KUPFERNICKEL. BMW R80 build by Jason Ralls & Rogue Motorcycles
Words and photos by Jeremy HammerÂ
?I didn?t know if it was going to be fantastic or a frankenstein,? are the words that rolled out of Jason Ralls mouth as he reflected on his first-ever custom motorcycle – a 1979 BMW R80 that?s strikingly different, yet beautifully elegant at the same time. A dabbler in building boats and Australian muscle cars, a custom motorcycle had so far eluded Jason until his interest was peaked by a mate?s R80 project. Not one to mess around, Rallsy picked up his very own rusted out, wasp-infested, BMW R80 just three weeks later, serving as the donor for his elaborate ideas.
?I was building cars, then I built a boat, and I thought I haven?t built a motorcycle yet,? Jason explained. ?My mate had a BMW R80 built for his dad and had it customised for his 60th birthday, I thought it was pretty cool – a few weeks later he showed me one for sale, so went and bought it.?
While a project of this calibre can often take extended periods of time, a looming deadline to make the 2018 RIDE ON custom bike show in Perth meant a considerable number of overtime hours were spent to complete it. Rallsy trawled through the internet for inspiration, honing down his thousands of ideas to develop a storyboard before enlisting the help of renowned Western Australian builder Billy Kuyken of Rogue Motorcycles.
?It was probably around a five to six-month process concepting and designing – going through thousands of BMWs and cafe racers seeing what I like...
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