Words by Steve Wong.
You know how the story goes? a guy?s father-in-law has an old bike in the shed. The guy wants to do it up, calls a mate and they hack at the seat, chop the frame and pop on some mirrors ? bish bosh job done! Well, that?s not how this story goes. Stephen didn’t have much of a bike history but had always admired his father-in-law?s motorcycle laying dormant in the garage. The motorcycle in question was a completely stock 1983 BMW R80RT. Burgundy in colour with full fairings, panniers and the obligatory sheepskin seat cover. It was covered in dust and hadn’t been ridden in over 10 years, so Stephen plucked up the courage to ask his father-in-law if he could have the bike promising to ?fix? it up for him.

The father-in-law said yes, but wasn’t aware of the plan Stephen had in mind. He called his mate John the owner of Sol Invictus Motorcycle Co to discuss the build. Armed with references from various build shops like Munich?s Diamond Atelier, a shop renowned for building dark, urban, yet minimalistic and aggressive bikes, the Sol team knew they were in for a challenge.
First came the teardown. The Sol team completely stripped the Beemer down to the frame finding the occasional rats nest amongst the chewed wires. Tearing a bike down gives a great insight to the way the engineers of the time solved engineering problems and cleverly designed solutions; and to say Beemers are over-engineered is no understatement.

Having been stationary for...