I first saw a Harris on the cover of Superbike magazine when I was about 17, its fair to say it blew me away, I wanted one immediately, I got this one when I was 21, ordered from Steve Harris at the NEC bike show in 1987, collected a month later , it’s had various schemes over the years.
A couple of bikes that inspired the build from magazine articles, this green bike was built by a fella called Alan Halsley or summat like that, Jim Wells engine and gold plated engine cases, I saw this a few years ago in a shop in Malton, it was in for a rebuild, not sure if its been done tho.
This one was turbo’d with the fuel carried in the belly pan.
I first wrote this piece when my Mag 1 was 27 years old, I’ve added some stuff below.
Z9 bottom end, 1015 barrels, taken to 1075, Debben gas flowed 1000 head, it moves along quite nicely, not quick by any standards but fun to ride. 
Pillion pegs removed, new single plates took a few hours of filing, new seat cover courtesy of Ryedale Upholstery in Elvington, York, give James a call for details of what he can do, 01904 608600.
A new loom this year, huge thanks to Jim, my previous 20 odd year old loom was beginning to show its age with a couple of minor faults last year, new Dyna coils supply big fat sparks and the addition of a venhill quick action throttle ensures good pickup.
A good few hours of toil and few beers later results in some life being wired into the old girl.
By last year, (2013) the standard steel and chrome exhaust had just about given up the ghost, too many welds holding the ageing system together, Exhaust craft in Whitehaven supplied headers, collates, collector and silencer, with a link pipe to be mated to the frame, finished off by Barry at Blue Haze Enginnering just outside York, period looking, in stainless, sorted.
Ignition now moved to underneath the electrics tray supplies power on the first click with lights being added on the second, switchgear has been parred down to a minimum.
WP shock keeps the back end in check.
Floating rear lockheed passes the MOT and can be used to calm things down if it gets a bit out of shape, to be fair rarely used, the standard GPz9 calipers are more than adequate to bring things to a halt, mated to forks from the same, 38mm air assisted with anti dive, state of the art back then, now with anti dive units junked and some additional preload added by inserting some old engine shims on top of the fork springs the front end with its 16 inch wheel is almost from the ark, tempted as I am to update I just can’t see the point, its an old skool Kawasaki. Job Done!
Updated – January 2026
Time for an update since this last build.
The bike went this colour and shape back in 2011. I finished running the 1075 kit in on the way to Le Mans 24 hour in 2011, had a few issues over the ensuing years with the head gasket leaking, its been replaced a couple of times, then I just couldn’t be bothered any more and put up with weeps from the left side 6mm bolt on the barrels and the cam chain tunnel, where all Z’s leak.
Having said I couldn’t be bothered, I have just had the engine rebuilt by Brian McCaul at Centurion Motorcycle Projects in Hexham, a full strip, vapour blast, cerakoted and rebuild, this time using APE heavy duty studs to try and keep the oil in. Brian had a few issues getting the original studs out, they eventually succumbed to a heat induction tool after being soaked in diesel and other substances for a few days. New valve seals and a rear guide for the cam chain went in, a couple of thread repairs and a report from Brian that all was pretty good, for an old motor.
These three pictures show the process, what I gave Brian after nigh on 50 years since the engine left Japan, cleaned up and looking, well, probably better than new to be fair.
The bike has been well used since the 2011 re build and I figured the old girl deserved a bit of TLC for the years to come. As well as trips to Le Mans in 11, its been up to Scotland in 16, 18 and 23.
The 16 trip came about after a chat with Pete, he was going up north to ride round the relatively new, at that time, NC500, I tagged along, my first trip to Scotland proper on a motorbike, I’d been to the Oban area in something like 1986 on the GPz750 but never further north on two wheels.
We took in Orkney too on this trip and resolved to come back another year and do more of the islands.
So in 2018 we did just that, catching the ferry up to Shetland.
And as far north as you can get in the UK, Unst.
Covid put us out of step and it took till 23 to get back up north, to Mull and the Kintyre Peninsula.
In amongst all the miles its ended up with some period Lockheed calipers on the front, the calipers were bought pre covid and with time on my hands I had a look to see how much offset might be needed to mount them, turns out its a washer width, so I set to and made the brackets. Designed on CAD (cardboard aided design), then into plywood, before aliminium.
The carbs got a bit of love too, again thanks to Brian McCaul
The forks have had an update too, same forks but junked the air assistance with the holes welded, legs re chromed and some new internals courtesy of Gareth at Reactive suspension, rear shock is now Nitron, taking over from the original WP unit.
Year 38 ahead, lets see where we get to……..
