‘Concept Path 22’ custom BMW R nineT

Concept Path 22 is a custom BMW R nineT in collaboration with surfboard shaper Mason Dyer and artist Ornamental Conifer to fit in with the Wheels & Waves bike festival in France.

For starters the BMW R nineT was inspired vintage scramblers, but keeping the two-cylinder boxer engine and single-sided swing arm.

The other inspiration were the waves – both at the festival and the fact that Path 22 refers to a particular inaccessible and secret surf sport in southern France.

As someone who loves motorcycles, and had always liked watching surfers despite a lack of swimming talent or particularly interesting breaks on the Medway Estuary, I get the way that the two cultures can mix pretty well. Still not sure about how much fun it is to ride with a board strapped to your bike – which seems to be becoming a more common trend in some countries – or the fact that saltwater tends to be pretty harsh on any vehicle.

Still plenty of work took place:

And it results in a BMW with a classic circular headlamp and short seat. Obviously as a scrambler it needs some studded tyres, a large front wheel, longer suspension travel and a raised exhaust. Otherwise it’d just be impractical riding on the beach…

In addition to the classic style, the headlight also gets a protective grille to stop damage from stones and give a more rugged look, plus some of the artwork from Ornamental Conifer, also known as Nico Slater, who often paints jackets, helmets and bikes for various people.

The seat gets stitched leather, handles get leather inserts, and the exhaust gets new tailpipes courtesy of Akrapovic. The indicators are now part of the handlebar ends, there’s a MotoGadget instrument panel and Roland Sands Design contrastcut milled parts. BMW themselves produced the constrastcut milled aluminium wheels.

The artwork continued to the fuel tank and mudguards – and Sclater also created unique BMW leather jackets for each person on the Concept Path 22 team.

If the bike isn’t unique enough, it also features a machined aluminium and leather surfboard holder designed by BMW Motorrad and which can be removed or folded down when you’re not heading to catch some waves.

And two specific boards were made for the Concept Path 22 by Mason Dyer of Dyer Brand – a vintage 9’4 longboard and a more modern 6’8 shortboard.

It’ll be interesting to find out what you all make of it in the comments – I suspect the colourful art might deter people who would enjoy it if it was matt black. But that doesn’t really make you think of summer, ice creams, beaches and waves, now does it?

Judge for yourself how well the surfboard carrier works:

And that’s about it until it turns up at more shows in the future. BMW did share some nice concept pictures, which show the level of planning that goes into a project like this:

 

We’ll leave you thinking of summer with some more shots of the Concept Path 22 custom BMW R nineT, and the sadly obligatory manufacturer shots of ‘men standing round pretending to chat and look interested while the photographer tells them where to stand and what to do’.

If you can think up a more appropriate and potentially comedic custom carrier for a Rescogs motorcycle, do post it in the comments. Meanwhile we’re off down to the shop to buy some ice lollies and a paddling pool for the back garden…