Magmum-ificent Obsession

Eamon Dorrian has not stopped working on his Harris Magnum Kawasaki since he first created it in 1982. He's grown up with it since he was an impoverished teenager. Brian Tarbox investigates a passion that has lasted half of Eamon's life.

And so began the quest to own a Z1000 Kawasaki that was as impressive through the twisty stuff as it was in a straight line. These days Eamon is a 43 year-old married man, an HGV 1 driver and a member of the parish council in the Buckinghamshire village he calls home.
But his hair is longer than it was when he was a teenager, he's chairman of the Street Specials MCC and he is still playing around with ideas to improve that same Kawasaki having spent ten grand and more than half his life on the project,

	Eamon Dorrian has not stopped working on his Harris Magnum Kawasaki since he first created it in 1982.

His wife Carole has labelled him a 'permanent teenager'. Eamon regards that a compliment. He said: "You can't avoid getting older but you don't have to grow up." The missus rides a bike too - an early Honda Firestorm. She does not question Eamon's love of motorcycles, just his love of this particular specimen.
He said: "She thinks I should retire it gracefully and get something on which you just push the button and it starts every time. That would be boring. Half the fun of this machine is derived from the fact that I have to put so much work into it.
"Just about everyone in the Street Specials Club gets as much fun from building these bike as they do from riding them. We are all frustrated engineers and can never leave anything alone. We are always on the phone asking each other how we got X to fit Y and Y to go with Z."
As far as Eamon is concerned the year is divided into two distinct halves. Spring and Summer are for riding. Autumn and Winter are the seasons for playing in the workshop, trying out new ideas and sorting out previous ones that went wrong!
Slinging the battery under the engine didn't work out quite as well as expected, for example.
The main problem Eamon faced with pursuing that policy back in 1979 was his empty wallet. Purchase of the bike left him skint. Good ideas also had to be cheap ideas.