Endurance racing is a very special category in the motorcycle racing world, where machines and riders are pushed to the limit over six-, eight-, 12- and 24 hours. While speed is important in endurance racing, reliability is much more important, with wins going to the most consistent team.
One of the rules of endurance racing is that race machines must be based on stock motorcycles. This means no prototypes, and modifications are made with and eye to reliability, rather than velocity. In the case of French outfit Praëm, its iteration of a BMW Motorrad S1000RR-based endurance-styled racer harks back to the days of the Bol d’Or at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Taking a stock S1000RR, brothers Sylvain and Florent Berneron applied the very best of endurance race-styling to the 1,000 cc inline-four from Munich. The best from the 1980s, that is. Continuing from the success of their first build, the Honda RC-51-based SP3, the Bernerons fitted a half-fairing and a cyclopean single round headlight, with the upper fairing edge recessed to take a fairing lower-half that isn’t there.
The tail-piece looks exactly like a racetrack refugee from the 80s, with the large round cut-out in the rear reminiscent of the back-end of an endurance racing GSX-R. Numerous design touches lifted off the track abound, such as anodised aluminium hose fitting, Sparco-type blue hoses. The large weld seam on the tank, suggesting a stock tank re-welded to increase its capacity, is a design note worthy of display in a museum.
A nice touch is the battery mounted in the tail-piece, and held in place by a pair of clips, resembling the total-loss ignition systems used in many racebikes where the alternator would be removed to reduce weight. No word on pricing, but the practical and rideable piece of motorcycle art that is the Praëm BMW S1000RR is priceless, and very likely a damn sight better to ride than a hipster bobber.
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wow…nice retro inspired bike..2 thumbs up!