A tasty mix this week, with an old school BMW bobber from the Bavarian forests, an absolutely mint BSA Rocket 3 on eBay, a Spanish Thruxton build with a hydraulic bodywork lift, and news of a custom build-to-order scheme from Royal Enfield.
BMW R100 CS by Woidwerk Love it or loathe it, there’s a timeless quality to the classic BMW boxer engine. Which gives builders plenty of flexibility when setting the vibe of a bike.
This very, very ‘old school’ build comes from Ralf Eggl of Woidwerk, who positions his creations as ‘Bavarian Gentlebikes.’ “My customer called me last year and said, ‘Mr Eggl, please build me a nice BMW bobber. I’ll send you the money right away so that you can get started.’”
“I’ve never heard anything like this before,” Ralf says. “It was completely … uncomplicated.”
Ralf already had a suitable donor in his Viechtach workshop: an R100 CS from 1981. To keep things subtle, he installed a ‘no-name’ tank, matched to a Biltwell saddle. The steel fenders are custom-made, but the headlight is original—just repositioned on new brackets.
The forks have been shortened by a couple of inches, and with the help of a new top yoke, Ralf has replaced the stock bars with ABM clip-ons. The exhaust system is another sporty touch: Ralf whipped up a new set of pipes, and finished them off with stainless steel Hattech Gunball silencers, which offer a slight boost in torque across the rev range.
Sawtooth-pattern Shinko tires and an old aluminum air filter housing add to the vintage feel, along with the classic black-plus-pinstripes paint.
All that was left was to give the R100 a name. “I immediately thought, ‘Old Ass’,” says Ralf. “That suits the rider!”
1969 BSA Rocket 3 How’s this for an eBay find? This Rocket 3 has a mere 2,594 miles on the clock, and you’ve got a couple of days left to snap it up. It’s for sale in Portland, Oregon, and its amazing condition is down to a long stint as part of a private collection.
The Rocket—and its Triumph Trident stablemate—was a state-of-the-art bike when launched, with a 750 triple engine capable of pushing the machine to 120 mph. But then Honda released the CB750, and the era of the Japanese superbike began.
The seller picked up this BSA in 2017, and a BSA specialist then fettled and refurbished the bike with new cables, fuel lines and perishables, an extensive clean, and re-greasing where required.
Bidding (at the time of writing) is sitting at $10,000, which looks like a bargain to us. We would be surprised to see the sale close at $15,000 or even $20,000—and we reckon it’d be worth every cent, even at that price. [Via Bike-curious]
Royal Enfield ‘Make-It-Yours’ program Harley-Davidson has always offered a huge array of accessories for its bikes, and Triumph and BMW have followed suit. But most accessories are add-ons installed by the dealer before delivery, or by owners with mechanical skills.
Royal Enfield is now aping a trend in the auto industry with a build-to-order system in India called ‘Make It Yours.’ There’s an app for that, plus the kind of website configurator beloved by teenage boys specc’ing up their ideal Porsche 911.
The configurator tool will also be featured in 320 dealers, and it currently supports the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650 models—with more to be rolled out. According to CEO Vinod Dasari, “Depending on the level of personalization, motorcycles will be custom-made within 24 to 48 hours at our manufacturing plant in Chennai. All new motorcycle models from Royal Enfield, from here on, will come with the MiY feature.”
Build-to-order is a pretty big step forward for a mainstream moto brand, especially when you factor in the hundreds if not thousands of manufacturing variables, from colors and graphics to hard parts. But despite its rising sales in overseas markets, domestic demand for RE has dropped in India lately—so this looks like an attempt to claw back some volume. It will be interesting to see if the Western and Japanese manufacturers follow suit.
Triumph Thruxton 900 by Tamarit We often see car influences on custom bike design, but they’re usually restricted to paint finishes or graphic motifs. But Raquel Morales and the crew at Triumph specialists Tamarit have taken things a stage further with this new Thruxton build, called ‘Gullwing.’
Yes, you guessed correctly: the influence here is the curvaceous bodywork of the iconic Mercedes-Benz 300 SL of the 1950s, and more specifically, its famous gullwing doors.
Tamarit stripped the carbureted engine down for a total rebuild, and freed up the breathing with K&N intakes and their own ‘Speedster’ exhaust system. Power is now up from 69 to 78 hp.
As always with a Tamarit build, the quality of the finishing is exceptional and there’s style by the bucketload. The back end of the frame is all new, with the Hagon Nitro shocks are hooked up at a slightly more rakish angle than stock.
The modified tank flows into a slim line new tail unit, with gel cushion seat pads and a hydraulic shock underneath that allows everything to lift up smoothly.
It’s similar to the approach taken by Vagabund three years ago with their R100R, except the bodywork of this Thruxton has less of a ‘monocoque’ feel, and could pass as a traditional café racer. Muy inteligente!
The Malle Mile on film A few moments of escapism are always welcome these days, and it doesn’t get much better than this annual event put on by the Malle boys in England.
Somewhat miraculously, Malle got the necessary permissions to host the Mile back in August. They took the festival back to its roots, focusing on the race itself and the musical experience, spread across the capacious grounds of Kevington Hall—a beautiful stately home and farm on the south-east border of London.
It was the first motorcycle event to happen in the UK after lockdown, and will possibly be the only motorcycle festival happening in 2020 in the country. Fortunately, Dominic Hinde of Sense Films was on hand with his camera to capture the fun, and here it is.