NEWS
BRIEFS
Roland Sands Shows
the R 18's Muscles
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, B&B, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com
Owner Babcox Media has
announced that its B2B title
Motorcycle & Powersports
News will no longer be
appearing as a print magazine -
opting instead for the even
more precarious life of being a
digital only information service.
Originally known as Motorcycle
Product News, MPN was
founded in 1974 and had a
name change in an attempt to
broaden its market in 2011.
SEMA has announced that its
eMarketplace online 'show' solution
will be staged from November 2-6.
With INTERMOT and other expo
organizers (trade and consumer) also
trialing 'virtual' gatherings of one
kind or another, there is widespread
exhibition industry concern that any
expectation that the "shows of old"
will automatically re-emerge in a
vaccinated post-pandemic world are
naive. Not all change is good, but it
is mostly inevitable and irresistible.
Tucker Powersports has
introduced a new real-time
stock check site for its dealers -
stock.tucker.com. Product
availability can
be searched by
Tucker part
number, vendor
part numbers
and, eventually,
many OEM equivalent part
numbers where there is such a
product. The search results will
display picture, description,
MSRP, substitutes, catalog page
link, which of the five
warehouses has how many of
the required item in stock and
an 'Order It' tool function.
Having celebrated its 50th
anniversary in 2019, it would appear
that the much vaunted acquisition
and relaunch of Easyriders Magazine
in the hands of "brandmaker"
Pepper Foster (co-founder of the
Chip and Pepper fashion label) has
failed after its first edition. The new
owner had promised repositioning,
improved quality, a brave new dawn,
blah, blah. A second edition has
failed to appear, and the reports we
here at AMD are reading suggest the
project is as dead as a battery on a
bad day. It was quite apparent that
the reboot would kick itself up its
own ass as it was aiming for a
confused and confusing matrix of
demographics. Rather than
leveraging the heritage that made it
the icon it was, Foster's game-plan
was to jettison its pedigree in chase
of a rich vein of dollars that just
doesn't exist. But one edition? Is
that a record fail?
Roland Sands Design has 'had a go' at
BMW's new "Harley Killer" R 18 to
create a straight line dragster that
showcases the iconic and massive
boxer 'Flat Twin' powerplant like never
before.
Based on illustrious models such as the
BMW R 5, the R 18 Cruiser "Big
Boxer" continues the line of traditional
air-cooled boxer engines that have
been at the heart and soul of BMW's
motorcycle identity since the former
airplane manufacturer first began
motorcycle production in 1923.
The R 18 is already being touted as a
highly customizable platform - ask the
guys at Revival Cycles in Austin, Texas,
('Birdcage') and Custom Works Zon in
Japan ('Departed').
It features an easily removable rear
frame and a simple-to-dismantle
painted parts set. This gives the
customer a high degree of freedom for
easily converting the rear end of the
new R 18 to suit personal preferences.
"The electronics were definitely the
most difficult task we had to deal with
as we put in nitrous oxide, stripped out
the stock exhaust and changed the
intake drastically," said Roland Sands.
"It was a bit of an experiment, but we
dialed it in! The final product is
impressive and characterized by a
high level of craftsmanship, as can be
expected from BMW Motorrad. Right
from the beginning, I couldn't wait to
get customizing!"
For the R 18 Dragster, the team
around Roland Sands retained the
stock neck geometry of the R 18,
removed the bike's rear end and
turned it into a drag racer, modifying
the front and rear fender to fit the
modified frame.
"Every bike needs different sources
depending on the build, special
materials or parts. Every new bike
concept is a bit of a learning process
even after having built over 200 bikes.
We always want to understand the
genre of the bike we are building, it's
the key to keeping it authentic and
functional," said Sands.
Aside from the R 18 Dragster custom
bike, Roland Sands also created two
different design collections of milled
aluminum parts for the launch of the
R 18 Cruiser, "Machined" and "2-
Tone-Black". They include front and
rear wheels available in different
dimensions to the standard sizes,
speedometer housings, handlebar
clamps, risers, handlebar grips, hand
levers and mirrors as well as engine
housing trim elements, filler caps,
intake silencer covers and much more.
For the R 18 Dragster, Sands has used
selected milled parts designs from the
"2-Tone-Black" collection -
customized levers, wheels, valve
covers, breast plate, headlight and
gauges. The front end was taken from
a BMW R nineT, the seat and exhaust
were created from scratch.
10 AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - OCTOBER 2020 www.AMDchampionship.com