It’s no secret that we now have blended emotions concerning the BMW R18. But there’s one factor we’re positive of: in the best arms, it has huge potential for personalization. And few arms are as deft as Brice Hennebert’s.
We’ve been following Brice’s profession for fairly a while—from his early days as one half of Kruz Company, to his present work beneath the Workhorse Speed Shop model. And the Belgian {custom} builder has but to place a foot incorrect.
Brice has a pointy eye, and a penchant for injecting retro racing fashion into his machines. He’s additionally not afraid to construct them chunky, making his fashion completely suited to the R18’s beneficiant actual property. This specific bike is a light side-step for him although, laced with artwork deco design concerns.
Since the BMW R18’s design was initially impressed by the BMW bikes of the Thirties, Brice went on the hunt for inspiration from this period. “I wanted to bring the R18 to a whole new level,” he says. “One of my biggest inspirations was the R18 concept bike, which, for me is one of the best looking R18s to date.”
While stress-free at residence, Brice stumbled throughout a documentary concerning the outdated AVUS circuit in Berlin—a highway that was particularly designed to operate as each a freeway and a race observe. Since the R18 is in-built Berlin, it felt like the proper springboard for the venture.
So Brice began gathering furnishings, architectural and automotive designs from the period to construct his temper board. “I based my design on two famous sports cars from this period,” he says.
“The first one is the Bentley Blue Train from 1949—a high-end racer, famous for being faster than a train. The three seater is a real piece of art.”
“The other one is the Rolls-Royce Phantom Jonckheere Coupe from 1935. The outrageous lines of the Rolls-Royce are so inspiring, I fell in love with this alien which is almost 100 years old, and which was customized in Belgium.”
Workhorse’s R18 is squat and compact, so it takes a second look to understand that it’s rolling on a large set of wheels. There’s a 21” hoop up entrance, with a 240-wide 18” rim on the again. “The monster rear wheel does not look oversized with such a big engine,” says Brice.
Look even nearer, and also you’ll discover that the spokes are laced both facet of a central ridge on every rim. That design was impressed by aero bicycle wheels, and, by Brice’s admission, Max Hazan’s twin-engined Velocette. So it’s no shock that the wheels are {custom} items, made to spec by JoNich Wheels in Italy.
It’s not simply the rim edges which might be uncommon. Brice needed to maintain the design clear, and that meant utilizing an inboard brake set from Beringer. The brake firm despatched over CAD designs of an present inboard system, which had been handed onto Fabio at JoNich to ensure the brand new hubs may accommodate the brakes.
Beringer in flip made modifications to the inboard system, to make sure there could be house to re-install the BMW’s OEM ABS sensors. That makes this method about as one-off as you will get.
Higher up, Brice designed a brand new set of yokes to separate the forks extensive sufficient to suit the upgraded wheels and brakes. They grip a pair of 43 mm fork legs from Öhlins, with a custom-built shock from the Swedish suspension firm fitted out again.
The Öhlins bits are usually not only for present although. Brice’s shopper is a hardcore race fanatic, and though it is a cruiser, he needs it to carry out in addition to potential.
Another problem was hollowing out the house beneath the seat, to indicate off the brand new shock. “All the usual shit under the seat moved to a black box behind the gearbox,” says Brice, “and there’s some stuff directly under the seat. It took two weeks of work to relocate all the electrical stuff correctly.”
A few elements additionally made their means into one among this R18’s standout elements—its beneficiant handmade aluminum stomach pan. Brice fabricated an exhaust system from pie-cut headers and items of automotive racing mufflers to run inside it, and added louvered vents as a nod to the Bentley.
The inventory gas tank made the minimize, however a whole lot of consideration went into the cockpit and entrance finish. Using 3D design and printing, Brice constructed a nylon glass fiber ‘fairing’ with an built-in headlight nacelle and fork covers. Packed inside it’s a new outdated inventory SEV Marchal headlight, upgraded with LED internals.
“I took some influence from the Revival Birdcage’s forks, and mixed in some pre-war aero inspiration,” he explains. “There’s also a drop of Hugo Eccles’ XP Zero around the yoke design.”
Behind the fairing is a ‘pop-up’ mount for an iPhone—a request from the proprietor, who apparently needs to run a navigation app since he will get misplaced typically. The switches are custom-made objects from Jetprime in Italy, designed particularly to interface with the BMW’s trendy CAN bus system.
Also notable are the reverse-style levers, impressed by these on the unique Concept R18. Brice put in one other name to Beringer, who responded with elements from an outdated venture that was by no means accomplished. Brice massaged every thing into place, routing the R18’s brake hoses contained in the handlebars.
Taking issues another step additional, Brice 3D scanned the complete motorbike, then designed elements just like the valve covers, entrance engine cowl, intakes, seat blank-off plate and extra. Expanding his data of additive manufacturing, he then 3D-printed castings, for Cedric at Metamagma to solid the ultimate elements from aluminum.
Finishing off the construct are a neatly finned rear fender, and a solo seat upholstered by all of Europe’s go-to man, Jeroen at Silvermachine. Brice additionally credit Tim at Vinco Racing for doing all of the machining work on the construct.
Appropriately dubbed ‘Avus,’ Workhorse’s tackle BMW’s monster boxer appears like a forgotten idea design from a bygone period—which is why we find it irresistible. If you do too, we now have excellent news: the proprietor’s given him the go forward to construct a restricted collection of ten.
Workhorse Speed Shop | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Antoine Hotermans
Source: www.bikeexif.com