Boxer Metal’s Angry BMW R100

Café racer meets dragbike

This is what a BMW R100 looks like when it goes punk rock: mad, bad, and dangerous to know.Michael Lichter Photography

I’m pretty sure most 1980 BMW R100 motorcycles don’t look like this one from Boxer Metal. Stripped down to the bare essentials of motor, chassis, and transmission, this heavily reworked motorcycle comes to us from Boxer Metal in Chico, California.

Chris Canterbury and his wife Rebecca are the team behind this cool machine, and a lot of other ones too. The husband-and-wife operation is a custom BMW motorcycle and sidecar shop that creates custom parts for BMW motorcycles from modern comforts like cellphone charger brackets to the staples of all great custom shops such as footpegs, handlebar controls, seating, and more.

Did we mention the twin turbos on it?Michael Lichter Photography

You see plenty of that “and more” on this sweet beauty. For one thing, its profile just isn’t the same since Boxer Metal stretched the frame and lowered the bike. The power equation isn’t exactly the same as it was in the ’80s either. The Canterburys rebuilt the 1,000cc mill, using many parts in it that they would only describe as “proprietary,” which is builderspeak for “super-secret in-house sauce.”

That rear wheel setup has a dragbike flavor to it.Michael Lichter Photography

Between the two of them, Chris and Rebecca have almost four decades of experience in and around motorcycling. If you want to see more of their great work, visit their shop website, boxermetal.com , and take a look around.

Seven weeks of hard work resulted in this naked road ripper seen here.Michael Lichter Photography
The gold metalflake paint on the gas tank is the only style nod that isn’t raw, bare-bones minimalism.Michael Lichter Photography
BMW ran two opposed, air-cooled cylinders in the original R100 series machines.Michael Lichter Photography
Naturally, lowering the rigid bike involved shorter forks.Michael Lichter Photography
Part café racer and part drag racer, the bike was built to be good at being bad.Michael Lichter Photography