BMW K75 Alpha Bullet Bike has been recently brought to life, and it is nothing like the bikes that we have seen before. The design of the BMW Alpha Bike is inspired from the great white shark, and it is the alliance of two very different people from very different parts of the world. Meet Mark Atkinson, an old school machinist and motorcycle builder from Utah, and Mehmet Doruk Erdem, a high-tech industrial designer from Istanbul.
Erdem is a well-known Turkish industrial designer who has been designing bikes for a long time now. The Istanbulite designer is famous for his attention to detail and his retro style. Erdem’s inspiration to create custom bikes came from the film “The World’s Fastest Indian” which features record bikes on the Bonneville Dalt Flats.
“I saw the film The World’s Fastest Indian. I was ready to design motorcycles for the Bonneville Salt Flats,” said Erdem.
The design for the Alpha which possesses a stark resemblance with the great marine predator, the great white shark, was completed two years ago.
“Great white sharks have always been an inspiration to me. So I decided to mimic their anatomy for Alpha’s bodywork. It had to look powerful and beautiful at the same time.”
The design was brought to life through the power of the internet. When Erdem posted the pictures online, the model went viral. Along with other fans came the machinist Mark Atkinson who said,
“I’d seen a couple of his designs online. Then my father posted a picture of the Alpha concept on my Facebook page. It was good timing: Racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats had been canceled again, and I needed a winter project.”
Atkinson made the chassis of the Alpha using a wrecked K75 BMW motorcycle he had lying around. The making, however, did not start with collaboration. Atkinson failed to get in touch with Erdem and started making the bike on his own. Erdem already had some failed attempts at making the Alpha, so he was hesitant when he finally got in contact with Atkinson. Erdem did not respond when Atkinson initially tried to collaborate. When Erdem saw a picture of the work, only then he became convinced that the collaboration could work.
When Erdem finally developed a trust in Mark’s ability to develop his design, they worked for 16 months in different parts of the world and finally gave shape to the beautiful design of Alpha. The Alpha Bullet bike is powered by the inline three-cylinder 740cc engine of the BMW K75. The bike is not the most user-friendly according to Mark, but it is street legal.
The concept bike is beautiful not just in its design but also for having brought together two people so far away and so different.
We would appreciate your feedback in the comments’ section below!
Two issues that I have noticed, firstly a lack of allowance for movement of the handlebars for steering, and secondly the front fairing is very wide and low to the ground so it limits lean-in on cornering and would ground out very quickly