Written by Andrew Jones
Custom bikes can be so fancy sometimes. Like a Mardi Gras in Rio, an interplanetary spaceship or Hunter S. Thompson’s narcotics routine, they’re silly big and super impressive but it’s not something you’d want to deal with on a daily basis. Or as my Dad used to say, ?If you ate lobster every day, soon you’d be craving a sausage roll.? Dirk Oehlerking loves a good sausage roll almost as much has he like building great Beemers. Here’s his latest no-nonsense creation, an R80 intended for cruising on the beach.

As with all successful retail enterprises, repeat business is crucial for making a buck. It’s no different for custom bikes. ?Our customer, who already has a Kingston BMW R100R Cafe Racer, commissioned me to redesign his ?85 BMW R80ST.? Dirk got down to thinking about the bike’s design, and a healthy mix of active neurons and cold beers helped him spawn this, Kingston?s BMW ?Beach Cruiser.?
?The guy knew Dirk was more than capable of handling the devil in the details.
?The customer had the following requests: a Motogadget Chronoclassic Speedo, a centre stand and the usual Kingston tail light with the star nut,? says Dirk. And with such a brief list of demands, it’s probably safe to assume that the guy knew Dirk was more than capable of handling the devil in the details. So Dirk got to work.

?I started by building a BMW R75/5 tank, which is beautiful and fits perfectly into the design.? Ag...