Cafe racers, custom motorcycles and classic motorcycles

that “oddball swingarm suspension” looks rather like the stndard “Earles fork” that the bike left the factory with.

Absolutely stunning. I might have left the engine raw for a little contrast (and because I think it’s a beautiful mill), but this thing definitely grabs your attention.

What makes this very simple concept look so amazing it that it makes a real-world object look like a black-and-white picture. The entire bike is just contrasting shades, no distraction of color, so the pure form of a classic, no-frills bike jumps out at the eye. Less is so totally more, case in point.

I like this bike but flat black eventually gets shiny when consistently rubbed. It sort of buffs a shine into the paint. If ridden hard, this paint job, even if it has a matte hard coat will have shiny spots all over real soon.

This is definitely a good custom. Not too much done but still achieved that wow factor. Don’t understand why some people would criticize by saying not enough was done to call it a custom. Good paint job and good tire choice. Very sexy indeed!

Er, this motorcycle definitely does not work for me. It’s well, how should I put it, rather disproportionate. Maybe different, but definitely not going to get me to even swing my leg over it. I love these old bikes, in fact, even obsessive about them but this one is an exception. Sigh

harrharr, me want to rule zi wörld together wiff darf vater… I’d like to see a yellow smiley somewhere on that black, just to relax a little bit…
paintjob is nice, though not very creative, and carbs and kickstarter in grey works for me. No, not these tires, mate – it’s like ridin’ on soap. Why not some nice, fat firestones? Mostly I like the courage Blitz have modifying a “holy cow” that way. Tschüss!

CT, go ahead and customize your /2, it’s not as if they are ultra rare. If it were me, I’d not make modifications that are not readily reversible, hacking the frame for instance. Most if not all the body parts are available either from BMW or as reproductions so if someone wanted to restore it to showroom later they could. One thing you might consider is rather than cutting or modifying any of the original parts, hack up reproductions and save the originals.

I actually really like this bike but can we all agree the “Great Escape“ thing has been done to death?

People find a new source of inspiration. It’s a great movie but damn, come on.

Since when has there been a standard of what makes a bike cool or custom? I rarely ever comment on posts to avoid the backlash, but this is getting ridiculous. Some of you just love to stir stuff up too. Nowhere in the article does Chris say it’s a custom suspension made by Blitz, or never-been-seen before. It’s an ‘odd-ball swingarm suspension’ – and it is… Straight from the factory. The end.

You purists stick out like busted knuckles, and probably do more fabrication to these articles than your bikes, I imagine.

Purists don’t like these types of bikes at all. Well, newsflash gramps – it wasn’t made for you. Think of all the time the owner will save by not having to polish the chrome on his lawn in front of his neighbors! Don’t get me wrong, meticulous concourse vintage bikes have their place, but they lack individual character IMO, which this and most custom bikes exemplify. I’d love to be the one to wear down those knobbies.

Ride ‘em, don’t hide ‘em.

Wayne, the point here “Gramps”, is that anybody with or without skill or one iota of imagination could spray paint any bike flat black and install some old knobbies in an afternoon while cookin’ hotdogs on the BBQ and watching Leave it to Bevis and Butthead on TV. They’d be profiling their new custom build by the next morning. What makes that so amazing is that ranks as “Original”. Has nothing to do with people being Purists or rookies.

What is cool. Something that works very hard at trying to be cool or Avante Garde is for sure not going to be cool. What is cool? Thats up to each individual. I guess there are people that think almost no effrort or imagination
is supremely cool.

Most bad of ass, indeed.
It brought this one immediately to mind. I think I saw it on bubblevisor.

http://s451.photobucket.com/albums/qq231/lennyway/44/?action=view&current=080320061750368558.jpg

Hi all,

It seems this bike has generated a lot of reactions so far.
Good : it was definitely made for this purpose.
Still, being the creator of this bike, let me enlighten you about its story.

The friend we made this motorcycle for had an accident with his R60/2. He wisely decided to take it to an official BMW garage so that they could take care of it. One year and a half went through : nothing happened (except a tremendous bill for having kept his bike in their store).
I conviced him to take the bike back and take it to our place. Which he did, 3 days after.
He had no money for that rebuilt. And believe me, it had to be rebuilt.
At that time, we were very much into black mat BMW’s (especially R100/7). That was therefore the only colour we could turn this bike into.
We disassembled totally the machine, fixed the engine, and simplified the electric wire (this detail given to all the peole thinking we have rebuilt this bike watching TV and cooking hot dogs at the same time).
After getting the parts back from painting, we rebuilt the machine (while cooking hot dogs, of course).
Then came the time of mounting the tires.
This is where I suggested to mount those “knobbies”. From that moment, we knew this bike would not stick to the road as it used to. But the odea was to have a very aggressiv profile. Road holding here was not that important.
And once the tires were up, since we had not mounted the fenders yet, we stared at the bike, and in a blink of an eye, our mind was made : we would not use the fenders. No argue, no question.

And after all that, when the time came to find this bike a name, we naturally went to “tribute to the Great Escape” because as it was, it was reminding us of this movie.
Of course, in the real movie, it is a TR6 pre-unit Triumph driven by Bud Ekins. But guess what : my friend does not have the money to get this very bike.

And to all the ones who think we did the minimum job here : you are damn RIGHT ! That’s what we did. But we OFFERED this minimum.

Now if you wanna come to this field ; be our guest.
Our website has enough pictures of extremely modified motorcycles to meet all your demands. Some you might not even identify unless we give you a tip by writing the original name of the machine on its description.

You can now unleash hell. This will not change the fact we put all our knowledge and passion in this bike. And I guess that this is what it all should be about.

Fred (Blitz-Motorcycles).

Fred, no defense necessary! But that’s a great story, gives the bike even more life. Thanks for sharing.

I wonder if the fact that the bike is divisive is proof that it is a good custom. Like rock ‘n roll and rap these things are best when they challenge or even offend the senses.

@Fred, personally i’m glad your passion gave way, its what makes a difference in this two pot screamer world… To me, I would rather have a bike built with passion, desire and dreams. Its builders like you whom put their soul, feeling and passion into their bikes that make it worth the time, energy and effort of having a custom bike.

Isnt that why we ride, why we ride, why we desire to have customs, to have that feeling of freedom, to live the passion, to enjoy the ride – no matter what we ride!

thanks Fred, love your work….

I still don’t like the bike, but really enjoyed the story! AND you have a sense of humor too! Hat’s off to you for the hard work and helping a guy with a low budget. Good job!

Fred,
you did an awesome job with this bike. This bike definitely represents what new customs don’t, simplicity with a cool factor. I’m tired of other bike builders completely altering bikes to appeal to the majority. Motorcycles, unlike cars, in my opinion represent individuality and you can definitely achieve that with your build.

A great deal of vitriol being splashed about here, one assumption many are making but have not proven is that “custom” is in some way intrinsically superior to a flat-black, mechanically sorted classic with knobblies on. Is it a custom build as that term is commonly understood? Not really… Is that a problem for people who actually like motorcycles? Not really.

Where I live, I would own a fleet of these before any custom trophy-piece.

Contrary to public opinion, creativity is not actually a function of man-hours or dollars spent. Unless you are from California.