If the heart of a motorcycle is its engine, then it’s hard to say with conviction that this 1987 Harris G80 really lives up to its Matchless name.
However, it does have some pedigree and is actually probably a very nice motorcycle to ride. Someone paid £3,105 for it earlier this year when it came up for sale at an H&H auction at the National Motorcycle Museum in March, and that’s a fair price considering it is highly original, has had only two owners and shows only 2453 miles on the clock.
Heck, it can’t be that bad since eight were made for the British Army Royal Signals White Helmets display team.
It’s the creation of British spares specialist and businessman Les Harris who called it a new ‘Matchless G80’ single. It’s powered by a Rotax four-stroke, single-cylinder SOHC 500cc engine. The Austrian engine is housed in a British-made frame which also contained the engine oil and has many parts from respected Italian firms such as Veglia, Paioli, Dellorto, Lafranconi and Brembo.
Matchless is itself a highly respected brand, established in the late 1800s and was one of the first producers of motorcycles in the UK, manufactured in Plumstead in south-east London.
A merger with AJS in 1931 formed Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) which continued until the group’s closure in the mid-1960s, when it became part of the Norton Villiers group.
