By Joe Berk
I thought I could skip this one in our ¿Quantos Pistones? series. After all, who ever thought there could be a 7-cylinder motorcycle?
But I was wrong. Much to my surprise, there are actually at least a couple of 7-cylinder motorcycles out there. I’ve never seen one, but they exist. One is comparable to the 5-cylinder machine based on the Kawasaki two-stroke engines; the other is an aircraft radial-engined affair.
The JRL Cycles Lucky 7 used an engine originally intended to be a replacement engine for aircraft that used a radial engine. They only built four of these (one prototype and three production bikes). It’s an interesting footnote in any discussion of motorcycle powerplants, I guess. But the thing looks goofy to me, and its chopperesque ergonomics pretty much guarantee it would be unrideable. You can read more about it here: JRL Cycles Lucky 7 – A Radial Engined Production Motorcycle
The other motorcycle I found online with a 7-cylinder engine is the aforementioned Kawasaki. Here’s a video that does a good job describing it:
The real treat in the above video arrives in the last minute or two, when you can hear it run. It’s worth watching.
So what’s next? Have much milk is left in the cow? Have we exhausted all possible motorcycle engine configurations in our ¿Quantos Pistones? series? Nope. Stay tuned…the Eights are coming up!
Join our Facebook ExNotes page!
Never miss an ExNotes blog:
Help us keep the lights on:
Don’t forget: Visit our advertisers!
