" This won ' t be just any old stunning PR bike . It will be one with a soul and a spirit ." That is what former MX Champion Dirk Oehlerking said when he was one of the select few customizers chosen by BMW to build a showbike on its new R 18 Cruiser platform last year .
An Art Deco Classic
Based at Gelsenkirchen in the heart of the river Ruhr area - Germany ' s famed former industrial heartland - his Kingston Custom bike business has a worldwide , 30 year plus reputation for radical interpretations of a wide range of platforms - Hondas and BMW ' Boxers ' in particular . It is a reputation that BMW has never been slow to recognize , and as a follow-up to three high profile ' Boxers ' - ' Black Phantom ', ' White Phantom ' and ' Good Ghost ' - ' Spirit of Passion ' was conceived to meet the very specific brief of BMW ' s ambitious R 18 project , namely to liberate the BMW heavy cruiser ' s " inner soul ." The result was this 2020 limited edition Air Stream
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Roadster - " the inside must be brought to the outside ," says Dirk . Dirk ' s reimagined R 18 was the second in BMW ' s " Soul Fuel " series . It followed Roland Sands ' Dragster R 18 interpretation , and a third in the series will be presented by BMW next month . Dirk ' s usual method is to reduce a bike right down to its individual component parts and to rebuild his interpretation from there . But he considered many elements of the stock R 18 to be so consistent , sophisticated and successful that it " would have been a shame to even think about working on them . " The BMW R 18 is so perfect that I left the technology as it is . The frame is 100 percent original and so sophisticated that nothing should be changed with it ," says Dirk . The result is a combination of original components , his own designed and made custom parts and a curated selection of high-quality aftermarket manufacturer design concepts ( such as the
Kellermann micro turn indicators - a minimalist ' s dream ) with the inspiration coming from one of Dirk ' s favourite decades in design terms . It was in 1923 that the famed ' flat twin ' Boxer engine first emerged . So , in an homage to the era from which the emergence of streamline design concepts remains the enduring signature , Dirk ' s start-point design motif for ' Spirit of Passion ' was a front based on the radiator grill of a 1930s BMW 328 Roadster - handmade for ' Spirit of Passion ' at Kingston Custom in aluminum . The biggest eye-catcher is the Kingston fairing - which was also the biggest challenge . The bodywork is finished in handmade Kingston design , as are the handlebars and mudguard . The BMW R 18 exhaust has been modified by Oehlerking in Kingston Roadster style , while the leather saddle is drawn from BMW ' s own range of universal accessories . The wheels , suspension and fuel tank are original , and the original paintwork and lines have been adopted for
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