Why would you customise your bike? It nearly looks like a foolish query, as a result of there are such a lot of legitimate solutions to it. Maybe you hate the mirrors that got here with the factor, otherwise you need to carry baggage. Maybe you find it irresistible, however the ergos aren’t fairly proper and so that you need to change them. Or perhaps it goes even additional, and also you simply need to do one thing mad as a result of you’ll be able to.

Better nonetheless, perhaps you not solely need to do one thing mad, however you are additionally an engineer who has beforehand constructed different bikes earlier than, and also you resolve you are going to go for a Guinness World Record. If that describes your strategy to customized bike-building, then your identify may simply be Simon Whitelock, and your pleasure and pleasure may simply be the infamous Whitelock Tinker Toy.

The utterly unmissable coronary heart of this explicit customized beast is a completely huge 48-cylinder, 4,200cc (or 4.2-liter) engine. It’s produced from a complete of 16 Kawasaki KH250 two-stroke triple engines, organized into six banks of eight cylinders every. Amazingly, Whitelock has maintained that the bike is road-legal, although we’re undecided how far anybody would need to trip it.

2003 Whitelock 48-Cylinder Tinker Toy Kawasaki Custom – Engine Closeup, Right Side View

It does begin and run, or at the very least it did when Whitelock posted an in-depth video about it on his YouTube channel a number of years again (which we have linked in our Sources). We’d embed it right here, besides that Whitelock has disallowed embeds, so you will must click on by means of and watch it from the hyperlink. (It’s completely price it, and it is underneath 10 minutes lengthy, so take a break and have a look. You additionally get to listen to it run on the finish.)

He offers a number of particulars concerning the engine and construct within the video, that are fascinating to listen to instantly from the engineering mind behind the factor. Two key items of knowledge you will study are {that a}) he used one other single-cylinder Kawasaki 125 engine because the starter motor (or ‘donkey engine,’ as he describes it), and b) it weighs an enormous 600 kilograms, or about 1,322 kilos. So, um, you undoubtedly do not need to drop it on your self.

2003 Whitelock 48-Cylinder Tinker Toy Custom Kawasaki – Right Side Closeup Angle View

Several items moreover the engine elements have been taken from donor Kawasakis, however usually required in depth modification to make them match the body. What appears to be like just like the tank cowl is not one, however it’s definitely convincing from the skin. The tail got here from a KH250, however needed to be expanded by about an inch and a half within the center to make it work. 

Some elements got here from different present bikes, resembling brakes and a entrance finish from a Honda Gold Wing, and a BMW gearbox. In all circumstances, although, they needed to be closely modified to suit the particular wants of the undertaking, and solely offered a place to begin from which to work to engineer this monster of a motorcycle.

The Whitelock Tinker Toy Is About To Go Up For Sale, And You Can Buy It

2003 Whitelock 48-Cylinder Tinker Toy Custom Kawasaki – Right Side

2003 Whitelock 48-Cylinder Tinker Toy Custom Kawasaki – Left Side

Further proving that you just by no means know what’s going to present up at huge motorbike auctions from 12 months to 12 months, the 2003 Whitelock 4.2L 48 Cylinder Tinker Toy is about to go up on the market in April 2024. The Bonhams Spring Stafford Sale options noteworthy and typically one-of-a-kind bikes yearly, and 2024 is not any exception. The 2024 Spring Stafford Sale is scheduled to happen through the weekend of April 20, although it seems that pages beforehand accessible relating to a few of its upcoming listings have now been hidden.

Not many particulars are included within the itemizing (or have been when it was stay for a quick time), aside from not very useful three-word description that reads, “Offered with key.” The present estimated value for this bike is between £40,000 and £60,000, or about $51,000 and $76,000 USD. 

It’s a formidable feat of engineering, no query. Do you need to trip it? That’s a fairly large query, truthfully. At least it has a middle stand?