The BMW R18 Magnifica Is Kinetic Art At Its Finest

While not an official commission by BMW Motorrad, the R18 Magnifica, which is the handiwork of Andrea Radaelli from Milan's Radikal Choppers, has the German marque's blessings. After taking a look at the bike, it is not hard to imagine why BMW gave its blessings to this extremely custom version of the R18 cruiser introduced in 2020.

Radikal Choppers were commissioned by Officine Riunite Milanesi to build the R18 Magnifica and the custom builders were supported by the Italian arm of BMW Motorrad. The entire bike except for the wheels has been handcrafted by Radaelli and his team at Radika Choppers and this customer cruiser uses items like wood, brass and aluminium in its construction.

Radaelli was inspired by BMW bikes from the 1920s, 30s and 40s and in particular the R37 from 1925. The seat is carved from Mahogany wood and features a leather cover for the owner to settle their rump on and it features a stainless steel middle section.

The custom front fenders are made from billet parts but feature proper and modern parts. Any sort of fairing or fender has been removed from the front end of the custom R18 Magnifica to allow gawkers to feast their eyes on the large 1.8-litre flat-twin engine from the standard bike which puts out 90bhp and 158Nm of peak torque.

As we stated before every piece on this custom BMW R18 Magnifica except for the wheels has been custom-built and this can be seen with the sleek fuel tank and the chopped exhaust system along with the custom rear suspension setup just add to the beauty of this bike which looks like a steampunk creation taken to the extreme.

The disc brakes and callipers are also just handmade using ideas floating in Radaelli's head. The wheels while not hand-built, have been machined from billet by CNC machines to a design specified by Radikal Choppers.

Radikal Choppers, however, did not mess around with the donor R18's electrical bits, so the bike is fully functional should the owner want to take it for a ride.

The use of all the custom parts means that despite being the same size and using the exact powerplant as the original R18, the Magnifica weighs nearly 100 kilogrammes less than the motorcycle on which it is based.

Thoughts On The BMW R18 Magnifica

The BMW R18 Magnifica is what happens when you allow a custom shop to work their magic on a bike without placing any constraints.

No CAD drawings or rendering were used to start the process of building the R18 Magnifica. Instead, a sketch and the bonkers mind of builder Andrea Radaelli combined to create a radically magnificent piece of art that at the end of the day is also a working motorcycle that one very happy owner can ride down the streets.