T
he death of Steve Harris,
77, last week marks the
end of an era—when a
single or a small group of inde-
pendent engineers could play
a major part in the motorcycle
industry.
Essentially self-taught and
working with younger brother
Lester and old schoolfriend
Steve Bayford, Steve built racing
and road chassis for privateers
and factories, assembled com-
plete motorcycles, designed and
sold accessories and played a
significant role from street level
all the way to MotoGP and World
Superbikes.
As well as one-off racing
frames for riders including Barry
Sheene, Harris Performance
Products were also selected
(along with French constructors
ROC) by Yamaha to build works-
replica grand prix chassis for
YZR500 engines, run by several
private teams between 1992 and
1996.
One of the Hertfordshire firm's
first landmarks was converting
Yamaha TZ250/350 production
racers from twin-shock to mono-
shock. Racing star Steve Parrish
was an early customer. "Back
then, whatever you needed do-
ing—from footpegs to a full chas-
sis—Harris were very good at
making what everybody wanted.
Steve was the go-to guy."
P132
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
E N D
Of An
E R A
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
