Hutch’s K100 “Hornet”

When Paul Hutchinson, from Melbourne, Australia, isn’t busy flying planes as an Airline pilot he likes to get his earth-bound kicks on two-wheels. He owns a 2005 BMW K1200R, and this bike – his first build – based on a 1984 BMW K100RS. In our opinion it’s a bit of a beaut.

Paul has a military background, and has been into bikes for nearly 40 years, getting started on the dirt and then heading in sportsbikes, seduced by the thrill of speed, and the motorcycle marketing machine. Like many bikers who are buying top of the range technology, he just left his machines stock. However, the idea of a build had always appealed to him, but Paul simply didn’t have the workspace.

The speedo is from Daktota Digital

This all changed when Paul’s father built a workshop under his house so he could work on his 1925 Douglas and ’51 Triumph. With all his excuses out the window Paul set about finding himself a worthy donor. He wanted to start with something inexpensive, so he went searching on Gumtree and settled on a reliable, robust and distinctly uncool K100 over in Adelaide. It was unregistered, but seemed to be in good order.

Not quite how BMW had originally intended…

The retro tank colour is Hornet orange. Paul flew Hornets in the RAAF so this was perfect. It also provided the bike with a suitable nickname, and it helped create a blurring of the lines between different custom styles.

“I wanted to blend the café racer style with street fighter, taking what I thought were the best elements of each. I had no clear plan before starting, it evolved as the build progressed.”

Rearsets from BSK SpeedWorks, the exhaust is SuperTrapp.

The great thing about older BMWs is that the more you strip away the more you expose the brutish beauty of these German monsters. Big lumps of metal are designed for the pure purpose of automotive excellence, with little regard to looks and lines, and this lends itself to a raw kind of beauty. Parked up next to a Ducati, bikes like these are like a boxer with a broken nose in a line-up of manicured male models. Some ladies prefer a thug.

The seat and tailpiece speak to Paul’s brief, with a blend of ‘cafe’ upholstery in squared-off street-fighter bodywork, and twin headlamps are more ‘fighter’ than ‘racer’, but overall the bike is an exercise in clean, simple aesthetics, and it certainly looks at home on The Bike Shed pages. Maybe this is what “new wave” is all about?

Whatever you wanna call it, it looks cool and we’d certainly be happy to ride around on one. You can follow Paul’s blog on this build HERE where you can out more about the finer details, like the fly screen being made from an old rear guard, or the rear indies being re-purposed bar-end flashers, fitted as frame plugs.

Thanks to Paul for sharing, and it’s good to know that Pilots still get their biggest thrills on two wheels. Reminds me of my ‘Tom Cruise’ GPZ900R.

 via The Bike Shed