If you happen to’re going to call your custom-bike-building facet hustle ‘Atomic Contraptions,’ the machines that you simply create higher be imaginative sufficient to warrant a re-evaluation. Judging by this practice BMW R65, Andrew Knott has no hassle in that division. Laced with picket particulars, and with a refined steampunk affect that avoids clichés, this café racer is as curious as it’s clear.
Primarily based in Hobart, Tasmania, Andrew’s fundamental gig is as a designer and photographer. However he’s additionally a motorcyclist and a compulsive tinkerer, so {custom} bikes had been all the time written in his stars.
“My first venture was a little bit outdated 73 CB350 that I purchased simply to tear down and put again collectively once more, as an train in mechanical training,” Andrew tells us. “And it wasn’t till I began the reassembly course of that I believed, ‘I’d as properly put my designing hat on and do one thing fascinating with it.’ Issues snowballed a bit from there.”
“I’m at that place in life the place I actually need to take this factor to the subsequent degree, so that is the primary bike that I’ve made with the categorical intention of promoting it (with extra hopefully to come back). Having the ability to mix my background in design with my mechanical facet is what I’m discovering rewarding as of late. It’s nice to have the ability to see the entire course of by means of myself, from idea and design to fabrication, closing touches, and, after all, pictures.”
Andrew’s a sucker for handcrafted issues that use uncooked and sturdy supplies. He additionally loves utilizing timber that’s native to the place he lives—just like the Tasmanian Oak that adorns this practice BMW R65.
“I believed it might go well with the vibe of this construct,” he provides. “Primarily it was impressed by BMW’s historical past within the plane trade. I believed there was a pleasant analog of the smaller R65 needing to be gentle and nimble like an plane, which additionally led to the usage of aluminum wherever I may, to avoid wasting weight.”
Dubbing the venture ‘Ultraleicht,’ Andrew stripped the R65 right down to its body and commenced crafting the varied items he wanted to create the specified aesthetic. Though the gas tank appears to be like authentic, it’s really a brand new aluminum unit that Andrew fabricated to imitate the OEM half. The small headlight nacelle is one other {custom} aluminum piece.
The timberwork was impressed by the picket propellers of early plane, although we’re getting a robust nautical vibe too. Andrew’s carpentry expertise are spectacular, as is the way in which that he’s integrated tidy aluminum particulars between the picket bits.
The tail part is generally wooden, with aluminum inlays and an built-in aluminum subframe. The inlays run throughout the highest of the tail part, with LED strips working alongside them to behave as taillights. The work is remarkably intricate—from the break up seat pad to the opening within the tail bump that shaves further weight off.
Extra particulars reveal themselves the nearer you get. A picket blank-off plate closes the hole between the again of the tank and the entrance of the seat, whereas a hand-crafted picket field sits the place the airbox used to, now housing the battery. Every half wears the identical aluminum inlays, as do the handmade grips, brake pedal nub, and equipment shifter nub.
Andrew additionally long-established the R65’s rear-set foot pegs, clip-ons, and entrance fender out of aluminum. The wheels had been liberated of their casting marks, after which handled to myriad finishes, together with matte, brushed, and polished sections. Refined picket inlays add to the aeronautical vibe with out going excessive.
The construct is sprinkled with small brass particulars too—once more, used with most restraint. The gas tank wears a chrome steel tank strap, custom-made badges, and a knurled aluminum fuel cap.
The speedo housing and face are {custom} too. The unit features a color-changing LED backlight that acts because the bike’s warning lights; pink for oil, inexperienced for impartial, yellow for oil and impartial, and white for all the things else. Flip up the speedo’s cowl, and also you’ll be capable to see the odometer and journey meter.
Beneath the hood, the entire bike’s been rewired round a Bluetooth-capable Motogadget controller. The switches, bar-end flip indicators, and mirrors are additionally Motogadget components. All of the wires are neatly tucked into braided stainless-steel hoses.
Eager eyes will discover that the BMW’s Bing carbs are the improper means round. “I swapped the carbs left to proper,” Andrew explains, “simply because I prefer to see the workings of the throttle mechanisms—and I believe in addition they simply look fairly. The speed stacks are outdated brass bells turned down on the lathe.”
Different modifications embrace lowered entrance forks, a brand new Ikon rear shock, and the Brembo entrance brake from a BMW K1100. Andrew swapped the valve covers for traditional peanut covers, and constructed a chrome steel exhaust system with stubby mufflers.
“I additionally smoothed and shaved a lot of different small bumps and bits off the carbs, triples, body, engine, and closing drive,” he tells us. “Simply attempting to make all the things really feel easy and aerodynamic.”
“After which the sprucing! I believe I could have spent extra time sprucing bits than I did making them—that was the most important problem.”
We’ve seen a lot of wood-trimmed bikes, however few pull it off with the panache that Andrew’s {custom} BMW R65 does. Right here’s hoping he sells it rapidly in order that he can transfer on to the subsequent one.
