The actor picked a new BMW S 1000 R and shipped it back to Venice for Woolie to work on in collaboration with BMW’s Stenegärd. The main design inspiration started with the Butler & Smith racing bikes from the 1970s.
Woolie first had to strip all the plastic from the original S 1000 R, and in doing so, discovered that there was “a lot of electronics under the plastics, but not a whole lot of ‘raw beauty,'” which in due time would all be concealed under custom metal work. He also had to build a custom subframe for the back of the bike because it housed a slew of electronics that had to remain in place.
The seat is a tailor-made double diamond tuck stitched saddle made from black waterproof Kushitani leather. Other changes include a round headlight topped with a hand-shaped aluminum fairing and secured with brackets made from stainless steel tubing. Adding an entirely new carbon fiber front fender eliminated the original fairing. One detail that was quite important to Stenegärd was the dual board track-style bars that lock down the gas tank and give it a retro feel.
Last was the unique inline four-cylinder 158 hp engine capable of hitting 160 mph. It was so broad that Woolie figured he couldn’t hide it and instead made it a focal point by installing an extra-large Febur radiator that was practical and aesthetically pleasing.
