Allen Millyard’s motorcycles are growing in value as he becomes recognised as an artist. His work is now being regarded as art by many and motorcycle collectors are loving his work. Allen himself sees himself as a sculptor, using motorcycles as his medium, as you can see in the embedded video when I interviewed him in 2016 in our page The Motorcycle as Art. It’s been a long time coming, but it will not be long before Allen’s work is exhibited in art galleries. He already has a section of The Barber Museum in the US dedicated to his early work. Although Allen’s machines are all rideable, they cross the boundaries of art, engineering and motorcycles to take on something far more exceptional.
Allen Millyard’s rising values
Allen Millyard’s rising values were clear to see at the H and H auction at The National Motorcycle Museum on 20th of July 2022 (Screenshot courtesy of H and H Auctions). His 2005 five cylinder Kawasaki 850 two stroke sold for £47,150. Not a bad sale price, even more so when the buyer knew that they have a very big bill coming as I’ve arranged for Allen to rebuild the motor for them. I tipped my customer off about the bike coming to market and knew that it had had a very tough life. The previous owner had run it for years and rode it very hard from cold so the motor has a good rattle. These works of art that Allen Millyard has created are really undervalued and have plenty of headroom for greater values in the future. They are works of art as well as seriously good fun motorcycles to ride, as you can see in my road test of his 1000cc four and Kawasaki Super Six.
The art and the humour
The art and the humour of a great artist are forever present in Allen Millyard’s work. His whole objective is to make these extraordinary motorcycles, yet to make them seem like either a standard motorcycle or a prototype. It’s only when his works are scrutinised closely that anyone who knew these machines notices the extra exhaust pipes for the extra cylinder. So many people have asked Allen what year his Flying Millyard was built, only to then understand the work that went into this masterpiece once he explains what it is. When admirers of his machines understand that his work fooled them into thinking it’s a standard motorcycle, then Allen feels satisfaction that his work has achieved what it set out to achieve.
Dodge Viper V10 motorcycle
Millyard’s Dodge Viper V10 motorcycle looks like a factory-built piece of exotica. Ferrari would be hard pushed to build a motorcycle like this and I am sure they couldn’t deliver anything close to what Allen has achieved with this machine. General Motors did produce nine of the Dodge Tomahawks, which customers had to sign they wouldn’t ride because they were for display only. Apparently, one crashed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed once it touched 60 MPH after going into a weave. Allen’s Dodge Viper V10 motorcycle is a true masterpiece of sculpture, problem solving and engineering. There is nothing else like it on the planet and Allen himself has ridden it at 207 MPH at an airstrip, as well as covering over 10,000 miles on his jaunts around the UK. He doesn’t want to sell his Dodge Viper, it’s priceless and the motor sat around for two years before he got the inspiration and worked out how to build the machine. It is a masterpiece and he loves riding it, so someone with ridiculous amounts of money and heaps of desire would have to offer such a ridiculous amount to persuade him to sell, that they’d probably be locked up. No other artist could come close to the wonderful works of art that Allen Millyard comes up with. What is certain, is that his work is destined to severely increase in value as art collectors understand what he is about.
Driven by passion
Allen Millyard is driven by passion and it’s a unique passion, unlike any other motorcycle builder or artist. He is motivated by what he wants to ride, not by profit and he hates building motorcycles or engines for other people. It’s only happened a couple of times, that he’s agreed to take on a project as a commission, and he just loses interest really rapidly. It becomes a chore to him and does not float his boat at all, so he doesn’t take on commissions now. He is driven to build the motorcycles he wants to ride and that varies according to his interest at that particular moment in time. He sets himself outlandish challenges, often conceived in off the cuff conversations, and then goes home and builds them. What is certain, is that Allen Millyard’s incredible work has already increased vastly in value over the last five years and has a lot further to go. The sky really is the limit for the Picasso of motorcycles and Millyard’s body of work is far rarer than Picasso’s body of work.
The motorcycle as art
The motorcycle as art is something we are passionate about at The Motorcycle Broker. Allen Millyard sees himself as an artist rather than an engineer and that motorcycles are his medium. He has a unique 3D eye, when he can see it, he can build it and you can see this in my interview with him here in the Allen Millyard section. The artist Jack Armstrong states that Allen Millyard is clearly an artist, which comes from an artist who developed his work with Warhol and Basquiat! Jack Armstrong has also painted the bodywork of a Harley and sold it for $3,000,000 – the world’s most expensive Harley-Davidson. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that Millyard’s work becomes six figure work very soon and that seven figures is not beyond the realms of reason at all. Owning a Millyard is to own a work of art which will be so revered and highly regarded that prices will be unimaginable. If you are interested in buying an Allen Millyard motorcycle, call The Motorcycle Broker. Nothing is for sale right now, but we can do some digging as Allen sells his motorcycles through us, and see what we can unearth for you.
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