Fettled Kettle

Tony Edwards, it’s fair to say, is obsessed with Harris Magnums. He’d never seen a Kettle engined Magnum 2, so he set about building one. Two years (and thirty four grand later) here it is.

- Mark Graham

Tony has a thing about Harris Magnums. Has done since he was 16. And it shows no sign of going away. This is his third Magnum, without a smidgeon of doubt his best to date, and one to stand among the very best of the genre. Plus, we think it’s the only one packing two-stroke power.

These were, along with Moto Martins, the special frame of the ’80s, although the first Magnum appeared in 1973 when Seeley, Rickman and Dresda were still the big names in trick frames. The Magnum 2, introduced in 1982, then became the benchmark in bespoke tubing for big-inch engines. Geometry, bending and brazing was by Steve and Lester Harris, Anglo-German firm Target Design (of Katana fame) styled the bodywork.

Perimeter-style in Reynolds 531 tubing, the engine became a stressed-member of the chassis and most big four-strokes of the time found their way into Magnum 2 frames; Z1000s, Suzuki GSX11s, Honda CB900s and Laverda Jotas. No Kettles in a Magnum 2 – until now.

“I love that ’80s endurance look,” says Tony. “They were the first proper specials I saw and such beautiful pieces of engineering.” Those first glimpses of Magnum 2s gave him a taste for specials building too.

“My mate had a Suzuki RM250 (motocrosser, although you’d have called it a scrambler back then) and he’d blown his motor. I had a DT175 engine lying around so we put that in it. It was all the wrong way around really, ideally you’d have put the RM engine in the DT, but it was a good learning process,” he says. “I wish I’d kept that bike. But then we all look back and say that about all sorts of things.”