Here is a collection of some rare monster motorcycles with lots of cylinders.

Let’s start with a motorcycle with a 7 cylinder radial engine. The engine develops 110 hp (82 kw).

Next we have a crazy production motorcycle that you can actually go out and buy. The Feuling W3 has a 2.4 liter engine with 9 cylinders and 150 hp (112 kw).

It would be unfair not to mention the Boss Hoss motorcycles at this time. Both production models from Boss Hoss have a V8 engine and the biggest one of them is a whooping 8.3 liter (the smallest one is just 5.7 liter).

Moving up the list we encounter the Dodge Tomahawk with 10 cylinders. The Dodge Tomahawk is the fastest motorcycle in the world if you accept that it’s not a production model (check out the fastest production motorcycles).

Next we have two 12 cylinder motorcycles. A Kawasaki with a 2.3 liter V12 engine and a home made monster with a 5.5 liter V12 engine from a BMW car.

Second last on the list is the 24 cylinder Dolmette motorcycle. The engine is built from 24 chainsaw engines (!), has a total size of 1.9 liter and develops a total of 170 hp (127 kw).

Finally we have a monster that can take on any other motorcycle. Say hello to the only 48 cylinder motorcycle in the world.

The engine is made from six normal, 8 cylinder engines. It has a total size of 4.2 liter and apparently it weights more than 1,000 kg (2,205 lbs). The 48 cylinder monster has its own website.

The top 3 most expensive motorcycles in world are anything but dirt cheap. If you want one of those, you better start saving now. Every single one of them cost more than $100,000.

MV Agusta F4 1100 CC

The cheapest one in the top 3 is the MV Agusta F4 1100 CC. Lots of power, 315 km/h (195 mph) topspeed and a great design for just $135,000.

MV Agusta F4 1100 CC

MTT Turbine Superbike

Second is the MTT Turbine Superbike. $185,000 will give you one of these. It comes with a Rolls-Royce turbine engine that was designed to lift a helicopter. The engine gives you 300+ hp to play with and a topspeed of 365 km/h (227 mph).

MTT Turbine Superbike

According to Guinness Word Records, the MTT Turbine Superbike is the most powerful production motorcycle ever. It is even more powerful than the Ducati Desmosedici RR, which I believed was the fastest production motorcycle in the world.

Still, I’m not sure if I will consider it a normal motorcycle or not. It is the only motorcycle I have ever seen with a turbine engine.

Dodge Tomahawk

The most expensive motorcycle in the world is the Dodge Tomahawk. Production was limited to just ten models and they retailed at $550,000 each! The Dodge Tomahawk has the honor of being the fastest motorcycle ever (675 km/h, 419 mph), but it isn’t street legal

Dodge Tomahawk

In May 2005, Trigger Gumm beat the world record with an awesome 84.6 meters (277.5 feet) ramp gap jump at Crusty Demons Night of Record (Queensland Raceway, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia). He beat his own world record from November 2003 by 21.2 meters (69.5 feet).

Check out this video of the longest motorcycle jump ever:

The world record Trigger Gumm beat was the ramp gap jump record for 500 cc motorcycles. The distance is measured from the end of the launch ramp to the nearest edge of the nearest mark made by the landing motorcycle.

Some claim that he did the world record jump on a Honda CR 500, while others claim it was done on a modified Honda CR 250 (CR 250 body, frame modified to fit the engine from a CR 500).

All the motorcycles are compared with the Kawasaki ZR-7S road bike from 2003. I have selected this Kawasaki to be the reference model since it has some very average specs.

The motorcycle you have selected is shown as orange bars and the Kawasaki reference motorcycle is shown as blue bars.

Extraordinary specs will make the bars hit the right edge, so they cannot be compared directly with the reference motorcycle (the Boss Hoss BHC-3 502 Big Block do for example have an extraordinary engine and weight).

I will add the same kind of graphs to all the cars within a few days.

Kawasaki ZR-7S

But there are motorcycles out there with engines so big that they will make your car engine look small. Engines so big, that they need enormous gasoline tanks to keep up with the fuel consumption.

Let’s take a look at three motorcycles with really big engines.

Dodge Tomahawk
V10, 8277 ccm (500 hp)

Boss Hoss BHC-3 502 Big Block
V8, 8226 ccm (502 hp)

Boss Hoss BHC-3 ZZ4 Small Block
V8, 5679 ccm (355 hp)

Not exactly environment friendly motorcycles, but hey, at least they are fun to look at and compare with what you have in the garage at home.

Let’s take a look at three hideous examples of Chinese motorcycle technology.

Lifan 250-4 Rebel Cruiser
An attempt at cloning the Yamaha Virago. Good is the price (just above $2,000) and the fuel economy (up to 90 mpg), bad is everything else including the absolute lack of power (V2 engine with 16 hp - the original Yamaha Virago have 62 hp).

Geely 250 Storm Prince
A traditional V2 engine is far too much for a Chinese discount cruiser, so the Geely 250 Storm Prince has just one single cylinder and a displacement of 234 ccm. It might sound acceptable, but with only 12 hp topspeed is limited to 95 km/h (59 mph).

Jincheng JC 100-7 Knight
The Lifan and the Geely might have scared you away from Chinese discount motorcycles, but it can get even worse. What do you think about a cruiser with 1 cylinder and just 6 hp (that’s around 10% of the power of the smallest Harley-Davidson cruiser).

At least the Jincheng JC 100-7 Knight only weights 105 kg, so it can still go 90 km/h (56 mph).

All in all three hideous examples of Chinese discount motorcycle technology, but you have to respect the names they have chosen: Rebel Cruiser, Storm Prince and Knight….

Except for a few models from the seventies, all Harley-Davidson motorcycles have a V2 engine with a displacement between 883 and 1573 ccm (the SX and SXT models from the seventies had one cylinder engines with less than 250 ccm).

That’s nothing compared with the Boss Hoss engines. Boss Hoss motorcycles have Chevrolet V8 engines with a displacement of either 5673 or 8226 ccm. That’s engines that are four times as big as the biggest Harley engines!

It’s not just the engine that is big on Boss Hoss motorcycles. The biggest Boss Hoss motorcycle, BHC-3 502 Big Block, is so big that it is the biggest production motorcycle in the world.

A Boss Hoss BHC-3 502 Big Block weights 595 kg, which makes it more than 200 kg heavier than the biggest Harley (Electra Glide Ultra Classic, 372 kg).

Luckily the engine gives the motorcycle 502 hp, so each hp just needs to drag 1.19 kg forward. That’s a better weight/power ratio than a hyper sport motorcycle like the Suzuki Hayabusa.

The great weight/power ratio gives the biggest production motorcycle in the world a topspeed around 255 km/h (158 mph).

Let’s try to have an example and compare a cruiser and a sport bike with the same price tag. The Harley-Davidson Sportster 883 (cruiser) retails for $6,695 and the Yamaha FZ 6 (road bike) retails for $6,999.

Harley-Davidson Sportster 883

Yamaha FZ 6

Not surprisingly, the Yamaha is much, much faster than the Harley-Davidson even though the engine is smaller. It also accelerates more than twice as fast, so when it comes to speed and fun there is no doubt that the Yamaha rules.

Another thing is the way the motorcycles look. Honestly speaking, I think most cruisers look awful. They don’t look cool, so you don’t look cool when you ride one.

Only 2 of the motorcycles from the speed top 5 made it into the acceleration top 5. Not surprising since the competition is fierce amongst the hyper sport motorcycles.

Suzuki GSX-R 1100 W
0-100 km/h in 2.4 sec.

Bimota YB8 Furano
0-100 km/h in 2.4 sec.

Kawasaki ZX-12R Ninja
0-100 km/h in 2.5 sec.

Suzuki GSX 1300 R Hayabusa
0-100 km/h in 2.6 sec.

Bimota SB6R
0-100 km/h in 2.6 sec.

Problem is that the Dodge Tomahawk is a concept model and that it isn’t street legal, so here is a top 5 of the fastest street legal motorcycles in the world.

Ducati Desmosedici RR
320 km/h (199 mph)

MV Agusta F4 1100 CC
315 km/h (196 mph)

MV Agusta F4 1000 MT Tamburini
307 km/h (191 mph)

Kawasaki ZX-12R Ninja
305 km/h (189 mph)

Suzuki GSX 1300 R Hayabusa
300 km/h (186 mph)