Dream machine One man’s vision of the perfect motorcycle
When he was a teenager, Jon deBouhn rode a second-hand BSA B50MX on and off-road, and a 750cc Bonnie to A Archer & Son in Essex, the respected vintage vehicle restoration experts, where he was doing a four-year engineering apprenticeship. However, when he finished his apprenticeship in 1984 the British motorcycle industry was on its knees, while BMW was big news.
“They made the bikes to beat in the Dakar,” says Jon. “The G/S always seemed to finish the race without many problems. While other manufacturers were changing engines, BMW’s mechanics were changing the oil.”
Now qualified and with a handsome increase in salary, he immediately bought a new R80G/S. “What a bike!” Jon says with a smile. “It was so much better than the Bonnie and touring 600 miles in one day was never a problem.” He was hooked. There would never again be room in his garage for any other make or model of motorcycle. But although a stock G/S from any generation is a great bike, his desire to build his own version of the classic was growing.
After graduating in 1992 as a professional engineer he worked at Lotus Engineering for nine years. “But in spite of that
