BMW R 18 B Heavy Duty Custom
The crazy period of time that is Daytona Bike Week just wrapped up on Florida’s Atlantic Coast and bore witness to many new, weird and wonderful custom creations being shown in public for the first time, amongst them was the latest creation from Fred Kodlin.
For more than 40 years, Fred has dedicated himself to customising motorbikes, from radically modified creations to sophisticated new designs. Since the 1990s he has been incredibly successful with his custom bikes and was able to win various important Daytona shows regularly. He was the very first non-US citizen to be inducted into the Sturgis Hall of Fame.
This latest creation is the first time he has worked on a BMW and together with his son Len to produce ‘The R 18 B HEAVY DUTY’.
The biggest challenge in customising this year’s crowd puller at the Daytona Bike Week in Florida was undoubtedly the frame. “We have completely remanufactured the upper tubes to lower the fly-line and thus the seat height of the R 18 B. We also re-did the steering head and the triple clamps so that the caster fits despite the changed steering angle and so that the bike rides well,” explains Fred Kodlin.
Viewed from the side, the fly-line drops sharply to the rear from the chopped windshield taken from the Original BMW Motorrad Accessories range and finally runs harmoniously into the side cases made by Kodlin out of glass fibre-reinforced plastic and the low rear end.
Finally, the technical chassis highlight is an air suspension system at the front and rear, supported by a compressor placed barely visibly behind the left side case. This allows the R 18 B HEAVY DUTY to be lowered and raised in a fraction of a second. This is both as useful as it is spectacular: To park, lower the chassis, and it rests on hidden support points letting the bike crouch just a few centimetres above the asphalt, waiting for the next ride.
The Kodlin team also delved no less deeply into the subject of body construction for a good three months. A completely new sheet metal tank was created – longer than the original, flowing in shape and with indentations on the sides. The connection of the tank and rear frame was also modified for this purpose.
A front spoiler including a 3-colour underfloor lighting system and a front mud-guard are also made of sheet metal, the mud-guard fitting snugly around the 21-inch front wheel.
Finally, Kodlin created a corresponding counterpart for the rear wheel from two R 18 B rear mudguards joined together, in which the rear and side indicator lights are integrated in a very discreet manner.
The two side covers made of sheet metal, which form a smooth transition to the side cases, are completely custom-made.
Speaking of side cases: R 18 B loudspeakers by Marshall and an amplifier are fitted inside.
Kodlin’s attention to detail is also evident in the aluminium milled hinge panels of the cases in the style of the original R 18 B components.
The so-called winglets above the cylinders are another design element. They are also made of metal, but do not fulfil any function in the actual sense. Rather, they underline the design of the R 18 B HEAVY DUTY and make it appear unmistakable, especially when viewed from the front.
The customising job is rounded off by a seat made by Kodlin and an instrument cover with covers made of Alcantara and imitation leather, as well as specially made handlebars and a self-created exhaust system.
Marcel Sinnwell has painted other Kodlin showbikes in the past, but now only rarely picks up a spray gun for very special jobs and for this project, the colour gradients were completely airbrushed with translucent paint. The inspiration for this was the mixing of colour pigments in the paint and especially the way form streaks in the milky basecoat when first stirred. The result goes along very well with the Daytona bike week, where complex and colourful paint schemes are more than just good form.
Additional design touches inlcude hand-painted pinstripes and an airbrushed pattern on the rear mudguard that combines Kodlin and “100 years of BMW Motorrad”. The brake calipers, gear-shifter and foot brake levers and foot-rests, however, are BMW Motorrad standard components that have been colour-matched.
But Fred Kodlin by no means laid his hands on all the assemblies and parts. What was a particularly positive surprise for him: “The bolts. They are all made of stainless steel, with a nice Torx head. That’s not the way it is on other bikes. The basic bike and especially the engine are very, very cleanly finished. All the electrical cables are already nicely hidden, so we didn’t have to do anything to the engine,” he explains.
For this reason, numerous R 18 B components were deliberately not replaced, but at most modified. For example, the shortened hand levers and handlebar end weights. Likewise, the engine remained unchanged from a technical point of view. Only the cylinder head covers, belt cover and intake snorkel were painted in metallic black. Cruise control with distance control, reverse gear and eCall have remained unchanged.
