BMW has made some wonderful motorcycles over the decades, and the K1 was certainly a motorcycle. That weird bike with its extremely-nineties graphics package has been on my list of bikes to own for a long time, but this modified version takes the top spot, because it fixes all of the issues with the K1 and makes it a much better sport bike. The K1’s glorious high-revving twin-cam engine was never the issue, and it really comes alive with a custom Georges Martin frame and race-inspired bodywork.
I’ve been thinking about it for several days now, as it swims through my cerebellum day and night. I already have two BMWs, a Harley, and a Honda, and I don’t need another bike. Dammit! I definitely don’t. So please buy it so I can forget it ever existed.
Only fifty of the Brune/Martin chassis and tuning kits were ever produced, and the seller alleges that as few as ten remain in the world today. There’s obviously no way to verify that claim, so we’ll take it with a grain of salt for now. Either way, it’s a rarity that never comes up for sale. The frame is a full chromoly assembly polished to a nickel finish. It’s a stiffer and sportier frame than even BMW offered with its killer sport bike of the era.
Rounding out the custom work on this bike is a hand-formed alloy fuel tank, a custom removable tail section, Force Italia forks, the unfortunately-named White Power rear shock, three-spoke PBM wheels, and an RB Racing exhaust. This is about as much performance as you could get out of a bike in the early 1990s. The big standout for me, however, is the custom BMW Motorsport paintwork with matching purple valve cover and seat material!
This bike first came to my attention last week through the bike-urious.com/Iconic Motorbikes auction site for rare motos. I contemplated bidding for a week and ultimately never did. I tried to throw in a last-minute bid, but unfortunately couldn’t get logged in with enough time to up the bid. When that listing closed the bike had been pumped up to just over $13,000, but didn’t meet reserve. So I was only mildly surprised to see the bike hit eBay this week when the seller didn’t get what they wanted from the niche auction site.
You can read more about the history of this bike on bike-urious, and even more about Georges Martin and Brune over on the seller Ron Sutter’s website. Interestingly, the bike was listed as a 1989 model on the Iconic Motorbikes auction, and is listed as a 1991 on eBay. Perhaps the engine came from a 1989 VIN, but was assembled in 1991? I may never know, and now is my opportunity to not care.
This bike deserves a new home, and one that will show it off to the world. Ride this wild machine to the Radwood nearest you, and make sure you have room in your backpack to fit a trophy for the ride home. I mean, just look at it. It doesn’t get any more rad than that.
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