We built the bike for a friend here locally that’s a big BMW fan. He’s got quite a few unique cars and bikes and this was one he wanted for a display in one of his stores. He was really into the board track direction so we blended that idea with a bit of café race flavor to come up with something in between. A Café Tracker maybe. This bike was a close cousin of the Indian we did a while back that had a similar shaped gas tank. But with the BMW we wanted to keep all the suspension modern and fully functional where the Indian was a rigid with a girder fork. This obviously helps with the way the bike rides, but with the stretched out neck it steers a little heavier than the stock bike. It’s still manageable and fun to ride though and with the narrow 120 x 21” Dunlop tires it still steers pretty quick.
It’s a concept board tracker build. No front brake. NO kickstand, no lights and completely inconvenient for everyday use outside of the fact it’s a BMW and will fire up every time and run forever. The bike will sit in a glass case after it gets back from the hand built show on a custom center stand. So yea… it’s not street legal.
We always try to use the original fuel pumps and this bike was no exception. We machined the necessary parts to adapt the fuel pump and installed it into the tank built by Aaron Boss our chief fabricator.
We chopped the neck and raked it out to accept the 21” front tire and to effectively lower the bike. We shaved off all the unnecessary mounts and cut off the sub frame mounts in the back and shaved everything to flow with the bodywork and built a new subframe to accept out tail. We also created a box in the frame to hold the huge pile of electronics that are now concealed by the aluminum side panels.
It’s a blast to ride. It’s quick and steers well, just have to watch your ass with no front brake.. and with that, we've opened up for some solid stage dive commentary.
Stay tuned for more info on the RSD X BMW Motorrad Machined Line.
We’ve really started to dig into the BMW 9T concepts. The bikes platform allows a very simplified and deductive approach to customizing. This machines part café racer and part board tracker. It fuses cultures, era’s and performance into a very simplified derailment from what’s been done to the 9T to date.
Our café tracker 9T project is moving along quickly now. We’re planning on leaving much of the bike in its raw state. Brushed finishes and natural materials will be the choice selections, so color won’t be a major part of the build. We decided to let the metal tell the story. 21” Morris RSD wheels have been received and pushed out for a black on black finish giving the bike a touch of BMX. Aluminum number plates, gas tank, side covers and tail section have been brushed and prepped for molding of the seat pan and it’s leather covering. Forks have been trimmed to remove the brake caliper mounts for a stripped board track style front fork. The bike will live in a showroom setting so we’ve chopped the kickstand off opting for a fabricated race stand. This bike is a concept build for us and may only see the streets on a few illegal trial runs, but it will be built to ride hard.
It’s exciting for us because in the process we’ve retained much of the stock bikes function with a complete face lift. We’re planning on keeping the finishes very natural by adding a rawness that keeps things light and unrefined to show off the build quality without the paint.