By the early ’90s the Bond film franchise had started to go a little stale, so to put the lead back into James’s PPK pistol, a new main man was chosen, a plethora of beautiful Bond girls selected and Tina Turner given the nod to belt out the theme song. The result was GoldenEye, at the time, the biggest box office earner in the lucrative franchise’s history. So, looking at a worn-out 1982 BMW R100RT, got our French friend Jérémie Duchamp thinking, what would it take to give his Munich mile-muncher that same sort of transformation? And the answer came much as it did for the movie, a refreshed heartthrob, looks to kill and a soundtrack to truly capture the Boxer beat; Meet GoldenEye by Jerem Motorcycles.
Unlike the Timothy Dalton Bond films, however, Jérémie has never turned out a bad product, but he did love the idea of taking the spy theme thrills and using it as a motivation to create his latest custom. Having built an endless array of insanely cool bikes in recent years, it always helps to have new motivation and something to fuel the imagination. And if you think about a motorcycle that would have really blown Bond fans away had Pierce Brosnan saddled up on it in GoldenEye, then this is definitely it. A carbon-clad crotch rocket, that could easily have been dreamed up by Q.
But to craft his transformation, Jérémie didn’t have a secret government branch to turn to, what he did know however, was that there was the perfect machine to raid for parts to give his old R some seriously cool toys. That motorcycle is another Bavarian, the BMW R nineT, and the more he thought about it, the more it made sense to take the two German bikes and create the best of both worlds kind of boxer. Jérémie started with the older model’s frame, and not only has it been beautifully cleaned up, repainted and given a stunning subframe transformation, but the suspension mounts are all heavily customised.
At the rear end, this was to allow for the twin shock swingarm of old, to make way for the all-new paralever mono-shock setup from the 2018 nineT. It’s not a simple conversion, you have new upper shock mounts to fabricate and tie into the old frame, a shaft drive setup which has to be properly aligned and a pivot point that can handle the configuration change, but Jérémie has executed it flawlessly. As for the dampening, that’s handled by some seriously clever stuff, “a Quarkus rear shock absorber and a shock spring replaced by carbon blades from Motion Engineering.” A custom set of brake lines and a new master cylinder, and the rear was spot on.
For the pointy end, the nineT donates its entire front assembly, but again, it’s not as simple as bolting it all on. First, a custom set of machined triple clamps were CNC’d, the stem bearings were replaced and a super cool BMW badge was made for the top nut. Then the inverted forks could be slid through to gain the right ride height and with a full set of EXACT braided brake lines, the Brembo caliper and disc conversion could be carried out. Given the nineT came with a quality steering stabiliser, this too has joined the build and the modern BMW also donates its wire wheel hubs, which are now laced to gold rims.
Speaking of the bright metal hue, it’s only the GoldenEye-inspired pinstriping and custom badges that break up all of that carbon fibre. Because the number of parts made from the lightweight material is so extensive we simply can’t list them all. The traditionally styled front fairing is all carbon and features a set of genuine Ducati V4 wings and a clear screen. The front fender and rear hugger are both carbon, as is the gorgeous tailpiece, which features leather upholstery by Yaya Brush. The fuel tank is a mix of carbon and steel, with a classic Monza filler and laser-cut aluminium BMW decals.
Even the swingarm sports a set of protective carbon covers, and the chin spoiler, that’s carbon too. So, it should come as no surprise that when it came time to tackle the engine, the valve covers and battery lid were also made from the glorious graphite material. Inside the forty-year-old boxer lump, it’s been gone over from top to bottom, with a full engine rebuild to ensure more power and a longer life. The Bing carbs have been given a refresh and a re-jet, and this allows for the fitment of the full custom stainless steel exhaust, which was meticulously built in-house. The headers snake their way rearward, before collecting under the centre post and then ride up to enter a Yoshimura muffler that barks from under the seat, which is of course, made from carbon fibre.
Having saved so much weight, Jérémie didn’t want to go adding it all back on with an old-school chunky wiring loom. So, it’s built from scratch with a tiny battery, and Commodo CNC 3 Impulse buttons fitted to the new clip-on bars. The front headlight is LED with a cool scrolling effect and all of the tiny indicators, rear lights and ignition switch are from the Motogadget catalogue, wired through a mo-unit blue.
The dash takes on more of a classic vibe, with Daytona instruments mounted into a turned aluminium plate, but given you can start this R100 from your phone via Bluetooth, there is no shortage of modern tech. Once finished, Jérémie couldn’t help but make some bond-inspired short films of his brilliant BMW, and now all he’s missing is the right girl with a risque name, to serve as his passenger.
