At the popham airfield bike show yesterday, I was amazed by a Kawasaki V12 - made from a kawasaki 1300 straight-6 with an additional block.
I couldn't figure out how the exhaust exited from the rear blcok - and I didn't hear it running.
I think the same guy has previously built a kawasaki V8 - from two 750 straight-4 blocks.
I did hear this runnig at Beaulieu, and thought that was very impressive.
I know other road going V8s (e.g. the Boss Hog !) have been built, but I've not seen any other road-legal V12 bikes.
I wish I had the engineering capability - I'd love to put a small capacity V12 or V8 into an Elise ! I prefer my bikes to be V-twins.
Just google Kawasaki V12 for pics/more information
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Has it got a reverse gear or does he need a strong mate to always ride with him ?
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I believe it has the standard Kwak 1300 g'box and shaft drive (but with higher final drive ratio). It's a little longer and heavier than the standard bike (no lightweight), but it doesn't have reverse.
Personally , I'd still prefer the V8 Hyabusa engine that Radical built for racing - that was 2.6litres and kept it's 11,000 rev limit. I really wish that Lotus would put that into the Elise (or a Caterham 7!)
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Yes, the builder is a bloke called Allan Millyard, well known in classic circles for making incredible engines.
There was a lengthy article and a road test of the bike in Classic & Motorcycle Mechanics in 2005. To make the V12 crank, he had new master / slave conrods fabricated with a secondary rod and big-end forked off the main rod. Huge issues with camshaft timing etc too.
The exhausts for the rear bank are siamesed into the pipes from the front bank, under the engine.
In contrast the Kwak V8 was relatively simple, he just milled the rods so that a pair would sit side by side on the same crankpin, and turned up some offset liners for the cylinders.
Simple, did I say? It absolutely boggles the mind.
He started out by making 4, 5 and 7-cylinder variants of the Kawasaki 2-stroke triples.
Edited by craig-pd130 on 25/08/2009 at 12:03
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