Written by Tim Huber.
For most people, vehicles are little more than a means of transportation. For others, they?re a hobby, but for a small few that eat, sleep, and breathe cars and bikes, it?s a way of life, akin to a religion. Spain?s Iñaki Bellver is one such individual. The 27-year-old spends his days serving as a product engineer for the Ford Motor Company, though his nights and weekends are often spent in his shop, wrenching on and customizing motorcycles under the banner of Ønix Design.

?I?ve been around cars and bikes since I was a kid. At 14 I got my first bike, then at 18 I got my first classic; a UK-spec CB750F that?s since been in a continuous state of modification. I work during the day, so the workshop isn?t a full-time gig, but Ønix Design nevertheless manages to build two bikes per year,?  Iñaki tell us.
And while Iñaki is no stranger to working on one-off bikes, his latest project was a little more personal than most. The client would be his uncle and cousins, and the bike he?d be modifying was a 1978 BMW R100. ?My uncle from the south of Spain bought it new more-than-40-years-ago and has been riding it ever since. Now, four-decades-later, he wants to pass it down to his sons and give the motorcycle a new life,? explains the Valencia-based builder and mechanical engineer.

Lucky for Iñaki, his uncle had, for the most part, taken decent care of the thing, so when it came time to mechanically overhaul the bike, all the engine needed was new g...