The R nineT has been a smash hit for BMW. It handles great, straight out of the box, and responds well to a little fiddling. And despite being only three years old, the platform has already morphed into five different models?the base Roadster, Pure, Racer, Scrambler and Urban G/S.
That should be enough to satisfy most folks, but there are some who want an even cleaner aesthetic than you get with the Pure. And if you have the skills or cashflow to really go deep, the results can be spectacular.

This razor-sharp R nineT is proof: The air-cooled boxer twin has been given a sharp new suit of clothes and a subtle suspension upgrade. It?s the work of Berlin’s Urban Motor, for a client who wanted to give himself a fiftieth birthday present. Shop boss Peter Dannenberg lays out the brief: ?A classical-modern crossover, with race track associations.? A 2015-model BMW R nineT was soon on the bench, and Urban Motor?s mechanic Uwe Hanzsch picked up his grinder.

The guys knew just what they wanted to nip, tuck and upgrade?but they also knew that the BMW would benefit greatly from all-new bodywork. So they called in reinforcements: Marvin Diehl from KRT-Framework.
Working off Urban Motor’s designs, Marvin shaped wooden bucks for a new monocoque tank and tail unit. It took a little back and forth to get the design just right, before he shaped everything out of aluminum.

Ditching the stock fuel tank meant finding a new home for the nineT’s fuel pump, but according ...