If the ordinary isn’t your style, if even low production specials from the factory cause you to yawn in boredom, then this pair of specials, created by Allen Millyard is for you. The current owner is offering both a 1972 Kawasaki H2 1000 4 cylinder 2 stroke and a 1970 Kawasaki H1 850 5 cylinder 2 stroke.
Each of these bikes is powered by a cylinder configuration never offered by the factory, they come from the skilled and patient hands of Allen Millyard who can’t seem to stop cutting apart and then rejoining engines in ways the engineers never considered, or if they did, kept the ideas to themselves.
Millyard has created V12 engines from a pair of straight sixes and more recently made a respectable street bike powered by the V10 from a Dodge Viper. The neat thing about the variants seen here is that the work is performed in a small garage workshop with hand tools, no exotic computer controlled machine tools, just a knowledge of what he plans to do and then the careful work of doing it. Really amazing.
According to the listing, you can buy the pair or either bike individually. The five cylinder was for sale previously, but this is the first time I’ve seen the 1000-4 on the block.
Not cheap, but bikes like these never are. Very neat.
Auction over.
Cameron says
Someone (not me, long sigh) is going to get a couple of psychoticly bitchin’ rocket ships. I would love to ride one of them just once, once would be enough!
Doby says
One could buy a house for $90,000 just a few miles out of Hendersonville. Nice bikes, but for $90,000 I would need both of them plus a couple more thrown in to boot. Heck I doubt that one of Kenny Roberts’ original race bikes would bring that much.
Of course someone will pay that much. Not me. If (a bie IF) I had that much money for a motorcycle, it would be a Brough Superior or maybe a Vincent Black Shadow. I’d want at least a chance of recouping my money someday…
dave manger says
these bikes have been up for sale before and they still sit looking for a new owner.These are the equivalent of a hybryd that will never get you a return on your money.The ride is not all you would expect it to be and a standard h2 built in 72 will ride right by this four cylinder 1000.Keep your money in your pocket!!!
Sportster Mike says
These bikes are great – I believe he also made an RD700 ie 2 RD350 twins bolted together – although I have never seen that one..
Have seen him riding the V10 Dodge bike like its a little moped!!
B50 Jim says
I want that 5-cylinder, just to hear it run! But I can’t quite swing the 90 Large — I’m about 89K short. In fact, I wonder if anyone will cough up that that kind of dough for bikes that will, in all probability, depreciate in value? As Doby says, a Vincent or Brough won’t lose value and most likely will appreciate. One-off, hand-built specials have limited appeal, no matter how masterful. These are gorgeous bikes but not collector material
Doug says
The mindset of custom, one-off work not carrying as much value as mass-produced work should be re-evaluated within certain areas…
Consider how things were made prior to the industrial age – it started with hand-crafted parts & complete vehicles. Then along comes the beauty of man-made machines capable of producing mass quantities of consistent vehicles. The deliberate intent of OEMs to restrict quantities of certain vehicles (when they could have been produced in high numbers) does drive value, as does mass produced vehicles that have dwindled in numbers over time.
However, Allen’s bikes are a combination of the pre- & post-industrial ages and should force the value-paradigm to change. Any work that is an exact re-production of the original while simultaneously adding significant changes that require an observer to be informed of the change(s) represents a very unique and special combination of the industrial age and hand-crafted skill. The results should carry higher value than we humans have given it thus far.
Personally, I’d like to also see him try downsizing a modern bike in addition to enlarging classics. e.g. a 2 cylinder or 3 cylinder R1…but he seems to be a Kawasaki fan
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2007/01/02/mv-agusta-500-gp-replica-jlspecial-503/
Kim says
Good point about which bikes hold their value. Custom bikes, no matter how well built, do indeed have a limited life as far as design is concerned, but Allan Millyard’s Kawasakis here look much like factory bikes, save of course for the obvious engine mods. So my guess is that they’ll hold their value. Btw, given the choice between a Brough or these specials, I’d go for the latter, seeing that a Brough may be rare, but hardly unique.
Hawk says
Well as of today, there are zero bids. I can’t see these going anyplace other than a museum or private collection though. I guess Jay Leno’s scouts haven’t seen it yet?
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
I think his asking price is too high and selling as a pair makes it even harder, but he’s probably looking at what he has invested and he’s trying to make it back. If he started lower and let the bids rise, he would be further ahead.
The bikes are pretty sweet when you realize what they are and how much skill and effort went into them, but unless he lowers the initial bid, he’ll probably still be the owner when the auction ends.
dirth says
I doesn’t ,to me, appear to be Allen Millyard who is selling the bikes as the seller says “Unused since joining my collection in 2000.”
If that is the case don’t reflect that price on Allen Millyard,
I know you didn’t say the the list was AM but most post seem to think it is him
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
The bikes are obviously not currently owned by Allen Millyard, as I say “the current owner” in the article, and as my comment above notes, reflects this owner’s desire to recoup his investment and maybe make a few dollars as well. I have no idea what this owner paid, but it was certainly far more than a nicely restored H1 or H2, and whatever it was, gave Allen a chance to at least recover his costs and make a profit for all of the time, work and skill involved in building these two bikes.
dirth says
Appreciated, as I said
“I know you didn’t say the the list was AM but most posts seem to think it is him”
dave manger says
jays people wouldn’t waste their time on this.I spoke with the owner about 10 months ago when the h1 was on the bay.The owner considers these bikes as works of art and not motorcycles.He claims they have nothing to do with being a kawasaki h2 or an h1 from 1970.Works of art is his claim.When i expressed that i keep my valuable art in the driveway also i got hung up on.I guess i hit a nerve.I have been known to do that now and again.No sense of humor!!Get out of the game cause we like to laugh.The bike is nice but not 39 grand nice.Go find an h1-r if you want an investment that you will see a return on.
B50 Jim says
I doubt that even Jay Leno would buy them at that price. He’s a savvy consumer and knows the value of things he buys. It points out that nobody who does a one-off custom will recover all his money. It’s a labor of love, and you can’t put a price on that.
B*A*M*F says
I love the sound I remember of that inline 5 bike, from the youtube video that The Kneeslider linked to ages ago. Not only can Mr. Millyard make an odd engine pretty much from scratch, he can make it sound damn good. That’s a very special set of skills.
I’d still love to have one of the V12 Kawasaki engines he did, and put it in a small, lightweight little car. Maybe an Austin Mini, or an old Fiat 500. Perhaps a Lotus Europa or Miata would also be a fun home for a wicked little 2.3L V12.
Jason says
Neat bikes and fantastic skills he has to build these creations. I would like to see him build a CR500 or KX500 v-twin.
B50 Jim says
I love the idea of bashing engines together to make something larger — I have driven a series of Valiants with the venerable Chrysler slant-6 engine, and always referred to it as “half a V-12”. Hmmmm…. turn one around, mill the inner sections of the crankcases away, weld them together, finish machine for a custom-made crankshaft, fabricate a cam drive and intake/exhaust, apply some hot-rod upgrades and you’d have a big, heavy, 400-hp V-12 that would pull like a locomotive and sound like a School Bus From Hell. Just a thought.
Hooligan says
Valiants… did they have the push button selection on the dash board for the transmission?. In the 80’s I visited a friend in LA a lot and he loaned me his car, he had a Valiant. The same one?
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Chrysler was big on pushbutton transmissions. The 62 Valiant, and maybe other years, too, had a vertical row of buttons on the left. My mom had a 56 Chrysler Windsor and it had a button group just below the left windshield pillar. Always thought those were neat.
B50 Jim says
My buddy had a ’63 Chrysler 300 with a 383, posi and push-button Torqueflite. Fabulous ride — fast and good-looking; he played those buttons like a typewriter while that big V-8 howled. But the push buttons required the driver to take his eyes off the road more than a standard quadrant, so it was discontinued in 1965. I had a ’65 Valiant (one of 5 Valiants I’ve owned), and it had a standard column lever but a cable-operated linkage, a holdover from the push-button shift. A shame, really; Chrysler was trying different ways to operate their cars. One year they offered a squared-off steering wheel that didn’t do anything special except maybe provide a little more space to slide in and out of the car. No wonder we’re so in love with the cars of the 60s; so much was happening.
dave manger says
All great accomplishments start as a thought.You sound like you have it half figured out.Your choice of the slant six is interesting as i have never known one to die if it had at least a half quart of oil in it.Great motor.
Bill says
Used to work for a Kwacker deal when the H2 750s were new.
Rode one once, too scary to be fun – ill handling & crazy fast – do not want to ride another
A 1000cc one is barking mad !
Bill
john says
The H2 was nuts. I rode one a few times back in the 80s. Noisy, smokey, oily, ugly, terrible handling, terrible fuel mileage…and ridiculously fast when in the power band. Only a strange person would ride one back in the 80s. Nowdays you would be beyond strange.
dave manger says
just a strange individual checking in..Please do not refer to my bike as ugly.Everything you said was true but that one statement.Stop by and ride one of mine.You may rethink your opinion.Bring a hairy set though if you really want to know about the power bands.
Hawk says
Thinking back about 2-strokes, years ago a fellow from Seattle put a 6 cylinder Mercury outboard engine in (I think) a Cooper FJ. This thing had six long, large megaphone pipes and it screamed like a wounded banshee. The sound echoed off the surrounding mountains of our local (Westwood) race track.
That is, until it broke. Mercury engines were designed to be in water. Shock loads on the crank from shifting and wheelspin hook-ups did nasty things to the back end of the crank. But damn, did it go! Earplugs were a necessity though.
Scotduke says
You pay for what you get and they do look incredible. I always liked the look and sound of those Kawasaki two stroke triples. The five cylinder version is particularly impressive though I hope the frame has some additional bracing.