Vintage Meets Custom: BMW Remakes The Iconic R5

Eighty years ago, BMW revealed the groundbreaking R5—a machine that influenced motorcycle design right up to the 1950s, and still casts a spell over custom builders. Today, at the Villa d’Este on the shores of Lake Como in Italy, BMW has just revealed the modern-day Hommage—designed in–house, and built with the help of Swedish master craftsmen Ronna and Benna Norén of Unique Custom Cycles. The Hommage is an intriguing (and drop-dead gorgeous) blend of historic design cues and modern custom building techniques. “In today’s world, it is very simple to keep it complicated, but very complicated to keep it simple,”...