Dave Miller DMC Concepts Photo Gallery

Dave Miller's Hodaka 100

 Dave Miller's Rat Bastard Mini Bike


   from Joe's Minibikes

 by Al Benaroya 
Dave Miller: 

I have had the destinct pleasure of working with Dave Miller for many years. with Dave and I, it was all about MINIBIKES.

Back in 2001, Taco minibikes was owned by Steve Manley in Texas. Steve made some great bikes, and we sold them. But Steve wanted to focus on his emerging career in auto racing. So, I facilitated the sale of the company and became the distributor. I soon found out that the brains behind the operation was Dave Miller. I have been working with Dave ever since.

I had recently purchased the Little Badass Motorcycle Co. from Chris Puess. The bikes were a favorite among celebreties and featured in EZ Rider magazine

Dale Earnhardt Jr. receives his LBA. Gravedigger has one too.

with Dave's help, we brought back the Little BadAss Minichopper

Dave worked his magic with numerous modifications including adapting the frame to accommodate the new engines and torque converters of the day from Titan and GTC, our own inhouse brands. Features like an in-frame aluminum gas tank with peanut cover, inverted mikuni carb, shotgunn exhaust, open primary cover, and integrated brake/drive, previously unheard of on a production minibike, all painstakenly designed and crafted by Dave. https://gokartsusa.com/Mini-Bike-Choppers-Minibikes.aspx

Dave Miller's Little BadAss Mini Chopper

Next, of course, Dave wanted to build a custom version of the LBA. He kept us in suspense, just telling us it would be over-the-top. So we delivered all the parts he requested. We arrived at his shop to pickup the bike on our way to the Jr. Dragster finals in Utah. The bike was a show-stopper, hand crafted harley knucklehead style bike nick-named HD  'Heavy Duty'. The debut of Heavy Duty at our Trackside Display was definitely the star attracion at the event.

Dave Miller's 'Heavy Duty' Mini Chopper

So then, Dave said he wanted to build the ultimate LBA. He wanted a big motor.  I told him I had a 420 electric start engine that a customer had returned. We sent it to him along with a GTC 40 series billet torque converter. Dave built the Half Bagger on a modified LBA frame, the most amazing mini bike ever built on the planet!! The Front wheel is a $2,000 billet aluminum dragster wheel. You have to just look at it, I just can't tell you anymore, one of those picture-worth-a-thousand-words situations. https://gokartsusa.com/DMC-Half-Bagger-Minibike-Street-Legal.aspx

Dave Miller's Half Baggr
 

Bonanza Mini Bikes
Dave was the guru on Bonanza Minibikes. So we put Bonanza back into production. Starting with the Bonanza 215 modeled after the BC 1000.

But we had to change the name. It seems, some bad actors registered the tradename. So we decided on American Racer. Dave's graphic artist created the logo.

Dave Miller's American Racer 215

Next was the AFX bike, modeled after the Bonanza BC1300 made by Jack Costella in the 60s. Since Hodaka is no more, Dave wanted a a Briggs Animal, but not just any one, he wanted the World Formula with electric start. So we sent him the engine, along with the Frork Assembly and a few other parts. Dave had built and raced the bike as shown below. At the time of his passing, Dave had 50 frames in progress.

Dave Miller's American Racer AFX Mini Bike

Dave Miller's Taco 22 with Honda CR85 5-Speed.

We will have a standard version of this bike in production soon as the little BadAss 357
 

Frijole
Dave built our Red Devil and the Monster Frijole® Minibikes. So we brought back Frijole® Mini Bikes. Just like the ones made by Steens in the 60s.

 
Dave Miller's 'Red Devil' Frijole Mini Bike

Restored by Dave Miller, Taco Matterhorn Hodaka

Dave Miller's Taco Matterhorn with Hodaka Ace 100 5-Speed

Former MXA cartoonist Curt Evans drew this cartoon of Dave Miller.

 from Jody Weisel  5-27-2020

It is with great sorrow that our sport mourns the passing of Dave Miller. Dave was a genius, and we mean the MIT, rocket scientist, change the world kind of genius—and we are grateful that he applied his unique view of the world and his sometimes crackpot ingenuity to motocross . If you needed something fabricated, something unique built, something off the wall or an unobtainable part made, Dave was your man. A fast Pro racer, he turned his attention to building products and hop-up parts at his signature Miller Mano race shop in the 1970s and then matured into the go-to fabricator for one-off technology and parts at DMC (Dave Miller Concepts) in the 1980s, ’90s and ’00s.

Dave was a blast to hang around, he had stories, ideas and concepts that only a bonafide genius could come up with. And, he had the know-how to turn them into reality. Dave didn’t want to mass produce anything. He wanted to make just one of everything. And the one thing that he made would be perfect.

He helped his friends, answered questions with a chuckle and was the man you wanted working on your race bike, vintage bike or one-off dream project bike. The MXA guys would stop by is LaPalma Avenue shop, just to ogle at what he was working on and get his take on the world. We never left Dave’s shop without a smile on our faces.

Other people will be able to make things, but they won’t be Dave Miller. His genius was with a torch, a CNC-machine and his mind. There will never be another like him.

We want to share a tiny portion of the Dave Miller heritage, so that people who never met him, maybe never heard of him will wish that they to could have driven down LaPalma Avenue  stopped at Knowlwoods for a burger and then dropped in uninvited at Dave’s workshop. Now that’s a day we’d love to be able to live again, but Knowlwoods and Dave are both gone. Maybe in the next life—if we’re lucky.

 
https://motocrossactionmag.com/godspeed-dave-miller-1954-2020


from Shaun Bauer 

Dave Miller: 1955-2020. The motorcycle community mourns the loss of industry icon Dave Miller, who was found dead on Friday at his Anaheim race shop, Dave Miller Concepts. His body was found by a shop employee shortly after noon on the floor in front of his welding bench. The 64-year-old racer-turned fabricator/tuner had recently completed an exhaustive series of chemotherapy treatments following a cancer diagnosis late last year.

Dave was a three-time National Minibike Champion and accomplished pro racer during the early years of motocross in Southern California, but it was his skill as a tuner and fabricator that really stood out. In 1973, Miller went to work for Donny Emler at FMF, building pipes and aftermarket products that squeezed every bit of performance from the early Honda Elsinores, Yamaha YZs and Suzuki RMs. Miller also built custom bikes, such as the famous “Penda” and became well known for quality and attention to detail.

In 1975, he opened his first shop, Miller Mano, creating the slogan “Everything’s Sano at Miller Mano” and sold it in 1977.  Miller’s growing reputation as a master craftsman made him a hot commodity for many MX-, auto- and boat-racing teams, while also producing custom race bikes for well-heeled clients. He opened his “non-profit hobby shop,” Dave Miller Concepts, in the early ‘80s and continued to produce works of art, right up to his death.