The bike’s new tank and body panels are handmade out of aluminum, but they didn’t start life that way. “You would think that the girder adds a lot of extra weight, but actually, it’s 10 kilos (22 lbs) lighter than stock.” But what about downsides? Well, it’s clear that weight isn’t one of them. “We also fitted bespoke Wilbers shocks in the front and back, so this bike handles like a dream.”Īs always, it’s a thrill to see the girder forks in action because the whole front section of the bike is moving. “We designed the custom girder-style fork ourselves,” says Art, “but we knew it had to perform well and not just look cool.” For this, the Adonis team turned to their friends at Wimoto to make the geometry work better than intended-and by all accounts, it does. Weight Watchers: Keeping the Moto Adonis BMW R nineT Girder Light Naturally, that’ll put added emphasis on the front fork’s set-up and performance, so why not really bite off more than you can chew and add a girder fork into the mix? Madmen, I tell you! In other words, they wanted a bike that is meant to be ridden hard and fast. Our goal was to build a futuristic and mean-looking bike, while maintaining decent amounts of ride-ability.” “It’s not everyday you have an opportunity like this, so we went hard with the design. “We thought that if we were given the opportunity, we should just go for it,” continues Art. See, Moto Adonis completely transformed the R nineT into a rather extreme-looking custom bike. “But when we shared our ideas, drawings and Photoshop mock-ups, he totally changed his tune.” And looking at the photos here, you can maybe guess why. So what did the customer think when Art presented him with a stock R nineT? “He was not thrilled about it at first glance,” Art says, with a grimace on his face. This Bike is Forked: Modding Out the Moto Adonis BMW R nineT Girder Talk about ballsy it’s one thing to supply a donor bike and ask your builder to suggest a design, but to do that with the type of bike as well? “That’s a different way to start a custom build,” continues Art, “but as we are always up for a challenge, we were excited to get started.” “Instead of supplying us with a motorcycle, the customer asked us what we wanted to build?” “Surprise me!” were his exact words. “The building of the BMW Girder R9T started with a question,” says the shop’s bearded chief, Arthur Elcameleon.
And for this tough-as-nails build from Amsterdamn’s Moto Adonis, more new paths were forged than a rogue bulldozer in the Amazon. Yes, there’s a longer way to fall, but the riches are that much more satisfying when you’ve forged your own path. It’s a brave customiser that ignores the obvious and reaches for the stars of uncertainty. Sure, cafe racers look cool and all but just how many of them do we need to see before you can’t tell your arse from your exhaust pipe elbow? And scramblers? And bobbers? When it comes to building custom bikes, taking the path less travelled is never the easy option.
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