Here’s a custom motorcycle matchup we never expected: the wily custom bike builder, XTR Pepo, and the monstrous BMW R18. But the results are in, and they are jaw dropping.
We have 911 MX Factory to thank for this. They’re a new outfit out of Madrid, Spain, with a mission to design and build one-off customs?regardless of how outrageous the brief is. 911 MX Factory’s founder, Diego Mena, takes inspiration from Ferdinand Porsche’s famous saying; ?I couldn’t find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself.?

There’s a context for that mantra. Diego worked for Porsche Spain for over a decade, and now plans to bring that same sense of exclusivity to the custom motorcycle scene. So he’s partnered up with top builders, like Pepo Rosell of XTR Pepo, to bring these dream machines to life. For 911 MX Factory and XTR Pepo’s first collaboration, they radically transformed the BMW R18 to display it at the Motor Bike Expo in Verona. The event was held last weekend, and, unsurprisingly, the R18 was picked as the best custom bike of the show.

Like every bike that Pepo touches, the R18 looks fast standing still, with a livery that defies subtlety. In fact, the donor bike is hardly recognizable at all. But what’s truly impressive, is that Pepo, Diego and their team managed to pull this off in just three months.
As you’d imagine, there was a lot of tweaking to be done to convert the Beemer from cruiser to endurance-style c...