Kawasaki “KH606” from Simon Whitelock…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock of late, you know the name Allen Millyard — the tea-drinking retired British Ministry of Defence engineer who builds some of the maddest motorcycles on the planet. Truly, few builders would even contemplate some of Millyard’s specials, let alone set out to create them. Though Millyard is best-known for his mammoth 5000cc V-twin special and Viper V10 bike, he made his name appending additional cylinders to 70s Kawasaki two-strokes, such as his 5-cylinder 883cc Kawasaki KH500 and 4-cylinder 800cc Kawasaki KH750.
We wouldn’t fault you for assuming that Millyard is the only man talented and mad enough to add cylinders to these Kawasaki “Widowmaker” triples — bikes known to be lethal in stock trim — but he isn’t the only UK madman, it seems.
In 1999, just three years after Millyard’s 415cc five-cylinder Kawasaki two-stroke broke cover at the 1996 Stafford Classic Mechanics Show, Simon Whitelock built the 7-cylinder two-stroke Kawasaki you see here.
Silodrome gives us a bit of backstory on Whitelock:
“His first build was a Kawasaki inline-three that he converted into an inline-four. He then built a nine-cylinder motorcycle made from three connected Kawasaki triples, followed by an inline-seven.”
Whitelock built this 7-cylinder machine using cylinders from the KH250 triple, which were cheap and plentiful in England at the time. There’s one left cylinder, one right cylinder, and five center cylidners…so, as Whitelock’s friend and former owner of the bike Rick Brett has said:
“Six engines had to die to make this engine.”
The frame is from an S3, but widened four inches — and the seat, tank, and tail section were all widened to match.
The forks from a KH500, while the clutch cover is a 250 unit with a 500 cover welded onto it to take the 500 clutch. Whitelock welded and hydroformed the pipes himself — both skills he taught himself.
The rear drum is from an H1, and the bike has two taillights to take up the widened space in the rear. There’s a belt-driven car alternator — after all, seven coils require a good bit of power!
Former owner Rick Brett admits the bike can be temperamental.
“When it’s warm, it starts right up. When it’s cold, it can be a right bear.” -Rick Brett
If you need to own this bike, it’s currently up for auction at Yahoo Japan, with a buy-it-now price of ¥12,000,000, or $85,000. Whoa!
If you thought this was the wildest thing Whitelock built, think again. He’s also the man behind a street-legal 48-cylinder two-stroke motorcycle known as the “Tinker Toy,” built using 16 KH250 engines! More on that special in a forthcoming feature!
At the cost of sparkplugs. I’ll pass.
Really! Lol.
they are dirt cheap. about £3 each. i pay £15 for a single plug in my car but least i only need three of them and they last 5 years
Incredible engineering!
But a major example of excess I am not sure the world needs.
That is one bike I would love to ride
I USE TO HAVE A HONDA 750 F. RACE MODEL RAN FASTER THAN NEEDED AND WITH THE WHEELS PERFECTLY LINED AND BALANCED BIKE FELT LIKE IT COULD FLY !
AT 127 MILES PER HOUR ! MY HEART IN MY THROAT AND SMALL SHIELD WAS JUST LARGE ENOUGH TO KEEP WIND FROM DRAGGING ME OFF !