[motorcycle.com] - Watch and Learn: Facebook Friend Allen Millyard Builds a Classic...

A lot of my old friends refuse to go on the Facebook for the same reason African tribesmen in the old days would not be photographed – fear of having their identity stolen. I suppose it’s a legitimate concern. I suppose Zuckerberg does have a lot of information on me, but I try to keep it to a minimum by not playing “Barnyard Animals” or “Words with Friends,” or whatever all that stuff was I ignored while arguing politics and chatting with guys like Graeme Crosby on the other side of the world. (I wrote to let him know I was a big fan of his autobiography.) It’s a shame, because there are some amazing places to go on FB, including to the home page (in his case the garage page) of a certain Englishman named Allen Millyard.



Allen built a V8 Kawasaki Z1 back in the day, more recently a Dodge Viper V10-powered bike you may have seen, and a while ago he decided to build an RC374, sort of an homage to Honda’s legendary Six-cylinder racebikes of the `60s. Why not? In fact it was last July he bumped into an actual RC174 while showing off the Viper, and decided he’d build one.


Then there’s this Kawasaki H1 Allen converted to a Four-cylinder with 1981 Yamaha 250LC barrels.


I wonder if the people who lament the loss of “hands-on” in-depth magazine articles are the same ones who refuse to engage in modern social media? If so it’s a shame, because Facebook homepages like Millyard’s put print magazines to shame (though he also writes a monthly column for Classic Motorcycle Mechanics). Millyard’s workshop isn’t all that impressive, but he does a lot with the tools he’s got, and he has a network of associates to handle what he can’t. The best part is he documented every step along the way of building his Six-banger Honda, and takes us along for the ride.

Here’s a video of the engine he built upon first start-up:

Posted by Allen Millyard on Thursday, November 9, 2017
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Here’s his electronic rev counter (tachometer to you and me) on its way to completion.

First test assembly of my RC374 rev counter. I’ve fitted a digital stepper motor drive that will pick up a feed from one plug lead, the power and feed wires will run inside the dummy mechanical cable, Just waiting for the dial overlay to arrive to complete it

Posted by Allen Millyard on Tuesday, February 13, 2018
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Why electronic, ex-Motorcyclist magazine columnist Patrick Bodden asked him? (On FB, you can correspond with people!)

Allen answered right back: “My donor engine does not have a mechanical drive on the camshaft, to add one on the end would be easy but would make the engine wider than it already is, to fit one mid-cam would involve a helical gear being added etc. The electronic route eliminated all the above .”

See there. And he routed the wiring inside a period-correct cable housing of course.



I’m probably not going to build a Six-cylinder in my garage, but there’s also tons of how-to information (and videos) along the way about how to trim a windshield to fit, how to hammer flat sheets of aluminum into a perfect tail piece and fairing, how to make megaphone exhausts, etc., etc., etc. You could literally spend hours watching and learning as Allen Millyard works, and I have. How many more are there like him? I don’t know.

It all culminated (and culminated probably isn’t the word at all) last weekend when Allen fired the bike up for the first time at the Carole Nash bike show.

Allen Millyard is starting his RC374 for the first time. Right now!

Posted by Insidebikes on Sunday, April 22, 2018
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The modern media era definitely has its problems, but there’s no way you were getting this much amazing information in the age of print. Don’t fear the social media, people. Dive in.

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Disclaimer: JB owns shares of Facebook!

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