Gallery: BMW Has Finally Made a Gorgeous Bike That'll Appeal to Young Riders
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The four designers with their respective one-off creations.
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BMW Motorrad head designer Ola Stenegard and the mind behind the R NineT Ola Stenegard checks out the custom jobs.
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The fresh-out-the-box R nineT, complete with its signature boxer engine and shaft-drive system.
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HIDE Motorcycle Boxer: Hideya Togashi mostly works on Harley Sportsters, but he ignored chopper aesthetics for the lines of classic race bikes. The fairing on the front is straight out of a 1970s GP motorcycle.
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The body gets that rough sheen from his leaving the hand-beaten aluminum untreated. Leaving the metal unfinished meant (deliberately) showcasing the imperfections of the final shape, which builders usually cover up by molding then sanding down the undercoating. The fuel tank alone took him a month to complete.
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Brat Style Cyclone: Go Takamine’s Cyclone evokes the “tracker” bike — an abridged seat and back-end, an open front wheel, and a simple teardrop tank. Even with BMW’s big 1,170-cc motor, the high and wide handlebars and thin wheel spokes make the Cyclone look lithe and agile next to the bulldog-like stock model.
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Takamine was so devoted to an authentic expression of nostalgia that he installed regular upright forks, yanked out the ABS, and installed an old-fashioned drum brake in the front wheel.
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Cherry's Company Highway Fighter: Kaichiro Kurosu, who has been picking up trophies at custom bike shows for years, pushed the Beemer into an aggressive posture. He kept the R nineT’s standard forks, but lowered the front two inches and painted them black. The front wheel was swapped out for a slightly bigger 18-incher, while the rear end got a smaller 16-inch wheel.
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The Highway Fighter’s abridged exhaust exits just in front of the back wheel. The modified body is made from hand-molded aluminum. We like the spoke-less wheels, which gives this gritty front-heavy racer a dash of Tron.
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46Works Clubman Racer: Shiro Nakajima has experience building gorgeous Beemers and Moto Guzzis, which might explain how he simultaneously beautified the R nineT while shedding 66 pounds from the bike’s overall weight.
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Besides adding a hand-made titanium exhaust, he removed the standard ABS and added a racing stripe to the paint job. Like his peers, Nakajima hand-shaped the aluminum body, and built the seat and tank from scratch.
