Two London creatives be part of forces to provide an alluring BMW R100 café racer.
“We’re not professionals,” says Andrea Felice, one half of the London-based {custom} bike outfit Settenero Bikes, “as a result of we earn a residing with different ventures. Nevertheless it would not be truthful to name us storage builders both, contemplating that we’ve got two workshops kitted to the brim. I assume we’re someplace in between.”
Andrea, an skilled furnishings maker initially from Italy, runs Settenero with Simon Black, an English sculptor who works with metallic. The 2 met in London within the early 2000s, whereas understanding of neighboring studios.
“We realized that we’re each workshop rats,” Andrea tells us. “Principally, even once we don’t must do paid work, we find yourself twiddling with one thing within the workshop. It’s an enormous a part of our social life!”
It did not take lengthy for the pair to show their consideration to {custom} bikes. It made sense, in any case—Andrea’s workshop is filled with a lathe, a five-axis CNC machine, an English wheel, and extra, and Simon has every little thing from TIG welders to plasma cutters. And so, Settenero Bikes was born.
This lithe 1982 BMW R100 café racer fantastically showcases Andrea and Simon’s collective functionality—and their discerning style. Chopping an nearly liquid silhouette and wrapped in heat gray hues, it is as alluring as it’s clear.
“The bike is named ‘Soffio’—which in Italian means ‘mild breath of air’,” explains Andrea. “We favored the title, but in addition the design provides the feeling of lightness.”
To create this “sensation of lightness,” Settenero fabricated all-new aluminum bodywork for the BMW. A compact fairing wraps across the entrance finish, reaching backwards to flank the elongated gasoline tank. Knee indents slim the design in direction of the seat, which is tucked in opposition to a hand-crafted cowl that eschews typical café racer shapes.
A brand new subframe helps the tailpiece, whereas a bespoke mono-shock association provides extra visible house to the rear. The shock itself is a Hagon unit, whereas the entrance forks have been borrowed from a later mannequin BMW R1100. The R100 makes use of the R1100’s 19” entrance wheel and its authentic 18” rear wheel, however each have been rebuilt with chrome steel spokes.
The cockpit sports activities a CNC-machined high yoke, with a slim Motogadget speedo Frenched in. A Daytona tacho sits additional ahead, cradled in a hand-crafted fairing bracket that additionally holds the bike’s dummy lights. Low-slung clip-ons are fitted with Renthal grips, and Motogadget switches and switch alerts.
All of it sits within the shade of the BMW’s windscreen—one other one-off half. “It took seven makes an attempt to make, with our infrared heater and a few vacuum contraption,” Andrea quips.
No stone was left unturned on this slick café racer. Settenero added alloy rear-sets, a cultured chrome steel exhaust system, and a custom-made chrome steel aspect stand, “which grew to become a little bit of an obsession, as a result of the usual ones we discovered have been fugly.” Below the hood, the entire thing was rewired round a Motogadget mo.unit controller.
Settenero rebuilt your entire drivetrain too, upgrading it with a 1,070 cc package from Siebenrock, ported heads, a twin-spark conversion, and 38 mm Dell’Orto carbs. The finishes are as minimalistic as they arrive; pure metallic textures on the engine, shiny paint on the bodywork, and luxe upholstery by Bespoke Leather-based London on the saddle.
True to his opening assertion, Andrea confirms that there was no shopper or temporary on this undertaking—only a clean canvas for him and Simon to specific themselves on. “We work on bikes as a result of we like it. We have by no means considered doing it as a occupation, and we have by no means accepted any fee requests both, as a result of that might have implied adapting to a buyer’s calls for.”
“We work on one bike at a time, then we promote it, after which we make one other one. Fortunately, we don’t do that as a enterprise, as a result of we might have been bankrupt by now!”
Settenero Motorcycles | Instagram | Pictures by Joe Starbuck / Twenty Twenty Photography
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