There?s a downside to the current popularity of BMW customs: a certain ?sameness? creeping in. After all, there are only so many ways you can tweak that familiar frame and boxer engine.
This new build from Austria?s Titan Motorcycles is very different, though?and unlike many builds that try to be different, it works beautifully. You?d never guess, but it?s based on an R90/6 from the 1970s, which means it has the 898 cc version of the venerable air-cooled motor.

Titan?s Michael Siebenhofer came across the R90/6 while browsing an Austrian online classifieds site. ?It was was offered as ?individual parts’,? he recalls. ?The bike was not complete at all.?
Michael was primarily looking for an engine, because two-valve airhead motors are becoming rare in Europe. So he met up with the retired gentleman selling the BMW, in a carpentry workshop in the middle of nowhere.
Moments later Michael was the new owner of a very old engine, as well as a frame, a set of forks, and a few other ancillary parts.
Back in Graz, Austria?s second largest city after Vienna, Michael debated whether to resell some of the parts on eBay, to earn back a few Euros?or to invest many more hundreds to make the R90/6 a functioning motorcycle again.

He decided to rebuild. After tracking down as many missing parts as he could, he tore down the engine and the Bing carbs in the basement of his house. ?Out of public view,? he explains. ?If a man works hard during the week, he?s got the right to hav...