I’ve always loved the use of wood in cars. When I was young a neighbor converted an old ’30s Chevy into a jaw dropping Hot Rod with a solid walnut dash he carved, sanded and lacquered himself (I seem to remember him saying he had applied 15 coats of clear to it!). Everything on the car was amazing, but it was that walnut dash that really got people excited. When it comes to motorcycles the use of wood is sadly not something you see very often, so when I came across this custom BMW R80 by Workshop Maquerelle in France you can imagine my excitement.
Workshop Maquerelle is a two man team made up of Stefan and Till who started the company in late 2011. Jump forward to April of this year and their first full custom build was rolling out the door, a 1978 BMW R80 named “Mary Magdalene”. I was lucky enough to get the low down on the bike from Stephan and access to these, the first studio shots of the bike.
“Our first customer handed us his bike with blind confidence because he liked what we said and our ambitious ideas!“
“We had no obligations with this build. No Cafe Racer or Street Tracker template to follow. We proposed the idea of building a “James Bond” motorcycle reminiscent of his Aston Martin and seductive in its styling. We designed parts that we felt would appeal to women and perhaps even seduce them with its fine details and pleasantries. The passenger pegs for instance, feature laser etched wood inserts with “s’il vous plaît..” (please) engraved in to them.“…What else would one expect from a pair of Frenchmen!?
