When there’s not much officially going on in the world of motorcycles, that’s when webBikeWorld staff like to go out and find the craziest, weirdest, or coolest bikes out there.
That’s when we came across the Good Ghost, a 1980 BMW R100 RS that has been fully cladded in aluminum and has a lot of steampunk-inspired details.
In fact, the only bits of the original R100 RS are the engine, carburetor, and electronic connections. Everything else is bespoke and handmade.
The front of the bike has the headlight sunken in behind a protective cover.
Covering the base of the bike’s front is the iconic BMW double kidney grille, albeit bigger than on some of their cars.
The seat is all handstitched leather and extends from just before the rear wheel all the way to the handlebars.
Built into the leather is the gauge cluster, beautifully set like steam-pressure dials.
The fuel tank has been moved from under the seat to run along the base of the body, shaped around the rear wheel in a U shape.You fill it from the left hand side of the bike, behind the fold down flap that also contains the toolkit for the bike.
To keep the riders’ feet safe, the exhaust was made of mandrel-bent stainless steel, and come together in a custom, body-hugging rear double port, each side of the taillight.
Instead of the fuel tank under the seat, in a very steampunk style that is now the wine carrier. Bottle on the right, glass on the left. Classy!
Lunch cutlery folds down from the right side of the rear wheel. Can’t go for a steampunk-inspired ride without being able to have a quick lunch on the way!
And the corkscrew for the bottle? Mounted to the front of the stand, of course!
The shifter and foot brake were hand machined, and the grips and levers were also shaped by hand.
The only part of the entire handlebars not custom built was the clip, which comes from Fehling.
All in all, a beautiful bike. It was commissioned from Dirk Oehlerking of Kingston Customs, for the Haas Moto Museum in Dallas, where it will be on permanent display.
Stunning design…
But can it turn?!? Looks like maybe slightly. When the design removes the item from it’s original purpose, well… ?
Ha, fair point. This piece is meant to live as art, so one could argue that it is fulfilling its original purpose. But I can also see how this design could be modified easily enough so that it could turn.