By: Dustin Wheelen
Rough Crafts headman Winston Yeh is an auteur in today’s custom motorcycle scene. Whether he’s tricking out a Yamaha XSR 900 or reimagining a Royal Enfield Continental GT 650, common design elements such as vintage-inspired bodywork and matte black paint schemes unite Yeh’s body of work. When a customer rolled a new BMW R 18 into the Taipei, Taiwan, custom shop, Yeh gave the Bavarian Boxer the trademark Rough Crafts treatment.
Drawing inspiration from BMW’s first-ever motorcycle, the R32, Yeh set out to accentuate the line from the headstock to the rear axle. To achieve the underslung tank look, the build team trimmed the original unit before shaping the sloping new tank. Yeh originally wanted to make the new fuel cell much slimmer, but the silver graphics and aluminum tank trim add a new level of refinement.
Keep an eye out for more on this CUSTOM BUILD an upcoming WOG Mag.