KATANA

MESSRS MUTH, FELLSTROM, and Kasten were all long gone by the time BMW transferred me from the car to motorcycle design department in 1984, for what was ostensibly two weeks. The first of April this year marked my 35th year as a bike designer, which has to be the longest fortnight in history and a darn good April fool joke.

Muth had led the design department at BMW Motorrad during the 1970s, giving the world the R90S and R100RS along the way. He was apparently “let go” after some alleged wrongdoing, but got his revenge by taking designers Hans Georg Kasten and Jan Fellstrom with him, forming Target Design as an independent studio. Now an established design consultancy based in Seefeld, Germany, motorcycles have remained at the forefront of their activities, although the company