The art of absurd custom builds has been somewhat lost in the last few years. Performance and speed have taken over the culture, whether it’s cars or bikes. But almost 20 years ago, the energy around crazy creations was thriving, and one of the stranger ones was this 24-cylinder elongated motorcycle.
It was created by Rötger Feldmann, a German cartoonist that had a strong love for modifying motorcycles and drew cartoons inspired by his constant battles with the German TÜV. The battles were born of TÜV’s famously strict inspection standards for vehicles, requiring detailed engineering documentation and testing for modified vehicles to be legal for German roads. Thus, the character Werner was born. Werner became famous enough in Germany to have a fairly successful fun of motion pictures about the character.
But behind the scenes, Feldmann loved motorcycles. He especially enjoyed modifying vintage Horex motorcycles. The 24-cylinder bike known as Dolmette wasn’t his only absurd creation, he also created the Red Porsche Killer in 1988, which used four Horex engines with custom enlarged bores and aggressive camshafts for more horsepower. But Dolmette was a step further.
Built in 2004, Dolmette used the same multiple engine idea as Red Porsche Killer, but triples the amount of engines. It uses twelve 160cc two-stroke Dolmar chainsaw engines to create a combined displacement of 1.9-liters and 170 horsepower. A comparable 2004 Suzuki Hayabusa made 175 hp. Transferring power from the engines to a single five-speed Harley-Davidson gearbox is a series of twelve toothed belts. Best (or worst) of all, each engine has to be started individually with a pull start, allowing the crescendo of buzzing to build into a deafening pitch.
It is a hyper-surreal creation that belongs in a cartoon, but Feldmann has ridden it at least once on video. For having twelve engines and 24 cylinders, the sound is shockingly uniform and only sounds like one large angry chainsaw. Either way, it’s one of the crazier two-wheeled objects out there.
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