dodge tomahawk Always rubbed me the wrong way. It’s not the idea of a motorcycle wrapped around a giant car engine that bothered me, but the fact that it has four wheels. Alan Milliard agreed with that assessment and built a proper two-wheel, Viper-powered motorcycle of his own. And now, it can be yours, as it goes on up for auction At the end of July.
I wouldn’t trust anyone with a one-off custom bike build, especially a bike built around a Viper engine. At 700 pounds, the engine alone weighs more than many motorcycles, and the entire bike weighs closer to 1,300, according to SilodromeBut we’re talking about Alan Millard. I took a close look at his work at the Barber Museum, and I couldn’t even find the seams where he installed a second cylinder head to convert the Kawasaki inline-4 into a V8. I would trust his meticulous attention to detail more than any other guy building motorcycles in the shed.
No such work was necessary on the Viper engine, which is already quite large and has a reasonable number of cylinders even for a Millyard. The rest of the motorcycle is virtually bolted to the engine itself, including a custom-built front fork as well as a subframe supporting the rear of the bike, which also includes a strong single-sided swingarm.
one speed wonder
What I find most attractive about this bike is that it has only one gear. There is a clutch, which can be operated with a hand or foot lever, but no transmission in the traditional sense. The overall gear ratio can be adjusted simply by replacing the individual rear sprocket. In one shot from this video, the bike’s gauge cluster shows a top speed of 41 mph while the engine spins at just 1,000 rpm. The 8.0-liter V10 has enough torque to cruise around town at idle with little clutch slippage, as well as enough top-end speed to set several land speed records, the most recent being a two-up run of 183.5 mph in 2023. Riding alone, it can break 200.
If you want to try it yourself, now’s your chance. this bike runs up for auction At the H&H Classics Motorcycle Auction at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull, UK on July 22. Millyard completed it in 2009, and has put over 9,000 miles on it since then. When asked why he was selling it now, Millyard explained mcn“I don’t think I have anything to prove anymore. To be honest, it takes up a lot of space at home and is a responsibility to maintain.” It’s no small feat, as this video shows, but it’s a small price to pay for a true two-wheeler motorcycle with a Viper V10 engine.
