Daniel Weidmann, owner and Managing Director of VTR Customs, and Marcel Brauchli, who was significantly involved in the motorcycle’s construction, are competing for BMW Motorrad with a water-cooled R 1200 R conversion. Daniel’s hobby of flying provided the inspiration for the design of “Spitfire.” He flies a 1938 Royal Air Force fighter plane, and turned the BMW R 1200 R into a torpedo-like monster sheathed in aluminum, reminiscent of an old aircraft.
The very deep line (height approx. 90 cm) invited technical challenges. The front frame was extended by 20cm, the head tube shortened and all electronics repositioned. The engine and frame were taken from “Eddie 21,” the VTR Race Crew’s competition from the 2017 ESSENZA Sprint Series with Amelie Mooseder as factory driver. The drive swing arm has also remained unmodified.
The Swiss style of customizing is colored by precision and attention to detail. For maximum authenticity, original Spitfire cockpit instruments from the Second World War were used, an aircraft start switch integrated and – as with “Eddie 21” – a breathtaking “Amy Gimmick” the cherry on top. The result will be presented for the first time to the public and the driver in Monza. When all is said and done, the “Spitfire” will shoot spectacular flames from its exhaust pipe.
Maserati actually quit building motorcycles in 1960, but Czech designer Tomáš Klečka came up nonetheless with a suggested hyper-modern design for a Maserati electric motorcycle allegedly inspired by the frightful critter that menaced Sigourney Weaver in the 1979 film “Alien.”
There is no evidence that any of this is actually going to happen, but that’s a pity, because this is one helluva design. I don’t even ride motorcycles and I want one.
Unveiled in 1934, the BMW R7 was a motorcycle ahead of its time both conceptually and practically. Despite the futuristic appeal of its sleek design, the R7’s high manufacturing costs kept it from ever seeing mass production. It wasn’t until 2005, when the original prototype was uncovered and showcased at Pebble Beach that the world truly came to appreciate this innovative design. Valued at over $1 million, this original R7 is the stuff of collectors’ and motorcycle enthusiasts’ dreams.
Among those to appreciate the BMW R7 was team at NMOTO. Taking inspiration from the past, NMOTO then launched the Nostalgia Project, an ambitious and successful attempt to join old designs with current technology. By utilizing modern materials and traditional manufacturing methods, NMOTO was able to create a lighter and more powerful final product.
The full name of this replica vintage bike is BMW R7 85th Anniversary Commemoration Limited Edition. It’s built by custom bike designer Alex Niznik of NMoto – a custom workshop based in Florida, USA. The base model is a 1934 BMW R7 and this exclusive model is a limited edition of just ten units. The price tag sits at $250,000 as of Apr 13, 2020.
Feminists have accused MV Agusta of misogyny after the Italian motorcycle manufacturer last week released an advertisement that features a naked woman gyrating atop one of its products.
MV Agusta published the video to various social media channels last Wednesday as part of a rollout of a new motorcycle, the Superveloce 800 Serie Oro. The one-minute-long ad features close-up shots of the model in suggestive poses along with thumping electronic music and the sounds of a woman moaning.
“Desire is about contemplation and then, ultimately, desire is about possession,†read a caption accompanying the video …
TMC DUMONT is equipped with a 300 hp Rolls-Royce Continental V6 engine from a 1960s aircraft and fully leaked 36 inch wheels. I have no idea if it can actually turn and riders should be cautious as that back wheel is frighteningly close! It’s impractical, it’s ambitious, and I think it’s awesome to see a crazy concept brought to life and actually ridden.
No room for a passenger, and, boy! you better not lean back.
And Ghostsniper succeeds very well in persuading me that I don’t really need one of these myself.
I bought a Harley, of sorts, back in 1974 and I was 19 at the time.
Hanging around a marina waiting for them to finish up welding a lower unit for an Evinrude inboard/outboard engine my dad and I were rebuilding I spotted a cardboard box in a fenced in area in the back lot. Inspection showed it to contain Harley parts and a frame close by. I asked the owner about it and he said $500 and I could take it home. I went to the house and told my dad and he got all wobbly and handed me 5 crisp C-notes from his wallet. Back at the house we found the box, and 3 other boxes that went with it, contained parts from 3 old Harley’s with most of the parts going to a 49 Knucklehead. So that’s what we built. Took about 3 months from boxes to running but still had a ways to go.
With my dad next to me on his 69 Harley and me driving the 49 we headed down Gladiolus Blvd to the state inspection station to get it inspected, registered, and tagged. Going into the first curve just east of Harlem Heights the 49 locked tight at about 60 mph. If it had been the front wheel things would have gotten nasty quick but since it was the rear wheel a skid spontaneously started about the same time 20 mph were knocked off causing me to slide up onto the tank and losing my balance. The sides of the road curved down steeply and that’s where I ended up, at the bottom of the easement with both me and the bike tore up. Leaving the 49 there I rode home with my dad and got patched up then we took the truck back and picked it up and brought it home.
Under close inspection we found the engine had seized. We had spent I don’t know how many hours putting that engine together the right way. A machine shop was commissioned to blueprint the crankshaft, plane the block, barrels and heads, port and relieve the valves, etc. The barrels were bored .30 over and new pistons and wrist pins were installed. It ran really good.
As we tried to determine what went wrong, I discovered that in the bottom of the external oil tank was a small pipe leading to a pipe that fed the engine. In the bottom of that tank was a double edged razor blade that I presumed a previous owner had used to scrape off a gasket and it had fallen it. The slot in the razor blade was where the oil flowed through and in it’s limited quantity it had quickly caused the engine to heat up, swell, and seize. As this happened very quickly and was shut down very quickly the damage was minimal. No galling of the piston skirts or any of that stuff. All gaskets were removed with close attention spent on gasket removing tools and materials, and replaced and several trips around the block after assembly showed everything was alright. We got the thing registered.
I’m not a motorcycle guy. Some biker friends taught me to ride one a bit, back when I was a teenager. But I only ever owned one once.
I had a mad mathematical genius friend at Yale. He was the wealthy scion of a Southern family, but he lived by choice a life of Thoreauvian simplicity. He owned nothing beyond two shirts, two pair of jeans, and one of those unadmired little Italian cycles mendaciously labelled “Harley Davidson.” (I just looked it up. It was an “H” really made by Aermacchi.)
He roomed with some druggie friends of mine in a beach house in Milford and commuted (with difficulty) into Yale every day on that unreliable bike. We used to draw considerable amusement watching him start it. Kick (the routine would go), sputter, silence, kick, sputter, silence, kick, sputter, LOUD CURSING. Yet somehow, mysteriously, he would finally get that sucker running.
For some reason I’ve never understood, he decided I needed his bike. He had graduated and was going off to grad school, and he announced that he was selling me his Harley for $150. I don’t want it, I replied. You need it, he insisted. I’m not buying it, I said firmly.
But he simply left it at my door, when he departed town, so I concluded I owed him $150, payable when Hell froze over or the swallows came back to Capistrano or whenever.
I finally took a notion to try to ride the thing. I got my best mechanically-minded friend to help, and I climbed astride. Kick, I went. Sputter, it went. Then, silence. We kicked some more. We fiddled with it. We monkeyed with the beast for hours, but we just did not have our friend’s magic touch. We could not start it at all.
I finally successfully traded it off for an ancient shotgun to a cousin of mine, and sent my friend his $150. I concluded that Fate just did not want me owning a bike.
I think this is a circa 1970 BMW R75 Bobber. A bobber is a custom motorcycle that has had the front fender removed, the rear fender “bobbed” (made smaller), and all superfluous parts removed to reduce weight
The R7 shows how deep art deco influence ran. A pure prototype, the R7 stands as one of the most stunning bikes ever created. The opulent mudguards, the fluid sculpture of the body and the ornate steel and chrome all lend to an unparalleled design for motorcycles. Its telescopic front forks also happen to be the first ever on a two-wheeler. Every aspect of the bike contributed to its elegant design, including the enclosed gas tank, the smooth rocker covers and the uniquely shaped exhaust. The bike was stored away in the 1940s and brought back to life by BMW Classics in 2005. Thank the motorcycle gods the R7 survived, since nothing else on two wheels looks anything like it, nor ever will.
