They say once you experience German engineering, you never go back. And this is certainly true of BMW Motorrad’s legendary motorcycles. BMWs feature unique flat-twin boxer engines, unmistakable style, and renowned mechanics that must live up to Berlin-level performance standards.
Launched in 1923, BMW has long been lauded for its line of airhead engines (1969–1995). The well-known R nineT and R80 series of Beemers (among others) have become the basis for quite a few masterful builds covered on these pages.
Dirk Oehlerking has a portfolio of incredible builds, but there are two machines that stand out. They are the White Phantom and Black Phantom—two classic BMW boxers, with exquisite hand-formed bodywork and an unusual art deco vibe. Dirk refers to his Phantoms as “two that belong together, like Yin and Yang.” But those two have…
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Motorcycles have come a long way in the last half century, but for some folks, the allure of old machines is too hard to resist. The owner of this early 70s BMW R60/5, Wolfgang, has a much newer R1200GS parked in his garage. But when it was time to take a road trip, he picked…
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Before the BMW R18 officially broke cover, the Bavarian marque teased us with concepts and customs that showcased the whopping 1,802 cc power plant. The monstrous boxer is now almost ready to hit showrooms, so we’re getting a look at the first custom based on the final production R18. And not surprisingly, it’s a dragster.…
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The world’s first big-bore dual sport, the BMW R80G/S, broke cover forty years ago. Born from off-road competition, it soon dominated at the Paris-Dakar rally, before going on to become an icon of adventure motorcycling. But there’s one arena it never really featured in: the Californian desert. The G/S missed the heyday of the Californian…
Read more »Most custom builders are low-volume guys. It’s often a sideline to a day job, or part of a wider operation selling parts.…
Read more »Untitled Motorcycles is not your standard custom outfit. Output is hardly prolific, but the bikes invariably create ripples. And the founders operate…
Read more »A few years ago, building a cafe racer usually meant imbuing it with a sense of nostalgia. But these days, the custom…
Read more »Eastern Spirit Garage is probably Poland’s premier custom workshop. But they focus on quality over quantity, with fewer than a dozen builds…
Read more »The custom scene is replete with R-series BMWs, but they still split opinion. Purists say they’re classics that should be kept original;…
Read more »The almost forgotten BMW R1150R gets a makeover from the Austrian shop NCT. Plus news of a Ducati Scrambler design contest, and…
Read more »With five different models in the range, there’s a BMW R nineT to suit most tastes—from the cafe-styled Racer to the classic…
Read more »We’ve gone global this week, with a brutal BMW K100RS from Poland, a Triumph Scrambler with a desert sled vibe from Italy,…
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