SMOKIN´ MOTORCYCLES #003 ELEGANT BASTARD

SMOKIN´ MOTORCYCLES #003 ELEGANT BASTARD

Smokin´ Motorcycles
Smokin´ Motorcycles started one and a half years ago in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. While Maarten Timmer was building the first Smokin´ ride, a Ducati 900 café racer that is nearly ready to be revealed, Rob van der Heijden joined the project and the daydreaming started.

The guys have passion for sports motorcycles and adore custom builds with a high level of quality and beautifully handcrafted parts. New in the custom scene, Smokin´ Motorcycles combines craftsmanship with CAD engineering and CNC production used for their eye-catching motorcycle parts. This concept provides the backbone of Smokin´ Motorcycles. The plans became more and more concrete and accelerated with the BMW Soul Fuel Challenge in the summer of 2014. This challenge was organized by BigTwin a Dutch magazine and BMW Motorrad Netherlands. Smokin´ Motorcycles designed their Elegant Bastard based on the BMW R NineT, an elegant motorcycle with rough edges, made for the ride.

The Elegant Bastard:
Elegant reflects the quality and craftmanship you will see in this bike as seen in the handcrafted aluminum tank and fine detailing. The quality of BMW has been translated in to the appearance of the CNC milled sub frame and upper triple tree.

The tank started its life as a foam model shaped and curved on top of the R NineT´s frame and engine, based on the lines and shape of the initial design sketch Smokin´ submitted for the challenge. This foam model acted as the template for the bespoke craftsmen who made this beautiful lightweight aluminum tank with a lot of patience and feel for metal.

Parallel to the development of the tank Smokin´ Motorcycles 3D scanned the original casted frame parts under the seat and the aluminium side panels of the standard NineT. This 3D data has been imported by Smokin’ into CAD software, acting as a reference point for the parts that Smokin´ designed. The new sub frame uses the same fixation points and internal surfaces as the casted parts but without the air vents in the side and is longer and sleeker in the back. It visually supports the new seat gently with the taillight and license plate holder mounted to this new CNC milled sub frame.
The new one piece café racer seat has been shaped by hand and covered with tough African Antelope leather by Fred de la Bretoniere. This rough looking leather adds the bastard flavour to this build coupled with the baseball like stitching above the taillight.

The sports touch of Smokin´ Motorcycles can also be seen in the new carbon fiber side panels that have been carefully laminated by hand in the CNC milled HD PU molds. The one on the right is covering the airduct underneath the tank, flowing towards the custom made K&N air filter on the front of the Bastard. Both the left and right carbon panel proudly embed a BMW batch!

These carbon panels contribute to the sporting look and feel of the Elegant Bastard, which brings us to the front of the ride. The new CNC milled upper triple tree with the low risers on top support the clean flat look Rizoma handlebar. This lowers the grips, covered with the same antelope leather as the seat, about 4 centimeters, resulting in a lower riding posture similar to the original R NineT.
The mean looking exhausts pipes slide along the NineT´s swingarm on the right side of the bike, finishing in two sick copper colored aluminium exhausts caps on the matte black anodized mufflers, handcrafted in the lathe and mill. This system is completely hand made from the cylinder heads until the end caps, creating a powerful exhaust flow to let the 1.170cc engine breath as easy as possible. The exhaust balance pipe has been moved backwards behind the engine to improve torque at low revs, adding a more powerful and bastard like ride.

Smokin´ Motorcycles can be characterized by a high level of quality and with an eye for detail and finishes. The front fork has been disassembled to be able to de-anodize the outer tubes and to add the same copper colour like the exhaust caps. At the same time the lower parts of the fork have been coloured black together with the original footrests, brackets and most of the nuts and bolts. Finishing the colour scheme with a small but carefully selected list of parts that have been anodized BMW blue! 

To wrap it all up there are a lot of beautiful Rizoma parts like clutch and brake levers, indicators and a fuel and oil cap with the same blue detailing.
Finally
The Elegant Bastard is a sporting ride with an elegant touch and finishing, a real Smokin´ Motorcycles build. Breathing the craftmanship and passion put into this build. Smokin´ Motorcycles #003 Elegant Bastard is the third build from these Dutch custom builders, but the first one to see the light of day.

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Usage of pictures:
Please add a creditline for our photographer below your post. We would very much appreciate this.
The creditline would be: © Mark Kamphuis | www.mkfotografie.nl 2014