The family-run company Harris Performance
Products Limited is based in Hertford and designs, develops,
manufactures and markets road and racing motorcycle chassis
and components. The company was established in 1972 by
Lester and Steve Harris, with a third director Stephen
Bayford.
Over 2,200 road bikes have been produced and sold from
one-off specials to the Harris Magnum range. This included
approximately 20 Laverda-based Magnums, amongst others.
Harris motorcycles have been successful in all classes of
road racing including Grand Prix, Superbike World
Championship, World Championship Endurance, Isle of Man TT
and top Irish road races. In 1991, the company became one of
only two companies worldwide to be licensed by Yamaha to buy
factory race engines for installation in Harris designed and
built chassis for the blue ribbon 500 cc Grand Prix World
Championship class. Harris is a technical partner to the
official Yamaha UK Supermoto team.[1]
Their Harris Yamaha 500 GP machines which were produced from
1992 onwards. They ran the official Suzuki factory World
Superbike Team in 1996‚ 1997 and 1998.
In 2003 Harris Performance teamed up with World Championship
Motorsports (WCM) to build new racing bikes under the name
"Harris WCM".
In 2015, Royal Enfield, a subsidiary of Eicher Motors an
Indian motor vehicle manufacturers, acquired Harris
Performance for an undisclosed sum. The company had had a
long relationship with Royal Enfield and was responsible for
the chassis development of the brand's Continental GT Café
racer model.