In its over 130 years of history, the automotive industry has seen quite a fair share of quirky, odd-looking vehicles. The three-wheeled custom vehicle you see here is that kind of contraption you just don’t happen to see on public roads too often. It was designed by Cumpert Contraptions and started life as a 1992 BMW R100R Mystic.
You definitely wouldn’t expect to pass such an uncanny vehicle while on the road, and if you did, you’d surely do a double-take. That’s precisely why it’s so captivating.
Inspired by pre-war race cars, this shed-built contraption was born from Tim Cumpert’s fascination with aluminum fabrication. It is a three-wheeled BMW R100 wrapped in vintage car-like bodywork that gives off a retrofuturistic sci-fi vibe, and its creation took no less than seven years.
It could be classified as a trike, considering it sits on three wheels instead of two, and only the rear actually comes from a BMW R100 because the front end was sawed off and replaced with a chassis taken from an ATV.
Photo: Bike EXIF
“The three-wheeler was inspired by pre-war racing cars, which I am a big fan of,” Cumpert is cited as saying by Bike EXIF. “When I started this project back in 2012, Morgan had just released their new 3 Wheeler. But the main drive for this project was that I wanted to try my hand at sheet aluminum fabrication.”
It’s not hard to imagine that mating an ATV to a motorcycle is not an easy feat, and Cumpert did face some challenges during the building process, mainly because “the quad front end is made in square sections, and the BMW frame is round,” as he explains. Luckily, though, both frames had the same width, which allowed him to perfectly line them up.
To obtain the low-hung frame you see in the photos, he installed a pair of re-laced Austin 7 wheels up front, then lined both ends and created the wheelbase, using some TIG-welding work.
“This is my first sheet metal project, so I designed the shape of the three-wheeler to be mainly simple forms. Most of the body was made using a roller, while the front grill and side pods were hammered over MDF bucks, with a bit of English wheeling to smooth things up. The most tricky part was the rear section, which is made from around six parts,” Tim explained.
Photo: Bike EXIF
The front end preserves most of the ATV’s components, such as the steering linkage, suspension arms, and shocks. The boxer motor is mounted a little more towards the front than normal and is perfectly complemented by the two front wheels. Tim thus obtained a placement that helps better distribute the weight. Interestingly enough, the trike makes use of the ATV brakes on the front and the BMW brakes on the rear.
The panels were attached to an inner frame using domed head screws - plenty of them - so I don’t even want to think about how much time even the most basic of services would take.
The custom trike also features a Daytona speedo, a Honda brake lever, a Motogadget control box, as well as a set of Yamaha BT1100 silencers.
The pre-war inspiration is evident in the exposed sheeting and visible rivets along the side of the trike, while the vintage racecar vibe was obtained by fitting a repurposed Kawasaki Versys windscreen on the front and using a mainly nude paint job on the exquisite bodywork, with the exception of some dark red accents near the seat.
As you can imagine, Tim built the three-wheeled BMW R100R as a personal project focused on looks rather than practicality, and he even admits that it’s not the easiest trike to handle, especially on corners, so driving it takes some getting used to.
After spending a few years as a copy editor, Ancuta decided to put down the eraser and pick up the writer's pencil. Her favorites subjects are unusual car designs, travel trailers and everything related to the great outdoors. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News