Taking cues from their client’s safari-style Porsche 911, Rough Crafts breaks from their tradition of all-black bikes to build a shimmering BMW R 12 nineT.
Rough Crafts has mastered the art of building formidable custom motorcycles that are swathed in obsidian hues. But the Taiwanese outfit knows how to play with color when the occasion calls for it.
Their latest release is a sharp BMW R 12 nineT street tracker that borrows its color palette from a custom-built safari-style Porsche 911. Both the car and the motorcycle belong to GrowthRing & Supply Co. (or GRS)—a streetwear label headquartered in Hong Kong.
The Porsche had already been built when Rough Crafts was tasked with creating a bike to complement it. “We were thinking about what motorcycle we could match with a Porsche, and it turned out that BMW was the way to go,” says Rough Crafts frontman Winston Yeh. “The Porsche boxer and the BMW Motorrad boxer just make sense together.”
As luck would have it, the job was booked in as Rough Crafts was buttoning up another R 12 nineT project. Winston and his cohorts were building the parts for that bike from their home base in Taipei, so that they could ship them to Japan, where a local BMW dealership would assemble the bike.
Since GRS wanted to launch their custom BMW R 12 nineT at the annual Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show, Winston decided to piggyback off the other project and use the same trick. But the GRS bike called for several unique details, so very few parts were shared between the bikes.
“We didn’t want the bike to be an exact copy of the Porsche, but the connection had to be clear,” Winston explains. “So we studied the Porsche’s silhouette and the work that was done to the car, and tried to carry that through to our design.”
Winston and his go-to fabricator, JZO.Crafts, paid particular attention to the fuel tank. Its silhouette is a nod to the 911’s unmistakable roofline, while the sculpted knee indentations draw inspiration from the car’s wheel arches. A wood-trimmed tank rack sits on top, elegantly mimicking the Porsche’s roof rack while accommodating an offset Rough Crafts fuel cap.
Further back is a handmade tail cowl that riffs on traditional flat track styles. It’s perched on a custom subframe, with luxe leather upholstery covering the seat. A pair of KOSO x Rough Crafts LEDs act as taillights and turn signals, while the license plate sits on a DK Design bracket that’s mounted to the swingarm.
The front end wears an abbreviated front fender, with a compact headlight nacelle that hosts an LED light behind one of Rough Crafts’ signature grills. KOSO turn signals flank it, while the R 12 nineT’s small TFT screen is tucked neatly behind it.
The cockpit also uses Gilles Tooling handlebars, matched to the BMW’s OEM switches. Rough Crafts risers, Beringer brake and clutch master cylinders, and Motogadget bar-end mirrors complete the set.
Winston retained the R 12 nineT’s 17” wheels and Brembo brake calipers, but wrapped the former in molded wheel covers that perfectly mirror the 911’s iconic Fuchs wheels, without the weight penalty. The suspension was upgraded with Öhlins items at both ends, with a Rough Crafts top yoke securing the forks. Other upgrades include Gilles Tooling foot controls and DNA filters.
The final big-ticket item was the bike’s bespoke exhaust system. Drawing inspiration from the Porsche’s safari vibe, Winston envisioned a high-mounted scrambler-like system, with a pair of mufflers under the tail that pays homage to the center-mounted twin-pipe designs on some Porsches.
With that sorted, Rover Works was called in to lay down an immersive livery that matches the 911’s, with a few embellishments to help it stand apart. 2 Abnormal Sides finished the package off with a set of handmade tank badges.
Finally, everything was stripped off of Rough Crafts’ test mule and shipped off to BMW Motorrad Sagamihara in Kanagawa, where the team reassembled the parts on a brand new donor bike in time for the Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show.
Although it was designed to complement its four-wheeled counterpart, the Rough Crafts x GRS BMW R 12 nineT stands strong on its own, too. It debuted at Mooneyes without the GRS Porsche 911 in frame, and still managed to garner the admiration of passersby.
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