Work ofart deco
Why don’t more bikes come with a delightful skirt and wine holder? Germany’s Kingston Customs address this most vexing of issues…
Flip up a panel on the right side of this extraordinary art deco custom and you’re presented with a selection of 100-yearold silver cutlery. Pop the saddle and there’s a bottle of wine below, with a corkscrew held on the underside of the seat. ‘This gentleman racer was supposed to embody a time when design, technology and speed played a significant role,’ says Dirk Oehlerking of Kingston Custom in Germany. There’s far more to this bike than a few picnic-friendly touches though.
Dirk made the flowing fairing himself, for example, from 2mm aluminium sheet. ‘I started to build the cladding with wire frame and tape, which I then coated with cardboard and paste to create the design and style.’ Then he replicated his papier mache creation in aluminium.
Underneath the 21kg ally frock is a 1980 BMW R100RS, though this was extensively modified to keep everything under wraps aside from the cylinder heads. Dirk moved the carbs inboard by making new inlet tracts and constructed a new fuel tank that sits under the swingarm and gearbox. The new tank position allowed Dirk to create a flatter top to the bike so the rider could lie on it rather than sit in it. Dirk handmade the new exhausts too, which follow the line of the fairing. ‘It all started in September 2019 when I received an email from Bobby Haas of the Haas Moto Museum and Sculpture Gallery in Texas,’ says Dirk. He’d already built two bikes with a similar art deco vibe – called the Black Phantom and White Phantom – for Haas and the museum wanted another. ‘Bobby Haas and museum director Stacey Mayfield asked me if it was possible to build a third Phantom, to create a trilogy, a family if you will. It was a significant challenge for me to take on, and I said “yes”.’ This one is called the Gray Phantom.
‘The motorcycle not only looks good, it rides great and when you ride it, it feels like you are in a different time. It’s wonderful, I love it and my dream is to ride it up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.’