Ever customized your own bike" Then you’ll know that sometimes, even the simplest plans can get out of hand.
The owner of this BMW R100 wanted to turn it into a classy cross-country tourer, just like the one James Crowe built. So he ordered the same subframe and luggage rack combo from James’ shop: Crowe Metal Co.

But once the owner had the parts in his hand, he realized he’d bitten off more than he could weld. So he called up his nearest bike builder: Samuel Guertin of Clockwork Motorcycles.
?He?d realized that building a bike, and doing it right, is not easy as it looks,? says Sam. ?So he decided to bring the bike to me.?

The client wanted Sam to fit the Crowe Metal Co. rear end, and complete the rest of the build around it. Little did he know that it would spark an intriguing collaboration. ?I was already a fan of James’s work,? says Sam, ?but it was out of question to use a complete subframe made by James and put a Clockwork tag on the bike. So I contacted James to see if we could push the idea further, and tackle the project as a collaboration.?

?He accepted right away and was pretty excited about the idea. We are both Canadian?me from the East and him from the West, Quebec x British Colombia. I loved the idea of a collab involving two people of the same country, but 5000 kilometers apart.?
With the bike in Montreal, distance would be the team’s biggest challenge. To work around it, James fabricated and tested the parts on hi...