When Shiro Nakajima isn’t honing his considerable talents in his home workshop at the base of the Yatsugatake Mountains, you’ll find him racing at the Tsukuba Circuit, a few hours away. Those opposing environments are reflected in Nakajima-san’s custom bikes; tasteful restomods that are aesthetically restrained, but also built to be ridden hard.
The man known as 46Works also has an affinity for European motorcycles, carried over from his days as the founder of the powerhouse restomod workshop, Ritmo Sereno. This explains why his latest creation?a wonderfully prepped 1986 BMW R80 restomod?looks so damn good.

The bike was built as a collaboration between 46Works and the Japanese leather racing suit manufacturer Kushitani. Founded in the late 1940s in Hamamatsu, Kushitani has made leathers for Grand Prix racing greats like Randy Mamola, Wayne Gardner, Kevin Magee, and Kevin Schwantz. They’re also Shiro’s go-to race suit supplier, and they’ve collaborated on numerous 46Works apparel collections. Shiro’s goal was to build a lithe machine that would be just as happy on the track as it would be on B-roads. His second priority was making sure that once the bike was parked, it would give its rider endless details to ogle.

Since Shiro was looking to gain performance by shedding weight and improving handling, the decision was made to rebuild the BMW R80 boxer motor to OEM specs, rather than bore it out. The overhauled engine and transmis...