Harris SP 1

Honda’s SP-1 superbike had an incredible debut year. Highly acclaimed by the press when it was launched, it went on to sell well in the showrooms, and achieved tremendous racing success.

It won the WSB championship, the Formula One TT at the Isle of Man, and the prestigious Suzuka Eight Hour endurance race.

So it’s no surprise that renowned UK chassis experts Harris Performance wanted to take advantage of the bike’s popularity, as an advert for their racing expertise, and chose to build a very special, and very expensive version of Honda´s V-twin.

Nearly twenty thousand pounds is a bank-breaking price for a road bike and arguably very hard to justify. But after a thrilling test on the costly and much-modified Harris Honda SP-1, I’m tempted to say it’s worth every penny.

OK, that’s something easier said than paid. But the seductive brilliance of the bike really does make you want to save long and hard to afford one and sample it on a regular basis.

Harris has chosen the more sensible tuning route and concentrated on improving the SP-1’s chassis, rather than making its engine stronger. Quite rightly it thinks that 130bhp is more than enough, and has done what it can to allow that power to be used more effectively. The end result is a bike that’s both easier and safer to ride harder. And because it makes better use of its engine’s potential, it’s effectively made it more powerful anyway. Overall, the bike feels considerably more focused and honed than the standard version.

It has a very special hand-built flavour to it, and makes the standard bike feel just what it is - a relatively anonymous mass-produced bike which has dropped off the production line in a distant factory, along with thousands of others. That’s not to say the showroom bike is poor, it’s just that the Harris version is so good it makes it feel a bit second-rate.

Riding this Honda is a very special experience - and it’s best summed up by saying the Harris SP-1 isn’t a bike you just ride, it’s a bike you wear!

Not matter how hard you push it, its total composure and fully sorted feel give you the impression that you’re actually part of the bike, rather than just a passenger on it, along for the ride.

It should be no surprise to get this impression really. One look at the array of top brand names equipment fitted to it instantly gives the game away. Labels like Ohlins, AP racing, Marchesini, and of course Harris, are a sign of high quality and performance. Together they indicate that this is a very serious and very sporty motorcycle. And that’s exactly what this is.

Thrashing it along my local backroads, which I’ve ridden on for years underlined its brilliance. In fact it was so competent at devouring the twists and turns, at first I thought I was on a different route - and a much faster and smoother one at that. Exceptional feel and feedback are two of the biggest assets of the Harris bike. You always feel you’re intimately connected with the road and aware of its every corner, hill, dale, nook and cranny.

Most of the praise for this fantastically communicative experience is earned by the high quality Ohlins suspension. The control it offers is nothing short of exceptional and handles all the strains that even a superfast ride can chuck at it. And handles them well.

The forks and shock have such a superb balance of firmness and compliance that any surface can be ridden over in anger without scaring you enough to back off. The supreme confidence generated by the Ohlins kit encourages very enthusiastic use of the steering, throttle and brakes - allowing a very rapid rate of pace without any fear of getting it wrong.

Sections of my favourite road where I’d normally feel too worried to ride flat out, I’d attack with total certainty on the Harris. No matter how much you’re prepared to push things, the Harris always maintains its considerable composure.

Steering is just as impressive as the suspension, and changing direction, however suddenly, is never a problem. There’s such a direct and responsive feel from the bars you can plan a line through the next corner to the nearest millimetre, and know that the front tyre will track over it to perfection.

The character of the steering can be finely-tuned to suit personal tastes. Fork offset of the adjustable Harris yokes can be altered to change the trail, and influence the speed and stability of the front end.

Bridgestone’s BT010 tyres add to the competence with their excellent grip and stability, and the trick Marchesini wheels offer a further helping hand by reducing both gyroscopic force, and unsprung weight. It’s just another reason why the bike has such a solid racer-like sharpness. Only the likes of riders such as Colin Edwards will find fault with this machine’s superb handling.

DREAM RIDE

Chassis manners like these are rarely experienced by most bikers. And just as the Hertfordshire-based tuners intended, they enable the full potential of the grunty fuel-injected V-twin motor to be used.

Strong bottom end drive, and a healthy mid-range surge make constant use of the gearbox less critical to fast progress. But it does have an exciting rush at higher rpm which rewards spinning up the engine a little bit harder. The real meat starts at 9000rpm and builds up to 11,000rpm - not a broad powerband for a twin, but a very exciting one. And though the digital rev counter is tricky to read, the feeling through the seat of your pants provides all the info you’ll need to keep the motor on the boil.

Though caning the twin isn’t essential there are a couple of incentives to get throttle happy. First is the totally gorgeous droning boom from the hand-made Harris exhaust system. Its less restrictive design allows the motor to rev more freely, adding around three bhp to peak power and a lot of width to your smile.

Fuel-injection mapping has not been altered. But the pipes seem to have altered the fuelling enough to eradicate the jerky low rpm throttle response, which sometimes makes life on the standard bike irritating. The Harris SP-1 is a considerably nicer bike to ride around town.

The other incentive to cane the bike hard is the quickshifter. And though it’s designed to save time changing up through the box, its main benefit is the way it affects the exhaust note. Or more to the point, the way it doesn’t. Because there’s no need to shut the throttle and dip the clutch at all to snick up to the next gear, the howl from the pipe isn’t interrupted, and sounds pure racer.

Adding to the safety of fast riding on the Harris is the top-notch AP Racing braking kit. It provides huge levels of power, and aided by the superb Ohlins forks. The combination means even the most sudden deceleration is a swift and safe affair, and very reassuring.

Of course you don’t really have to be on lap record pace to stand out from the crowd on the Harris. The race-replica paint job, black painted frame, polished swingarm, and lashing of carbon fibre bits help give the Honda a look of quality and rarity. It may cost an absolute fortune, but at least it looks the part. And though twenty thousand big ones take the Harris bike out of financial reach of mere working-class mortals, the way it makes you feel is priceless.

Not many of us could cover the cost of having one in our garages. But as someone lucky enough to have had a go on one, I’d have to say that if I did have the cash, I’d buy one tomorrow.

The cost of all the little extras...

Ohlins forks - £1475
Ohlins rear shock - £610
Harris adjustable fork yokes - £550
Marchesini wheels - £1120
AP Racing six-pot calipers - £325
AP Racing floating discs - £715
AP Racing adjustable front brake master cylinder - £315
Harris rear disc, caliper and mounting plate - £225
Braided steel hoses - £85
Harris adjustable footrest kit - £300
Harris exhaust system - £640 - 670
Harris carbon fibre fairing - £440
Harris carbon fibre seat unit - £210
Harris carbon fibre front mudguard - £125
Harris carbon fibre rear hugger - £125
Double bubble tinted screen - £50
Shiftec quickshifter - £220
Harris steering damper kit - £250
Harris carbon fibre frame protectors - £75
Harris crash protector mushrooms - £75
Harris alloy oil filler cap - £12
Custom paint job - £1000
Labour - £500
Total - £9442
Honda VTR SP-1 - £10,050
GRAND TOTAL - £19,492

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