El Solitario's art deco BMW R75/5

Custom motorcycles are a mix of art and engineering—and there’s a tension in that mix. Trends develop, and quickly become cliché. But occasionally a builder bucks the trend so hard that it literally stops people in their tracks. That’s what happened six months ago at the Wheels & Waves show in Biarritz, France. Crowds gathered around this BMW, which was given a brief outing by Spanish builder David Borras and his El Solitario MC crew. ‘Baula’ is based on a 1969 BMW R75/5 and it’s the result of six months’ hard work, from design to the fabrication of dozens of...