It all went wrong when I saw the sub-frame. “So, Dutch, what do you think of this sub frame?” was Shaun’s innocent question. …The guys from had already made a great impression on all of us at the BSMC when they came and exhibited their bikes at The KMI event last October. They bought with them a pair of mid-sized stunners; a Gold CB450 Brat/Scrambler, dripping with beautiful details, and aSuzuki 400 Tempter, which had been turned into Cafe Racer in metallic sunburst colours.It was clear that Shaun, Carl, Simon & Co weren’t into compromises or short-cuts when it comes to bike building, and not only that, they were really nice guys. Northern charm & talent won us all over, and Shaun & I started to chat – a lot. …So – back to that subframe.Shaun is pretty flexible when it comes to bike builds, happy to work on any base model that comes his way, so eventually a BMW had to appear in the D&O workshop and when it did he decided to look at building a bolt-on replacement subframe which he might sell-on to a few Shed Builders. He wanted my opinion on the height, length and kicked-up rear – but I wasn’t just looking at the frame, I was looking at the whole bike. Having written-off my R100 Racer I was in need of a new daily ride and had settled on another ‘reliable workhorse’ BMW. “The subframe looks spot-on, Shaun… But, er, …what’s happening to the bike?”Now Shaun is a bit of a charmer, so after a lot of banter he suggested that I help guide the build as it went, and if I liked the end result than I’d get first dibs on buying the bike. …So what would you do? …Exactly. …You get totally excited about the whole thing and end-up completely immersed in a fantasy-bike build. I wasn’t really committed just yet, was I?, but I was certainly enjoying the whole process. …The Dutchess used to work in Sales. She just laughed at me. She could see what was coming: A slam-dunk for silver-tongued Shaun and a pretty much guaranteed sale. Maybe she was right, but this was just too much fun..Over the following weeks I watched the bike come together, while Shaun & I planned out the look and the spec, item by item. Having seen a zillion Beemer customs I knew what I wanted, but Shaun also had a clear idea of what he wanted to to present to the cafe/custom community. Fortunately we agreed on pretty much everything..Most of the time I was having to hold him back from doing too much. “This might be my daily ride Shaun… Keep it simple” but Shaun is a detail man, so we needed micro-switches on the braced Renthal dirtbike bars, and the wiring had to be hidden in the bars and frame. It wasn’t good enough just to have a small battery, it had to be in a custom built aluminium box with a leather strap and buckle. The bike had to have old-style rocker covers and curvy silver airbox, plus we needed a whole new loom to accommodate the Bates style headlight, because BMW hide half their wiring in that OEM bucket. This build was to be a labour of love and a showcase for Shaun’s talents.One of Shaun’s touches I loved most was the replacement bear-trap footrests, welded seamlessly onto the original footrest mounts. Part of my brief was to keep the upright riding position (as much like the Dutchess’Dommie Tracker as possible) and I also wanted to be able to accommodate a pillion for when the Dutchess couldn’t be arsed to ride one of her own bikes into town..The bike already came with twin front discs on my favourite BMW “snowflake’ wheels, but brand new levers & MC insured improved stopping power. Twin stainless steel pipes lead to simple megaphone exhausts but we kept the standard Bing carbs and retained the use of the airbox instead of fitting cone style filters. Without the link-pipe the carbs tend to blow-off all too easily – and most Beemers really do run better with the airbox on
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