This Allen Millyard Super Six road test requires a little background first. If you don’t know who Allen Millyard is, then you can watch this video here about half way down the page, where I interviewed him back in 2016. Alternatively, you can follow his Youtube channel here, and I highly recommend subscribing to it as he is constantly delivering more exciting videos every week. Allen Millyard’s whole purpose in life is to create these motorcycles with extra cylinders and for people to think that he’s riding a standard motorcycle, or that he’s riding a prototype. It really is the art of deception, but in a really quite brilliant way that is art in itself.
Allen Millyard is a sculptor
Allen Millyard is a sculptor who uses motorcycles as his medium and he is an incredible artist. His work always surprises, inspires awe and brings a smile to anyone’s face who takes the time to understand his work. The way he works is surprising, using an old milling machine, lathe and pillar drill all sourced from a secondary school several decades ago. He cuts crankcases with his hacksaw, has a great selection of dressing files and heats aluminium cases up in his barbecue so he can weld them. He doesn’t use drawings or CAD for any of his work, he has a 3D mind. If Allen can see it, he can build it.
Build a Kawasaki 6 cylinder motorcycle
Allen decided to build a six cylinder Kawasaki motorcycle by grafting on two extra cylinders to a 1975 Z1B 900. He knew he’d create a magical motorcycle, because all the ingredients were there that are missing from the Benelli Sei and Honda’s legendary CBX1000. The main ingredient he was clearly after was torque, loads of torque, more torque than you could ever choose to use. The Z900 range was so successful because it delivered great fun, thrills and speed through massive amounts of low-down grunt and torque. This made them very rideable and great for long journeys as well as scratching. Allen’s machines are always far greater than the sum of their parts and a joy to ride. His work demonstrates what motorcycle manufacturers were missing and had he designed their motorcycle in the first place, the motorcycling landscape today would be far different to what it is today.
Riding Allen Millyard’s Kawasaki Super 6
Riding Allen Millyard’s Kawasaki Super 6 is pure joy in so many ways. As soon as the engine fires into life it sounds like a 1970s American straight six Cadillac. The bike itself was already very comfortable, with a standard well padded seat, which makes riding for days on end effortless. The exhaust note, that burbles away behind you, is comforting and makes you feel like you’re riding the motorcycling equivalent of the car in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The width of the new Millyard motor doesn’t make its presence felt until the machine is in motion and your feet are comfortably on the foot pegs. The bank of six carbs nudge your knees apart to let you know they’re there and not moving for you, so spread your legs and get comfortable. The gearbox is bog standard and feels just like any other Z900, but as you let the clutch out you know you’re riding something unique and very, very special. The six cylinder motor pulls effortlessly, barely gasping for air from idle and before you know it, your feet are on the foot pegs and you’re moving without any thought. The joy of a motor that feels like it has more torque than a jumbo jet is truly blissful. As there are so many cylinders firing all at once, it sounds like it’s revving far higher than it really is. This happens with all six, eight and twelve cylinder vehicles, 4,000 RPM sounds on this machine sounds like 6,000 RPM does for a four cylinder engine.
No need to thrash it
There’s absolutely no need to thrash it, this outstanding motorcycle just wants to behave like a 1970s long stroke car. It’ll burble away at 3,000 RPM quite happily and feels like it is just producing so much torque at those revs, there’s no need to go above that. It cruises all day and night at legal speeds and 80 MPH without even thinking about breaking a sweat. Overtaking doesn’t require shifting gears and at any speed the Kawasaki Super Six will pass any vehicle in any gear. I mistakenly pulled away in second and barely noticed, something you’d know about on a standard Zed. This motorcycle doesn’t inspire fast riding, other than by mistake. Like Allen Millyard’s Kawasaki H2 1000 four cylinder, the Super Six reaches great speeds so effortlessly that the rider doesn’t realise how fast they’re travelling. Not such a problem with the Super Six as the Zed chassis is pretty competent with modern tyres. However, the H2 chassis was not so great and Allen’s engine will land you in bags of trouble on that bike if you don’t watch the speedo carefully, you can read my test ride of that Millyard motorcycle here.
Handling
The handling of the Super Six is pretty good, just like a normal Zed, but I didn’t want to really push it on corners, as the engine is substantially wider than the standard four and the bike carries some weight. It’s not excessively heavy, in fact it’s remarkably light for the extra cylinders and capacity. I did feel that I didn’t want to discover the limits of the chassis in this form because it’s not my bike. I felt that once a rider knows the machine it’s limits will be pretty much where the standard Zed’s lie. Fortunately, Allen created his own double disc conversion up front, which really assists in ensuring that braking is calm. As the engine heats up, after a few hours of riding, the carbs do tend to cook your knees and you have to ride with your legs open to get some breeze on the hot jeans. This is very much a first world problem, as I can ride spread eagle just to keep riding this bike, it’s one of the best motorcycles I’ve ever ridden, as I love torque monsters and I love Zeds. Every time we had to move the Super Six, while photographing it, my staff found it highly amusing that I’d leap at the chance to move it so I could have another little ride.
Lockdown motorcycle
This was Allen Millyard’s lockdown motorcycle and it has beautiful stamps all over the bike bearing Allen’s name. I’m not showing these, as I would hate someone else to pass their work off as a Millyard, but it really makes this bike very special. During lockdown, Allen was hardly going to be stuck at home watching Holly Willoughby on telly, he was firing up the barbecue and building this stunning machine. This is the first of two he built and is very much, as Allen points out, a prototype. Allen’s work is a great success, in my interview with him he told me how if people believe it’s an original or a prototype motorcycle then he has succeeded. While test riding quite a few people came over and thought the Zed was original. One person told me how they had a Z1B just like this one. I pointed out it may have looked similar, but it was nothing like this machine. He insisted that his one in the 1970s was exactly like this machine in front of us and the same colour, it was identical. I pointed to the six headers, he looked and told me that it was exactly the same in every way. I had to get him to count the headers, explained that his was a four cylinder and after a few second the pound coin dropped. Hi jaw dropped wide open, his eyes opened more than his mouth and he suddenly looked perplexed and asked, “But how?” I then explained about Allen Millyard and he jumped onto YouTube in the car park on Dartmoor and watched, spellbound.
A great investment
An Allen Millyard motorcycle is a great investment, as his work is displayed in the Barber Motorcycle Museum in America and he is endorsed by the artist Jack Armstrong in my interview with him. He is featured regularly on television in numerous shows and his creations are rolling sculptures that ride beautifully. There are people who add cylinders to motorcycle engines, but there is no one like Allen Millyard. His motorcycles are unique works of art, each and every one of them and they are sought out by wealthy collectors. Allen doesn’t really sell his motorcycles, but when he does so he sells them through The Motorcycle Broker. If you have an interest in owning one of his incredible works of art then contact us and we’ll see if he will sell anything.
- 1974 Ducati 750SS green frame genuine factory paint - March 21, 2024
- Unicorn rare 1972 Kawasaki Z900 coming to auction - March 21, 2024
- Ducati green frame is not green it’s blue - March 20, 2024
Leave a Reply