The BMW R18 hasn’t officially hit the streets yet, but that hasn’t stopped BMW Motorrad from getting the hulking 1800 cc cruiser out to customizers. This latest R18 is the work of the reclusive Austrian craftsman Blechmann, and it’s the most offbeat example we’ve seen so far.
Blechmann is the alias of Bernhard Naumann, who lives in the small village of Neustift, near the Austrian-Hungarian border. It loosely translates into ‘tin man,’ which is a nod to his forte: metal shaping. He’s collaborated on a number of builds that have featured on our pages, and he also built the eye-popping ‘Giggerl‘ BMW R nineT.

Blechmann’s a traditionalist, forgoing sketches and renders in favor of working directly on the motorcycle he’s customizing. For the R18 project, he followed his usual process: strip it, create cardboard mockups on the bike to work out the proportions, then shape the final pieces. ?I call this ‘rapid-prototyping-Blechmann-style’,? he quips. Here, that process has resulted in a fully faired cruiser, that somehow looks both retro and otherworldly at the same time.

This eclectic style is par for the course for Blechmann: while growing up, his influences included everything from spaceships to nature, and some of his work is more akin to sculpture than traditional motorcycle design.
?I never followed any trends or given rules,? he says, ?and I was never happy with off-the-shelf things. I do not ...