Bavarian Beauty: BMW R100RT Classic Racer by Wrench Kings

With the ever growing scene of custom motorcycles, I’m proud of everything that’s “Made in Holland”. I keep in close contact with all builders like Arjan from Ironwood Customs, Wido of Wimoto, Daan of Moto Adonis and of course the Wrench Kings. Last weekend I’ve paid a visit to the last one. A friend of mine was looking for a new, one of a kind motorcycle since he knew for sure that building one himself was an impossible challenge. So we hopped in our cage (the weather was pretty damn nasty) and drove up to Bilthoven, in the center of Holland. There we found Joost, the owner and founder of Wrench Kings. We’ve talked for several hours about motorcycles, his shop and his future plans. What Joost accomplished in roughly two years is pretty impressive, and he’s damn serious about his work. But he’s also pretty serious about the future of his company and has some really interesting plans. He also showed me some pictures of his latest projects and I fell in love with this beautiful classic cafe racer based on a 1984 BMW R100RT.

It was a commissioned build for a lady with style, Karin van Kuijk, and she was looking for a real “old school cafe racer”. Since she wanted a real old school bike and no modern classic, the BMW R-series seemed a logical choice. While the R-series are known for their incredibly reliable engines, the bike also got a complete overhaul to ensure that Karin can enjoy their ride to the fullest. Since the new owner was not able to get both feet on the ground on the original R100RT, they’ve customized the frame to get a lowered seating position. This resulted in a unique frame setup with a straight line from the back to the front, something we don’t see that often on BMW R-series. On the original bike, the subframe is substantially higher than the bottom of the gas tanks on these machines but the original lumpy banana-seats cover this up. The custom made mudguard and cool half-fairing fits flawless in the design and the professional paint job (2k) and striping accentuates this perfect setup.

To get the desired old school cafe racer look, some details were needed. So they’ve teamed up with Silver Machine to create some really nice leather details. The bike got a beautiful (and comfortable!) diamond stitched leather with a vintage/used look. The “frame triangle” got a set of leather bags of the same leather, just as the beautifully wrapped grips.

They’ve ditched the original wiring loom and fabricated a completely new one built around the Motogadget M-unit Blue, the latest electronic control unit from Germany. The bike got a set of M-blaze bar-end indicators and Motone buttons on a set of Tarozzi clip ons and a custom triple tree for a clean look in the dash. The ignition lock is removed towards the airbox. Other parts used on this machine are: 7″ Rhino headlight, Acewell 2853 digital speedo, Domino throttle, Brembo PS-16 brake and clutch levers, Melvin steel brake lines, HighsiderBullit taillight and rear indicators, Highsider mirrors (mounted on the original crash bars), M8 licence plate light, Monza gas cap, and Dunlop K70 rubber. To make sure that other road users here Karin coming, they’ve fitted a set of Megaton mufflers.

If you see this bike for real, you might think that’s 100% original and that it came right from the factory like this… Great job by Wrench Kings and I’m sure Karin has the ride of their life on this Bavarian Beauty.

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Photo’s by Bas Duijs.