Bakker Bmw Bomber Building A Better Boxer
BAKKER BMW BOMBER Building a better Boxer
QUICK RIDE
LOOKING TO BOMB A FEW corners, BMW-style? If so, what you definitely need is Dutch chassis specialist Nico Bakker’s Bomber, which mates a stock R1 lOORS drivetrain to a very special chassis. The result is the best-handling BMW you’re likely to find.
Though not a small motorcycle, the Bomber weights 41 pounds less than an R1 lOORS thanks to a whole slew of carbon-fiber parts. Chassis tweaks start with radical steering geometry-Bakker reduced the fork angle by 2 degrees to 23 degrees, in turn reducing the wheelbase by .8 inch. But that’s just the beginning. BMW’s
Telelever already has a lot of overlap between its fork sliders and stanchions for stiffness, yet Bakker has taken this even further by adding an additional 2 inches of overlap.
Bakker also drops the fork tubes through the yokes by nearly an inch, which, added to the increased overlap, lowers the front end by 2.75 inches. While he lowered the front, Bakker raised the rear, courtesy of a WP shock that’s almost an inch longer than the stock Showa. With a very soft
shock up front and 7.25 psi of compressed air joining the oil in the fork tubes, the result is nimble handling and terrific feel. The sportier steering geometry is immediately apparent around town, but it’s out in the country that the Bomber shines. It positively flies around turns, feeling rock-solid through fast sweepers thanks to that long wheelbase, without as much as a front-end wiggle when you hit a bump cranked over at speed. Yet in tighter turns, the Bakker and easily,
with the only deterrents being those out-jutting cylinders reminding you not to adopt too much lean angle.
The real eye-opener comes when you squeeze the brake lever as you lay the Bomber into a turn. The front wheel doesn’t chatter, the suspension keeps working, the tire keeps gripping and your cornering speed will surprise you. You just need to convince yourself that you can brake that late, and the Bomber will let you.
Since it uses the stock BMW engine-management and exhaust systems, even retaining the stock airbox, Bakker’s Boxer’s engine performs like an R1 lOORS, with marginally quicker acceleration thanks to the 10percent weight savings. But the fuel-injected engine is really responsive and eager, though it’s basically in sporttouring form at present.
What’s perhaps most interesting is that the Bakker Bomber is available at a reasonable price, at least for an exotic. The complete, unpainted chassis kit sells for about $7800. If you want a complete bike and have sourced all the needed parts, figure on a total of around $19,000-about 25 percent more than a stock RS. Value for money, or what?
-Alan Cathcart
