BMW Motorrad has had no shortage of factory-backed custom motorcycle builds involving the BMW R18.
The giant air-cooled cruiser may have debuted with a retro vibe, but the Germans have been busy trying to build the platform’s street cred as a robust platform for customization.
Enter here the “Spirit of Passion” BMW R18 by Kingston Custom, which takes things full loop with a distinct vintage feel that included a dustbin front fairing that brings an art deco feel to the motorcycle.
Here is a recipe to make something we will instantly like, and it requires only three ingredients. Take a modern motorcycle, and put a dustbin fairing on it; take that machine out racing; and put grand prix legend Randy Mamola behind the handlebars.
The result is the IndianxWorkhorse Scout Bobber, and as the name implies, it is a collaboration between Indian Motorcycle and Workhorse Speedshop, as they aim to celebrate 100 years of Indian Scout motorcycles.
The bike – named “Appaloosa” – will race at the upcoming Sultans of Sprint Series, and while we don’t need to repeat saying who will be racing the machine, it is just cool to see Randy Mamola involved with this project.
Regular readers of Asphalt & Rubber by now should be well aware of my unrequited love for dustbin-style motorcycles. A&R diehards should also recognize the work of Mehmet Doruk Erdem, as the Turkish designer has penned more than a few concepts that have gone viral on the internet.
Today we have another of Erdem’s work for you to consider, a BMW-powered dustbin that is simply named “Kahn”. Based on the Bavarian brand’s twin-cylinder boxer engine, Erdem once again creates an eye-catching shell to house the mechanics of the machine, and hide them from the wind.
Every time we post a story about a dustbin concept or build, I feel the need to disclose my affinity for these designs. Maybe it’s the sleek lines that appeases my sense, or maybe it’s because of the attention spent to the aerodynamics of the machine. Either way, we lust.
Today’s entry shows us the “Fulcrum Sprint” concept by Anirbaan Nandi. The bike is supposed to be a futuristic electric-powered sprint racer, though we see some elements from Ducati’s Panigale superbike in the rear-end of the machine.
Recently, we have seen some really interesting motorcycles come out from the custom sport bike scene that surprisingly use MV Agusta’s three-cylinder platform.
Catching our fancy have been bikes like Walt Siegl’s “Bol D’Or” line, which blends old and new together masterfully; or bikes like Deus Ex Machina’s “AgoTT”, which takes on a completely different form of mixing retro and modern.
Today, we add another name to the list, as we bring you Rough Crafts’ “Ballistic Trident”, which is based off the MV Agusta Brutale 800 RR, and gives a nod to the race bike of yore that wore the Varese brand’s logo.
Working out of Taiwan, Rough Crafts plays to our weakness for dustbin fairings, giving a sort of half-shell dustbin fairing to the Ballistic Trident. We’re smitten.
Continuing our thoughts from last week about streamliner designs, there are a few more concepts from Mehmet Doruk Erdem that are worth sharing.
While the Turksih designer’s BMW “Apollo” streamliner is a more stylized version of the designs we are accustomed to, his Eternity, Alpha, and Spirito concepts tread more into the futuristic realm, and are our subjects for today.
Before we get to the renders themselves though, it is of note that Erdem’s concepts relate to car manufacturers, thus leading us to the idea that at some point the quest by automakers to make small and efficient vehicles will lead them eventually down a two-wheeled road.
I have had dustbin fairings on the brain lately, and yesterday’s story about golf ball dimples on motorcycle helmets isn’t helping things.
From a pure design perspective, there is something I enjoy immensely about streamlining — I think its the sleek lines and low-slung bodywork that hugs the asphalt, looking for any edge over the wind. Despite being something of motorcycling’s past, there is something futuristic about a well-designed dustbin.
That’s an interesting thought, because from a practical point-of-view, I’m rather indifferent to the whole idea.
The two-wheeled examples I’ve seen of extreme aerodynamic efficiency are not machines I would want to ride, let alone own…sans maybe the 2012 MotoCzysz E1pc — that bike was downright fun to ride, but I don’t think that was because of Michael Czysz’s aerodynamic work. I digress.
The streamlining designs that have been catching my fancy lately though are modern takes on an old-school aesthetic and method for cutting through the wind.
It doesn’t take much to find modern builders who are recreating old dustbin designs into their modern-day builds, but I’m more interested in how the aerodynamic principle of streamlining can evolve as alternate to today’s aerodynamic compromises, in the same way steampunk explores a worldly evolution that never happened.
The first concept to catch my fancy, as such, is the BMW Apollo Streamliner by Turkish designer Mehmet Doruk Erdem.
I simply love the latest sketches from Nicolas Petit. The French designer is sort of re-imaging a previous project of his, where he designed a modern-looking dustbin-style fairing for a BMW HP2 Sport and Moto Guzzi V12 Le Mans.
Taking on now the Ducati 1199 Panigale, Petit has mixed the old-styled TT racer look with Italy’s premier superbike, in an effective manner. We haven’t seen this sort of clash between old and new technology since John Hopkins raced the last two-stroke GP bike, the Yamaha YZR500 in 2002.
What’s going to be mounted on these protruding brackets? So far the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc has been lapping the Isle of Man without its full fairing on the motorcycle. If history teaches us anything, the presumption, of course, should be that MotoCzysz has something still up its sleeve before the team takes to the Mountain Course tomorrow for the TT Zero event. Last year it was batteries in the tail-section, this year it would seem to be streamlining the E1pc.
While Michael Czysz has derided the use of a dustbin style fairings in road racing, he has acknowledged that a course like the Isle of Man creates an opportunity for a race team to find some benefits in the design. As such, Czysz wrote three months ago that he would have a dustbin fairing at the ready, should someone else show up with one as well…and that’s exactly what’s happened.
After a lively discussion on fully-faired motorcycles in his original post, including a lengthy post by Craig Vetter, Michael Czysz follows up the discussion by further delving into streamlining, dustbins, and the difference between the two. In his discussion Czysz explains the purpose and benefit of taking aerodynamics into account not only in electric racing but also in ICE applications, and then walks us through its use on the MotoCzysz C1.
The post is a good primer on the exponential force that streamlining tries to overcome, and well worth a read for that purpose. Michael Czysz closes his post with a hint that he’ll have a dustbin at the ready should the field warrant such a fairing, and should his rider Mark Miller feel comfortable using it. Check it all out here.
The last time we met up with Michael Czysz, he gave us the lowdown on why allowing dustbin fairings for use in road racing events was a poor decision for sanctioning bodies to make. Thankfully, Czysz has put his words to paper (computer screen?), and explained his thoughts on the subject more deeply in a blog post.
Making comparison to the salt flats of Bonneville, where streamlining is the name of the game, and close-circuit road course races like the Isle of Man, Czysz drives home the point that this is not a technology that transcends racing venues, saying “if Bonneville was 24’ wide and lined with stone walls streamlining would be banned- and so it should be at the IOM.” You can read his full post here for more of his analysis, and click past the jump to see what all the fuss is about.