ALLEN MILLYARD KAWASAKI KH500 5 CYLINDER SPECIAL A COLLECTORS DREAM BIKE
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The lucky owner of this 883cc Kawasaki KH500 Millyard Special is Pip Davidson — a diehard 2-stroke fan. The joining of the engine cases is just seamless, making this one of the great “double-take bikes,” which you could mistake for OEM before your brain registers the width of the engine. Of course, the performance is anything but stock — the 883cc 5-cylinder, 2-stroke Kawasaki “Triple” produces 109 rear wheel horsepower.
The Kawasaki Triples were some of the most notorious motorcycles ever made, a series of 2-stroke street demons that prompted Hunter S. Thompson to write:
I still feel a shudder in my spine every time I see a picture of a Vincent Black Shadow, or when I walk into a public restroom and hear crippled men whispering about the terrifying Kawasaki Triple… I have visions of compound femur-fractures and large black men in white hospital suits holding me down on a gurney while a nurse called “Bess” sews the flaps of my scalp together with a stitching drill.