BMW R65 + surfboard

A bike has to be pretty special to stand out at the annual Wheels & Waves festival in Biarritz: it’s the motorcycling equivalent of a beach full of French supermodels. But this lovely 1979 BMW R65 with a surfboard rack stopped passers-by in their tracks with its understated elegance. It’s the work of Xabi Ithurralde, and it took him ten months to build. The slightly ungainly looks of the stock R65 are gone, replaced by the more athletic build of a scrambler: Xabi’s goal was to create “a narrow and light motorcycle to drive off road.” He chose a BMW...