It’s not surprising that the iconic silhouette of a Boxer motor could be the memory to spark Sam’s 1982 BMW R100RT build. Here’s how a fleeting childhood encounter planted a seed for a custom project decades later.

In their day the BMW R100RT (T for Touring model) was one of the most expensive production bikes you could buy and although they were well reviewed for touring purposes and had a great production run from the mid 70’s to early 90’s, they gained a bit of a reputation as an ‘old man’s bike’.

Maybe it was the massive fairing on the original bikes (that was actually wind tunnel developed and decreased fuel consumption for touring despite the extra weight) or the high price only ‘older people’ could afford. But whatever the case, BMW had built an excellent bike with the type of 80’s german quality that would position it as a ‘forever bike’ to eat up the miles and last a lifetime.

So how did a young Engineer from Sydney with an eye for design end up with an ‘Old Man’s Bike’ from the 80’s? These days it’s usually because they spotted a cool one on social media, but we’ll let owner Sam start his story… 

Read the full feature here

Photos:

Photos by AJ Moller Photography