I've had mine for 30 years this year. Mine is engine number 500 and I have riddent his everywhere - Long trips from Somerset through Belgium and France to heidelberg and back again on multiple occasions. Never let me down and still looks great- I love this bike! Well done Les.
Engine number of my Harris T140 is 464. This is the second Harris 750 for me. The first one had some troubles in flame and engine, e.g. welding at the steering neck of oil in frame was incomplete, so large amount of oil leaked. But, the second one is nice condition.
Mine was a 1987,it was my first big bike,I rode it like I stole it everywhere! Only problems I had was a pushrod tube seal leak and a scary 70+ mph run when one of the handle bar bolts snapped,talk about a tankslaper! Quick bike and handled like a dream,sounded great on Norton peashooters
I bought one of these brand new back in the late 80's. it was a nice bike but the build quality was garbage and the reliability about the same. I was glad to see it go.Nowadays I have a 70 model, a BSA lightning and a Commando. Much better bikes
Probably, most of the bikers have the same impression on this bike. I think the rebuild and the correct adjustment is necessary to enjoy riding Harris T140. My bike was also repaired by the specialist of British motorcycles with the NOS parts (crankshaft & flywheel assembly etc.) made in the Meriden. So, condition very good. I also have dominator 650SS which is a nice moto.
...hello, what exactly are the parts that are bad? Where you can see the bad quality? They are almost the same regarding previous years. I see in your video that the top part of the fork tubes is different; do not have the hexagonal top nuts may be other parts are slightly different but I do not see why the bad rap. I have a 79 T140 and a 48 5T
Well the Harris Bonnie was not a Meriden bike....it was built elsewhere using worn out machine tooling from the old Triumph plant. I remember the castings weren't quite to scratch and the motor wasn't as crisp and tightly built as Meriden's finest. The chrome peeled off the rims in a month. The valve rocker arm jumped off the tappet on the way home from the showroom. It blew fuses constantly. The clutch pushrod failed after 500 kms. The carburation was never right and the motor blew a hole in the right piston whilst on the freeway at 1200 kms. It just kept gong wrong. As said, I was happy to see it go!
I hafta reckon you are absofucklutely right, sire! I had the probably last-of-the-last BSA `trail´ thumper 500 which fitted perfectly your definition of what it was about. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Two weeks ago I bought myself a new T120, and, man, oh, man!! After 44 years of SOLELY EXCLUSIVELY Harleys, my age made me wonder about my phisicals... And came to this almost Northrop F-23.
@@farric1 The Les Harris Bonneville's were built in Newton Abbott in Devon from 1985 until 1988. These machines were built using many German and Italian components, handlebar switch gear, levers, mirrors and indicators were German. Petrol tank, suspension and wheels were Italian. If you think the Harris built Bonnies were built badly, I bought a brand new Meriden built TSX in 1983, it looked great, but the build quality was dire. I sold it in 1985 and bought a used Moto Guzzi V50 II.
