Lionel Duke builds somewhat little bit of the whole lot. His Good, France-based customized store, Duke Bikes, has remodeled Honda Goldwings, Kawasaki ER6s, and Ducati Scramblers into distinctive one-off creations lately. However probably the most fascinating factor to come back from his storage truly isn’t a motorbike in any respect—it’s a field filled with components.
Extra particularly, a field filled with components to transform any inventory BMW R NineT right into a radical-looking plug-and-play customized streetfighter. It was this very equipment that caught the attention of Duke’s newest shopper, who noticed an image of Lionel’s prototype construct on-line and determined he needed one for himself.
The shopper beloved the unique equipment’s supercar-inspired design, however needed a number of distinctive touches of their very own to really make it theirs. And Lionel was very happy to oblige.
“He had been asking round Parisian workshops that supplied their very own R nineT kits,” he says, “however none of them have been keen to change their commonplace components to swimsuit his tastes. I informed him that it wasn’t an issue for me, as I truly want to do various things on every venture.”
After somewhat backwards and forwards, the ultimate temporary landed someplace between a streetfighter and a muscle automobile, infused with quite a lot of café racer– and scrambler-inspired touches. Lots of the core items of the equipment have been stored within the combine. Lionel fabricated and fitted the equipment’s beneficiant fiberglass stomach pan decrease down, and a trendy Alcantara saddle up prime.
This one-off adaptation additionally retained Duke’s minimalist air field delete conversion, full with a shiny new pair of Okay&N air filters to deal with consumption obligation. Duke’s commonplace battery relocation equipment was included as nicely, giving the R NineT a pleasant open house within the rear of the body.
From there, issues took a flip. The only Koso LED headlight of the unique equipment was swapped for a pair of spherical halogen lights, to raised match the gnarly streetfighter aesthetic.
The entrance fender comes courtesy of a BMW S1000RR, painted to match the remainder of the bike. Out again, the shopper selected to forsake the equipment’s authentic tail part for a minimalist sq. shell. So Lionel hand-shaped a brand new unit out of aluminum.
One other change from the established design was the exhaust. The Duke BMW R nineT equipment features a straight pipe that runs up beneath the tail, however this construct known as for one thing extra discreet. So Lionel fabricated a full stainless-steel system for the construct, which he gave a ceramic black coating, and capped off with a GP-style silencer from HP Corse.
With the exhaust out of the best way, Lionel additionally constructed a particular ‘passenger equipment’ for the bike. It employs a bolt-on pillion seat and pegs, taking the R nineT from solo experience to passenger-ready in beneath 10 minutes.
For the cockpit, Lionel went again to the laundry listing of components he often provides to his kit-built BMWs. It options CNC-machined triples with blacked-out Bonamici Racing clip-ons, and Beringer clutch and brake controls. The speedo, and the bar-end flip indicators and mirrors, are all Motogadget components.
New rear-sets sit decrease down, with a nearly-invisible Highsider three-in-one tail equipment tucked cleanly away contained in the rear cowl.
Preserving with the R nineT’s auto-inspired design, the paint job incorporates a mixture of Subaru blue and matte gold. A lot of the arduous components are completed in black, together with the OEM seat helps. There’s minimal branding, with extra blue and gold stitching highlights on the black saddle setting issues off properly.
Ending touches embody a set of Continental TKC80 tires to emphasise the construct’s beastliness, in addition to a set of OEM cylinder head guards to maintain the bike as shiny as attainable if issues go sideways. Below the hood, the engine was remapped to run optimally with the brand new air filters and exhaust.
It’s fairly spectacular to see simply how removed from inventory a motorbike can look with zero structural modifications and a field of plug-and-play components. If Lionel is completely happy to maintain tweaking his components, we’re trying ahead to seeing simply how far he can take it.
Duke Bikes | Fb | Instagram | Photographs by Hubert Hainault
