Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Triumph bulletin board 7/8" vs 1" Clutch Levers

I purchased a new set of LF Harris levers to replace the old ones I had on my 70 T120R. My old ones were not stock, but I put them on after digging around my spares parts box years ago when it needed new levers. I bought the Harris levers so I could mount rear view mirrors through the lever perch rather than the clamp on ones on it now. I ran into a problem in that the cylindrical cable barrel end wouldn't fit through the hole in the new levers. Must be the chrome plating is taking up a bit of diameter, which was disappointing for new high quality levers. In any event, while working on everything, I noticed the new Harris levers have a distance of ~ 7/8" from cable center to fulcrum hole. My old ones are 1". I thought I could mix-and-match the levers and the perches to get my mirror mounting holes, but I could not.

I know this issue of lever-hole-distance has been discussed in the past, but I am curious as to what effect it has. Obviously, lever effort should be reduced with the shorter 7/8" distance, at the expense of lift and separation of the clutch plates. One thing I like about my old (current) levers is that there is never any grinding of the gears when engaging. I am wondering if the 7/8" lift will increase clutch "windage" when disengaged resulting in more grinding? I am wondering which distance was used originally - 7/8" or 1" - or were these just differences between different vendors?

Of course, I will find out once I drill out the hole on the new Harris levers so they can accept the cable nipple. The plating quality of the Harris levers is excellent, along with their heavy construction, so I plan to use them once I ream the hole out a bit. But again, I became curious as to the different fulcrum measurement differences and their effect.

Have you actually measured to hole in the Harris levers? It could be that it is the nipple too big, what does it measure? I don't have any late stuff, but I just measured a '63 6T lever, and it was 7/8" with a 3/8 hole (in old money). You might struggle to "ream" chromed steel anyway, chrome is very hard, and it's likely to peel too. If you do try to open up the hole, I'd use a dremel and abrasive bit to enlarge, but I'd slim down the nipple in preference.

Hi Rick, 1970 Bonnie came with 7/8 levers from factory.
Don

Thanks for the replies. If the factory was the 7/8" pitch, who used the 1" pitch that I have on my older levers? They are heavy chrome levers. I'm just wondering who used them. Any advantage/disadvantage of using the longer throw compared to 7/8"?

Barnett levers have a 1" fulcrum. Triumph clutchs work much better with 7/8" pull. A 1" fulcrum with the red heavy duty clutch springs is the worst combination one can have.

I was told Tridents used the 1 1/16" fulcrum

Thanks again everyone. The Barnett source explains it, as I probably bought them from them years ago and used them on an older bike, then threw them in a box at some point.

I'll put the new Harris set on, although I still will need to slightly grind or relieve the hole for the cable barrel nipple. The cable is a good brand (I forget where, but Venhill probably) and less than a year old, and the cable end fits other levers just fine, so for some reason the holes in the Harris levers are just a bit undersized. I'm guess they got a little over zealous on the plating by a few thou. Not that big a deal, but a little irksome.

Like I say, ease it from the nipple, you'll ruin the chrome if you try to take it from the lever. After all, the cable is pretty much a consumable.

Not to belabor this too much, but I took some measurements on the hole for the new Harris levers and the nipple from an old clutch cable. The nipple is 0.374". The lever hole is 0.389", so that is good. However, there is a pressed indentation at the front of the lever, and at that point, the diameter is only 0.355". So they must press that indentation in after they drill the nipple hole. In any event, that explains why I couldn't get the clutch nipple into the lever.

A few strokes with a rat tail file at the offending narrow spot was enough to eliminate the narrowing. There didn't seem to be much chrome on the inside of the hole there, so it filed down fairly easily, especially since I only needed 0.020" or so.

This isn't rocket science, and was a fairly minor hickup. However, the vendors selling these Harris levers might want to check their inventory to save a customer complaint or two. I find it a little odd that Harris would allow such a minor QC flaw through on their otherwise extremely high quality levers.

I really don't think vendors cae anymore. At least, not those that handle complaints and returns. Just repackage and sell it to the next customer.

+1^
But first they will tell you "We've never had any complaints about that".

Pics worth a thousand words, thanks Rick.

Maybe on the pre-71 models? Tridents would do well to use that distance but did not. At least on the late models, they came with the 7/8" levers. I've fitted some Norton levers with 1" distance, great compromise between lever effort and lift.