RSD X BMW R 18 Dragster

August 5, 2020

The partnership between Roland Sands Design and BMW has been longstanding. Together we have developed a mutual level of trust and understanding through our collaborations on various builds. This relationship has given Roland the unique opportunity and privilege to get a peek behind the curtain on some of BMW's concepts and special projects. When the folks at Bavarian Motor Works gave Roland his first glimpse at the 1,802 cc two-cylinder boxer engine, BMW's highest displacement boxer ever built, without even seeing the full concept his literal fist words muttered under his breath were "Dragster." "The engine was so prominent and hulking; it immediately made me think of the stripped-down drag bikes that only carry the essential components necessary for going fast on a drag strip." Said Roland. Roland's family has always been into going fast; in fact, his father Perry raced drag bikes back in the day, so naturally, a ton of inspiration was drawn from Perry's style and old race bikes for the R 18 Dragster.

The BMW R 18 is the brand's first series-production bike for the cruiser segment. Like no other BMW motorcycle before it, this model stands entirely in the tradition of historical BMW motorcycles – both technically and with regard to its design. It is based on illustrious models such as the BMW R 5 and shifts the focus back to the motorcycle essentials: purist, no-frills technology, and the boxer engine as the center of riding pleasure. The "Big Boxer" continues the line of traditional air-cooled boxer engines that have offered inspiring riding since BMW Motorrad first began production in 1923.

As with all of our builds, Roland starts by sketching his idea. Sketching allows him to figure out the basics of shape and stance, as well as what the geometry of the bike could look like. "In the end, the real magic happens when we bring the sketch to life," Roland explains.

The very cool thing about the new R 18 is it's a highly customizable design. It features an easily removable rear frame and simple-to-dismantle painted parts set. This design allows the customer a high degree of freedom for easily converting the rear end of the new R 18 to suit personal preferences.

For the R 18 Dragster, we retained the stock neck geometry of the R 18, but removed and modified the bike's rear end and turned it into a drag racer. The bike retains all of the original sheet metal with slight modifications to the front and rear fenders for aerodynamics and to accept the massive rear drag slick. The electronics were definitely the most challenging task we had to deal with as since we added nitrous, stripped the stock exhaust, and changed the intake drastically. It was a bit of an experiment, but we dialed it in! Every bike needs different sources depending on the build, unique materials, or parts. Each new bike concept is a bit of a learning process even after having built over 200 bikes. We always want to understand the genre of the bike we are creating in; it's the key to keeping it authentic and functional. The whole customizing process for the R 18 Dragster took about three and a half months.

Aside from just building a custom Drag Bike for BMW, we also created two different design collections of milled aluminum parts for the launch of the R 18 Cruiser: "Machined" and "2-Tone-Black". The "Machined" and "2-Tone- Black" ranges include front and rear wheels available in different dimensions than the standard sizes. Besides, the range of these exclusive milled parts includes speedometer housings, handlebar clamps, risers, handlebar grips, hand levers, and mirrors, as well as engine housing trim elements, filler caps, intake silencer covers and much more. On the R 18 Dragster, we used the milled parts design collection "2-Tone-Black" to customize levers, wheels, valve covers, breastplate, headlight, and gauges. The front end was taken from the BMW S 1000 RR, while the seat and exhaust were created from scratch.

The final product is impressive and characterized by a high level of craftsmanship, which is expected from BMW Motorrad. Right from the beginning the platform lent itself to creativity, and Roland couldn't wait to get customizing!