The Malle Mile is an event filled to the brim with quirky motorcycles. But if there’s one thing you wouldn’t expect to see there, it’s a three-wheeled BMW R100 wrapped in vintage automobile-like bodywork.
We spotted this fabulous oddball while wandering around the Malle Mile’s festival grounds last month. It looked strangely at home against the backdrop of the Lincolnshire countryside, with its retrofuturistic sci-fi vibe. Naturally, we had to find out more?so we tracked down the builder, Tim Cumper.

Tim’s a prototype model maker by day, but he works on custom bikes and furniture after hours. His workshop name is especially apt, given how wild his imagination is; Cumpert Contraptions.
?The three-wheeler was inspired by pre-war racing cars, which I am a big fan of,? he tells us. ?When I started this project back in 2012, Morgan had just released their new 3 Wheeler. But the main drive for this project, was that I wanted to try my hand at sheet aluminum fabrication.?
Underneath all that bodywork lies the bones of a 1993-model BMW R100R Mystic, mated to an ATV front end. And as you’d imagine, it took some engineering to get right. ?The quad front end is made in square sections, and the BMW frame is round,? Tim explains.
Luckily both frames are similar in width, so the main job was to line them up. Tim started by fitting a pair of re-laced Austin 7 wheels up front, then he propped both ends up to line them up and gauge the wheelbase. So...