Custom BMW Rnine-T

BMW almost produced a beauty in the RnineT. I say almost because, and there is no nice way of saying this... it has the most daft ugly ass you are ever likely to see on a bike.

Just like yer woman Kardashian, the overhang at the back looks well out of proportion and detracts from the overall appeal. I dont know if the standard BMW R nine T rear end is to comply with some sort of EU regulation, but it needs to be chopped at the first available opportunity (aaaaand breathe!!!)

When Stefan dropped his 1500 mile BMW in to us, he didn’t want a radical change, but wanted it sufficiently modified to reflect his own taste without devaluing the bike.

Stefan who has impeccable taste, couldn’t quite put his finger on what he didn’t like about this stunning bike, until I pointed out the rear end!!!! CLUNK... the penny dropped.

Stefan was familiar with what we do, so he gave us free reign to change up the bike as we saw fit. With the words “dont devalue the bike” ringing in my ears, I set about looking for the subtle changes that would cause someone familiar with these bikes to take a second look to try and work out what was different.

The standard rear end was taken and thrown into the deepest recesses of Lough Neagh where hopefully it rests until it turns to orange water... Meanwhile at the front of the bike we decided to subtly black it out using our new friend vinyl wrap (it can always be peeled off if someone wants to revert to standard).

Wrapping a headlight surround is bloody difficult, so many contours running in all directions, I’m reliably informed it takes less time to wrap the side of a car than it does to wrap a fiddly part like a headlight surround. We wrapped the headlight surround, the air intake on the right hand side of the bike and a few other bits n pieces.

The cylinder heads were taken off and sent out to get a tough gloss black powdercoat treatment. A few other bits and pieced like heel kicks also got the wrap and the blackout process was complete.

A set of drop bar-end mirrors and heated grips were also fitted while we had the bike in bits, at a much less cost of a pair of standard BMW grips for this bike!

The back of the bike could be ignored no longer so with all the rubbish out of the way I took an old fender that had been chopped off an 80s jap bike and rolled, trimmed and contoured it until it resembled something that would look smart on the back of the nineT.

Access points were trimmed for the subframe and after some paint, the whole ensemble was slotted into place along with a mini-bates style rear stop/tail light and a couple of new indicators.

A side-mount numberplate mount was fabricated and an LED plate light mounted on top to finish off the rear-end makeover. The end result was simple but stylish, and that is the look Stephan was going for. The changes are subtle but they are extremely effective, and this T certainly stands out from the rest.