While all of the builders who were invited to customise BMW R Nine T’s produced stunning results I have to say Cherry’s is my personal favourite, followed closely by Hide Motorcycle’s “Boxer” (watch out for a feature on that soon). While it’s no Cafe Racer (in a traditional sense) it’s one helluva mean looking machine. With all the original BMW bodywork gone Cherry’s gave themselves a blank canvas to start with and from there put together a masterpiece.

Influenced by BMW’s racing past Kaichiroh hand fabricated the 70’s race-inspired fairings by hand out of aluminium. The front cowl features a tinted LED headlight that disappears into its black surround when the light is off giving it the appearance of a solid, full race fairing. The belly pan and side covers were shaped using traditional metal shaping techniques on an electric planishing hammer and English wheel. To close the space behind the front wheel Kaichiroh also designed a ventilated surround that allows air through to the engine and oil cooler. This gives the entire bike a front-heavy appearance accentuated even further by the tiny hand formed tail end that is so short the rear wheel looks as though it’s extending out from the bike.

The R Nine T’s wheels have been swapped out for a different diameter, solid RevTech rims (18 front and 16 rear) and have been wrapped in Metzler Marathon rubber. Suspension mods come in the form of a full front end swap using the fork from BMW’s Superbike inspired S1000RR that has been lowered 2 inches. The triple trees feature a PSR steering damper giving the rider full control over the bikes handling characteristics (as demonstrated below). Brembo braking upgrades help to pull the bike up hard and there’s a set of custom-made foot controls and clip-on bars for a more aggressive riding stance. All lighting is LED powered and concealed as best as possible and the original gauges are tucked away neatly behind the front cowl giving the bike a lo-fi, stripped back race appearance. To finish off the Highway fighters bad-ass looks everything was either shot in gloss black or anodised black and hand laid white pinstripes added for a retro custom touch.