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.
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.
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.