Harris Magnum 5
Harris Magnum 5 | |
Manufacturer | |
---|---|
Production | 1996 |
Engine | Four stroke, Transverse four cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder. (Honda CBR900RR) |
Transmission | Final Drive: Chain |
Frame | Tubular steel ladder. |
Suspension | Front: Telescopic forks Rear: Monoshock |
Brakes | Front: 2x discs Rear: Single disc |
Weight | 185 kg (dry), |
Manuals | Service Manual |
Engine[edit | edit source]
The engine was a Liquid cooled cooled Four stroke, Transverse four cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder. (Honda CBR900RR).
Chassis[edit | edit source]
It came with a front tire and a rear tire. Stopping was achieved via 2x discs in the front and a Single disc in the rear. The front suspension was a Telescopic forks while the rear was equipped with a Monoshock. The Magnum 5 was fitted with a fuel tank. The bike weighed just 185 kg.
Photos[edit | edit source]
Overview[edit | edit source]
Harris Magnum 5
Testing a
hot new special like the FireBlade-engined Harris Magnum 5 probably sounds
like a pretty enjoyable way to earn a living, and most of the time it is. But
not right now.
Right now
we need cornering pictures, so I'm cranking the Magnum repeatedly round a big
figure-of-eight roundabout. Once every lap Goldman's flash-gun fires a bolt of
light through the dull December day, just as the sound of knee-scraper drowns
out the burble from the twin silencers in the tailpiece. Great fun. Except
that twice every lap I'm lifting my left hand from the bar to wipe a thin film
of water from my visor.
Basically,
I'm bricking it. If we're going to get any decent pics I can't afford to slow
down, but binning the only Magnum 5 in existence on the increasingly not-quite
dry road is not an option especially as Harris haven't even finished taking
all their frame-jig measurements from this prototype. If ever I needed a
fine-handling, neutral-steering bike with heaps of grip it's now.
Thankfully
the Magnum and its Metzeler MEZ1s were up to the job, doubtless saving me from
death by a thousand Snap-On blows on return to the Harris headquarters in
Hertford. And in a way, the need to ride hard in bad conditions showed the
Magnum at its best, because if ever there's been a special built not just for
all-out speed but for stability and sure-footed handling too, it's this one.
Like its
predecessors stretching all the way back to the Magnum 1 in the late '70s, the
Magnum 5 is an aggressive, hand-built caf-racer. This bike is the most stylish
of the lot, with a neat twin-headlamp fairing, lashings of carbon-fibre and a
916-style high-level exhaust system. Traditionally, if you put a Magnum
alongside the Jap four whose engine it used, one bike would also have a
tricker frame, steeper steering geometry, shorter wheelbase and racier riding
position.
In the
Magnum 5's case, that's still true but it's the standard FireBlade that's the
more radical bike in each respect. Harris are no slouches at building
alloy-framed race-replicas, as many previous specials and their works
YZR500-engined Grand Prix racebike prove. But this Magnum, like its
predecessors, relies on steel in this case, 35mm diameter cold drawn steel
tubes arranged in very similar fashion to those of the Suzuki GSX-R engined
Magnum 4. And rather than attempt to make the 'Blade's razor-edge handling
sharper still, Harris have opted to retain the 4's slightly less radical
steering geometry.
This
Magnum's forks are raked at 25 degrees, compared to the standard CBR's 24, and
its wheelbase is 45mm longer at 1450mm. The Harris bike's seat is 20mm lower
than the current Honda's, too, giving a slightly less racy riding position
more like that of the 1996-model FireBlade. Numerous carbon-fibre parts,
including the self-supporting seat unit (the rear section, like most of the
fairing, is glass-fibre), mean that the Magnum's weight is almost identical to
the 185kg of the standard Honda.
The Harris
intention with this bike was that as many standard components as possible
should be used, so parts including forks and yokes, wheels and brakes, clocks
and switchgear are all CBR items. That helped give a very familiar feel as I
fired up the Magnum and headed off for the first time. So too did the fuel
tank which, although made from aluminum instead of the standard steel, was
just as wide (partly because it has to enclose the airbox) and forced my legs
out in traditional FireBlade fashion. At least the solid-mounted, tucked-in
footpegs were an improvement on the originals.
This
prototype's motor was bog-standard, and Harris hadn't even had the chance to
set-up the carburation after fitting their neat and very quiet-sounding
four-into-one-into-two exhaust. The Magnum ran fine, though, maybe feeling a
little fluffier than normal below 4000rpm, but stonking off with typical
FireBlade ferocity once the tacho got above six grand. Cruising at 120mph was
licence-losingly easy, and with my head behind the tinted screen the Honda was
still pulling with over 150mph on the clock. If the pipe can add a few horses,
it could be enough to make an old engine outdrag the 918cc '96 model.
With a
fraction more rake and a longer wheelbase you'd expect the Magnum to take
marginally more effort to get round bends, and that's just how it felt. Riding
home on the cold but dry afternoon that I picked the bike up, I initially ran
slightly wide exiting a couple of roundabouts before readjusting to use a
little more muscle on the bars. Next day I didn't even notice it the Magnum
felt superbly neutral, and quick-steering enough to be flicked very rapidly
through a tight series of bends.
Stability
was excellent, too, the Harris notably keeping its head on one particularly
fast and bumpy Midlands B-road that might well have got a standard 'Blade in a
bit of a flap at the same speed. Good as the standard shock is, there's
something about a well set-up
hlins unit that seems to dismiss minor bumps
while giving almost perfect feedback. Forks, brakes and the Metzelers were
pretty flawless, too a far cry from the early Magnum days, when 38mm
Marzocchis, twin-pot Lockheeds and Pirelli Phantoms were about as good as it
got.
If the
Magnum 5's greatest asset is its speed, in a way the most impressive thing
about this bike is the one that was the biggest drawback of its predecessors
in the '80s: the price. Ten or fifteen years ago, owning a Harris meant
spending 50 per cent more than the cost of a big Japanese superbike. In
contrast the basic Magnum 5 kit costs about £4500 including VAT, and the
availability of FireBlade engines and high-quality original parts means you
could assemble a HarriBlade for roughly the cost of a new 900RR.
The
increase in performance is nowhere near as great, of course. In fact FireBlade
riders who don't mind the odd handlebar twitch might well consider the
Magnum's slight gain in stability at the expense of agility a retrograde step.
But while I'm not convinced that the Harris would be the faster bike on most
roads, there's no doubting that this is a fine-handling and blindingly quick
motorbike as well as a handsome and exotic one. Given a straight choice
between special and stocker, the Magnum 5 looks mighty tempting to me.
Why?
"The
FireBlade is a nice bike but its steering is a bit nervous, a bit twitchy,"
says Lester Harris. "We didn't want to radically alter it, we wanted to take a
FireBlade, keep the good points and improve the bad areas.
"We've
altered the riding position. You're a bit over the handlebars on the standard
bike, so we've moved the rider back and down a bit. We've extended the
wheelbase marginally, raked the forks out a touch and the result is a similar
quick-steering bike that is a bit more comfortable to ride and a bit more
sure-footed on the front.
"You could
say the Magnum's steering is slower but remember this is not a racing bike,
it's a road bike. Our opinion is that for most people the FireBlade is a bit
extreme, so we've tried to calm it down a bit, make it a little more
user-friendly without losing the manoeuvrability."
Who?
"The
blokes we're aiming at are FireBlade riders who've crashed and wrecked their
bikes, destroyed the frame and tank and bodywork," says Harris's Neil
Procter-Blain, who had a big hand in developing the Magnum. "Someone in that
position could buy a kit for less than it would cost to rebuild the standard
bike.
"Because
so many 'Blades have been crashed, there are plenty in the breakers. And
because the Magnum uses so many standard Honda parts, people can just go to a
breaker and buy them even the little bits like the coils and sidestand are
standard. You could strip a crashed 'Blade and bolt the good bits straight
onto the Magnum as you go."
By no
means all the Magnums will be sold in this country. The bike has already been
TuV approved, and Harris's German importer has several bikes on order
including one with twin spots and no fairing.
How much?
Cost of
the basic Magnum 5 kit is £3850 plus VAT. For that you get the frame,
swing-arm, alloy fuel tank,
hlins shock, carbon seat unit, footrest kits and
engine plates. You don't get the fairing, which will cost about £350 in
fibreglass or £550 in carbon, or the stainless steel exhaust system, which
will be about £750.
Most
important Honda bit you'll need is the engine. These are cheaper than you
might think. So many FireBlades get dumped and badly damaged or written-off
that breaking specialists Just Blades of Coxhoe, Co Durham (0191 377 1277)
sell used motors for between £800 (early model) to £1250, for the Foxeye CBR
lump with magnesium cam-cover and reworked gearchange. Just Blades boss Derek
Baillie says he'll uncrate a brand new motor for £1500.
His rough
prices for other bits are fork and yoke assembly £350, front and rear wheels
£100 each, discs £50 each, radiator £150, clocks £125. So even after allowing
extra for tires, mudguards, headlights, handlebars and switches, wiring loom,
carbs, other bits and bobs plus the obligatory flash paint-job, you won't be a
million miles off the price of a bog-stock CBR900RR, provided you bolt the
Magnum together yourself.
Magnum
milestones
The
original Harris Magnum was a road-legal version of Steve and Lester Harris's
Z1000-engined racebike of the late '70s. "The first bikes were just endurance
racers on the road but then we made a proper road bike, the first Magnum, with
a road fairing and fibreglass tank cover," recalls Lester.
A 1981
restyle by Target Design (creators of Suzuki's Katana) produced the Magnum 2,
generally powered by Suzuki's GSX1100. "That was by far the most popular
Magnum. We've probably sold about 800 and still get the odd order even now."
The
mid-'80s Magnum 3, initially for Kawasaki's GPz1100, had a frame made from a
mix of steel tube and aluminum plate, plus rising-rate suspension, 16-inch
wheels and radical geometry compared to Japanese roadsters. "It handled really
well but wasn't great to look at, and never sold particularly well," says
Lester. "We remembered that lesson when we built a bike for Suzuki's GSX-R
motors a few years ago. The Magnum 4 had a steel frame with the geometry of
our alloy-framed endurance racer, and we made sure it was styled right too."
Source insidebikes.com
Make Model | Harris Magnum 5 |
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Year | 1996 |
Engine Type | Four stroke, Transverse four cylinder, DOHC, 4 valve per cylinder. (Honda CBR900RR) |
Displacement | 893 |
Bore X Stroke | 70 x 58 mm |
Cooling System | Liquid cooled |
Starting | Electric |
Max Power | 135 hp @ 10500 rpm |
Transmission / Drive | 6 Speed |
Final Drive | Chain |
Frame | Tubular steel ladder. |
Front Suspension | Telescopic forks |
Rear Suspension | Monoshock |
Front Brakes | 2x discs |
Rear Brakes | Single disc |
Front Tire | |
Rear Tire | |
Dry Weight | 185 kg |
Fuel Capacity |