BMW Custom Motorcycles by Uli Cloesen – Review

Veloce Publishing has a brand new book, BMW Custom Motorcycles by Uli Cloesen, and if you’re on the lookout for some ideas to change the appearance or function of your Beemer, this is a fascinating selection of what’s being done all over the world. Some of the bikes, you’ve seen before on The Kneeslider, but many, if not most, are new to me. I like a lot of what’s in here, but I’ll also say, some must be an acquired taste that I’ve yet to develop. Nevertheless, it’s a great place to feed your brain with new concepts.

What have you seen on The Kneeslider? The BMW Lo Rider which graces the front cover, the Harrier, the D1200R, the IMME 1200, the CAS Racing R1150 RS and the GG Quad. Hmm, … I think Uli is a regular.

What haven’t you seen here? Well, most of the rest. There are singles, airheads, oilheads, fours, trikes, quads and all of the BMW offshoots like Ural, Dnepr and Chang Jiang. There’s a nice bobber from Mark van der Kwaak, too. Good stuff. The builders aren’t all pros, though, there are big names and home builders all together in this colorful book.

As you would expect, there are plenty of photos of each bike, then depending on the build, a description of varying length and often, tech specs to give details of what components the builder used and a summary of the other changes he made.

Everyone seems to have a few images that pop up in their mind when they think of BMWs, usually influenced by what they like, you might think of a classic R69S, maybe an R1200GS or an S1000RR, but there’s a lot more out there, usually starting with something old and then changed to suit the taste of the builder. They go in all directions, bobbers, choppers, cruisers, customs of all sorts, but they all start with a BMW. BMW owners always seemed to be the more sedate and button downed crowd, but in recent years it’s been changing and books like this might blow that image altogether. Pretty cool.

Link: BMW Custom Motorcycles