I have often felt that most of the present day motorcycles are over designed. The designers’ attempts at aggressive form language usually results in the rides ending up with a liberal dose of visual clutter and makes me crave to see the honest and clean design style of café racers back on the road. And exactly for this reason, transportation designer Kévin Biolluz’s reinterpretation of the iconic cafe racer BMW R90S on its 40th birthday is interesting. One of the fastest production bikes in 1973, the Daytona Orange Beemer was a classic design and a pioneer in several fronts including the first to feature front fairings as standard.
The redesign attempts to fuse the classic with the futuristic. The stance, the low slung handle, the seating, all implies a cafe racer, yet it is seamlessly integrated into the sharp body lines of the aggressively futuristic design language.
The clean looking engine block is an evolution of the current BMW boxer. The monoshock rear suspension is done using Gimbal’s head which makes use of a shear spring. A triple clamp helps to keep the front as aggressive, simple and thin as possible.
Designer: Kévin Biolluz
Guest Post by Akhil T.
