1988 Matchless G80 Rotax
Engine no. 223515

Collectors' Motorcycles and Motorcars at the Barber Museum|10 October 2020, 13:00 CDT|Birmingham, Barber Motorsports Museum

1988 Matchless G80 Rotax
Engine no. 223515

Previewing at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Please contact [email protected] for scheduling.

Licensed to produce Triumph Bonnevilles while the John Bloor-owned company developed an entirely new range of up-to-the-minute models, Les Harris also bought the rights to the Matchless name in 1988 and manufactured the G80 at his small factory in Newton Abbott, Devon. He quit 10 years later. Despite its "Made in England" label, the Les Harris Matchless used an Italian-made frame and most cycle parts – Paioli suspension, Brembo discs and calipers, Dell'Orto carburetor, Lafraconi mufflers (from Germany came the Varta battery and Magura switchgear) - and was powered by an Austrian-made Rotax SOHC 4-valve single with oil-in-the-frame lubrication. Designed by Brian Jones, production began in 1987 and continued into the early 1990s, towards the end to special order only. Reportedly some 850 units were produced in three colors; black, metallic burgundy and silver.

With only 19 miles, this Matchless G80 Rotax is basically new. Consigned from a well-known private collection in the NE, the bike was housed in a private Museum type setting along with a stable of historic single-seater race cars. Just like this Matchless, each bike from that collection represents the best example attainable at the time of purchase and appears as a fine grouping of bikes from the heyday of British and European motorcycle manufacture. Whilst some are suitable for the concours lawn, others are intended to be wound-up and ridden along sweeping country lanes - or on the racetrack!

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Please note, the title is in transit.

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