

[clivegto]

Fantastic project. Does the oil cooled engine look like it'll take a lot to fit it.

[Markz9]

3 hours ago, clivegto said:

Fantastic project. Does the oil cooled engine look like it'll take a lot to fit it.

No looks like it will be quite straightforward lots of room to align the chain etc I will probably get a chap that used to work for wasp to do the sif brazing for me he is very good and local down in Salisbury 

[Dezza]

The Triumph engine the frame was built for must be massive: it looks like there may even be enough room to accommodate a big air-cooled four.

[Fazz711]

Nice project 

[kev34]

Very trick swingarm and linkages 

[Markz9]

So after a bit of a hiatus hopefully i can push  the Harris along a bit now the the powder coating on the frame had to come off to allow the alterations for the Gsxr engine instead of the triumph unit Harris originally fitted 

the plan to strip the coating using chemicals was going to take too long so by hand was the only choice so after a few hours and some heat I managed to come up a technique to peel the coating off, I didn’t want to blast the frame as I wanted the option of leaving it bare 

next stage is drop the frame and engine cases over to ex wasp welder so the sif brazing match’s the original and he’s only in Salisbury 

Following a bit of negotiation with Duncan I bought the refurbed Maxton shock he had for his Harris and in exchange for beer vouchers and the old alloy koni shock which was popular in the 80 on f1 cars which should be good for spares at his work 

[Dezza]

Was the old frame coating powder coat or paint? Presumably you used a hot air gun and a plastic scraper.

[Markz9]

3 hours ago, Dezza said:

Was the old frame coating powder coat or paint? Presumably you used a hot air gun and a plastic scraper.

Yes powder coating very thick initially I used a mapp blow torch but it just made a awful smeared mess as it was too hot 

I then tried the hot air gun and sharp scrapper and it peeled off in sheets, have to careful around the brazed joints but the chrome moly tube is harder than the scraper 

[Markz9]

Currently I am working on a large civil engineering project near Bristol as Russell benney of phase 1 is pretty close by

I managed to buy a spare fairing from him and had a good chat about the coming endurance season 2023 

although in the opposite direction spike of ragged edge racing is very close so picked up the seat unit I like for the Harris

next is to send the forks off to Maxton to be built to my spec and the adjustable off set yokes made by acc Eng in South Africa should have arrived 

the front brakes are p4 brembo with Sam’s billet adapter to fit on the forks 

and I will the spare dymags so should be a rolling chassis which is always a good milestone 

[Markz9]

Been a busy at work so haven’t posted anything lately the frames is currently being modified to take a Gsxr engine and the forks are having new internals fitted at Maxton 

my adjustable off yokes have now arrived from acc engineering seems they have had lots of problems again with power supply’s in South Africa which has delayed sending it to me 

super trick and made with a new stem to fit the Harris frame all aluminium hard anodised 

[DAZ]

Drooooooool !!

[Markz9]

Had a quick look through the weblike web site and found the Yoshi cover are still listed

you can never have enough bling although the points cover is still not available so I am going to have to keep looking 

[Markz9]

Forks are back from Maxton I have gone for the compression and separate rebound damping and my frame mods are done 

[R1guy]

8 hours ago, Markz9 said:

Forks are back from Maxton I have gone for the compression and separate rebound damping and my frame mods are done 

Rwu front ends don’t get much tricker than this…

[Markz9]

The forks are new and 35mm longer longer than standard so should help with me decking out the engine cases and the super slippery ti finish didnt add too much to the bill

i am robbing the dymags from the slabby race bike and i have some p4 brembo's with sams adapters, so could get the Harris on its wheels fairly quickly 

[Markz9]

So I decided nipped over to Sturminster Newton and jhr to collect my Harris f1 frame John builds a lot of motorcross frames for competition bikes and originally worked at wasp and his sif brazing is excellent

plan now is to trial build the whole bike I ve hopefully added all the additional mounts for oil catch tanks etc 

next job is make sure the front and back wheels are in line and a chain will align with the engine I am also dropping off my rickman to have the extra stiffning head stock tubes added the original rickman cr fram s started to suffer with cracking as the engines started to getting more powerful and I intended racing this as well so might as well get it done at the same time and then nickel plate the whole frame again 

[Markz9]

This is the rickman as it currently is and these are the additional curved braces that were added on the very last production cr and also retro fitted although I am getting these brazed rather than welded

[clivegto]

Excellent . Brazed not bronz welded ? 

[Markz9]

Hi all the rickman and Harris frames are brazed as they aren’t melting the tube and use a bronze type filler rod 

apparently it’s the type of flux that makes a big difference and the manufacturers keep changing the chemicals as elements get banned by the eu etc 

both John and wasp dip the rod rather than flow the flux in the acetylene gas which I am pretty sure Harris do

i can do it my self but not neat enough to be in show ! 

 

[Digs]

Love that fillet brazing, looks mega. 

[Dezza]

Says on Harris website their frames are bronze welded. In the last issue of Classic Bike there is a piece on a Harris frame repair and the bloke restoring an old Mag 2 frame states clearly this is the case and explains the difference to brazing

https://www.harris-performance.com/product/harris-tz-frame-kits/

 

Edited August 27, 2023 by Dezza

[Markz9]

Hi no it’s def brazed the def of welding is

‘join together metal parts by heating the surface to the point of melting’

since the tube in Harris and rickmans is chrome moly with a melting point of 1429 deg c and bronze filler rod is 890 deg c it’s not welded but joined by filler braze 

obviously you only heat up the filler rod till it melts 

another reason is at the point of melting chrome moly tube (for building bike frames) you actually turns it back to mild steel for approx a 3rd of the length 

so a very triangulated frame such as a Krauser bmw might as well be made of mild steel tube 

I did chat to john on Saturday in fact he does use an inline flux pot, I will get some better pictures when collecting my rickman frame and I will try and find the article you have mentioned. 

[Markz9]

Had the additional bracing added to the headstock of the rickman plus some repairs etc

although I have since found out that part of the problem is the different materials used between the frame tube the headstock ie it’s not all chrome moly 

john is very good one of the best I’ve seen 

[Markz9]

Little bit of an update the rickman has had its full fat engine put in, a few issues with lining up the rear upper engine mount and the swingarm pivot currently lining up front and rear wheels with the associated sprocket and chain alignment Ray Debben performance is helping with this as he has a lazer alignment tool

over the years I’ve some horror stories there where owners have come in and asked why the tyres are wearing a bit funny or it doesn’t like left hand corners, bike fitted with a 6 inch rear wheel which shouldn’t be possible and isn’t as, wheels out of true by a 100mm and they rode the bike there!