Words & Photography Baak Motorcycles

By unveiling the R nineT in 2014, BMW created a mix between modernity and tradition by offering a retro look motorcycle made for the 21th century. BAAK workshop introduces its classic version of the German roadster and a complete range of parts designed and manufactured at our place in France.

The BAAK team chose the R nineT PURE from BMW’s Heritage line, the minimalistic version of the NineT provided a perfect working base. This build is a real return to the origins, essential to make this motorcycle stand out from the mass and bring it a higher finish level.

It’s all about a unique motorcycle that won’t suit all the motorcycle enthusiasts but which finds a meaning in those days when the speed limits are restrictive and lead us to favor the feeling of speed more than the pure speed itself and when the vintage trend has the wind in the sails.

Like our other creations, this R nineT is in line with the backdating trend. We aimed at giving a classic timeless look to this modern motorcycle whilst keeping the comfortable features of a 21th century machine (security, braking, reliability, handling). A riding experience which feels different and which awakens the senses of his rider.

This creation is the result of our craftsmen’s team work and is a showcase of the parts we designed for the BMW R nineT, which will be available on our online boutique and will be used on our bespoke projects built in house for customers.

We bring a particular processing to the material we work on, which is a characteristic of the craftsmanship aspect of our job. We bring a huge care to the sobriety, the classicism and the details of each of our creations. We respect a very careful design and manufacturing process, from the paper sketches to the 3D printing of the prototypes, the selection of the materials, the manufacturing, the finish and of course the test rides in real conditions.

We created this machine to provide the purest riding feeling, in line with the tradition of classic motorcycles which please the rider’s senses once sat behind the handlebars, with a really purified design.

For a project similar to this BMW R nineT Bobber, it would cost you about 30,000€, depending on the finish level of the build, and it requires about 4 to 5 months of work. Our complete motorcycles can be shipped worldwide, and can also be offered as full parts kit so our foreign customers can entrust a local workshop to transform their own bike.

This entire design and manufacturing process has been filmed by Aurelien BAUD and can be seen in the short film dedicated to this NineT Bobber.

We took the motorcycle to the French mountains during the winter to test it one last time before we revealed it. Its muscled stance is relevant with the handling of the motorcycle. It’s perfectly suitable for tall people which wasn’t true about the Triumph and Moto Guzzi we’re used to working on. It’s agile and stable. You can ride during miles enjoying the torque of the German boxer, and ride faster when the environment enables you to. The road handling is very reassuring despite the wide Continental tires, mainly thanks to the lightweight aluminium wheels, the Öhlins fork and the side mono shock absorber that we designed in collaboration with the French specialist Shock Factory.

Once all the parts dedicated to the BMW R nineT will be completed, BAAK will go back to some automotive projects which started in 2016 via the design of a chic looking Mini. The same way as we do for the motorcycles, our goal is to offer lines of bolt-on parts for classic vehicles (The Mini and the Land Rover Defender to start with) and build bespoke projects at the workshop.