1976 BMW R75 /6 PANZER by Maria Riding Company

We have featured a few bikes from the guys at Maria Riding Company lately and for very good reasons. They simply look the business and tick every single box along the way!

Mechanics ‘Headmaster’ Luis Correia explained to kingoffuel.com how their latest motorcycle project got started “This project started, because our client wanted a new seat for his BMW R75/6. Soon it became a complete and very ambitious project. The client already had an engine and a few other parts rebuilt, but it missed the global concept of the bike, so we decided to accept the challenge, and re-think it ready to start from scratch. It was our first BMW R75 project so in the beginning we were a little bit skeptic because for us, this is a bike that came with a  few technical limitations. But if we could overcome these limitations, we all thought it would be come a very nice project to get stuck in to.”

Luis and his team wanted the bike to be smaller and lower than the original, they wanted the wheels to be much more prominent in the overall look of the bike and for them to be much more substantial than the stock skinny classics.

New aluminum rims with Firestone AMS tires were immediately fitted, whilst at the same time making sure there was enough room for the transmission shaft. The sub-frame was completely rebuilt and welded with a larger tube diameter, to guarantee strength and to give the frame a more uniform and robust look. All the suspension was modified and shortened, mostly because they wanted the bike to be much shorter than the original. Also fitted was a pair of Bitubo´s on the back.

Since they had changed the suspension and the original horizontal position of the BMW R75, the tank housing was changed too, allowing it to be in a more overall balanced position on the bike.

Luis also explained to kingoffuel.com the special attention to detail on the project “In this build there were many small details that we loved to pay attention to. For example the original air box was completely changed to fit the battery. We had to close the original air entrances with welded aluminum plates and then we had to blast them to remove any marks and to keep them with the original look. With this we solved two problems. One was to hide the battery, and the other was to fill the gap on the back of the engine where we had removed the air box. All the electrics were simplified. We put the starter on the key switch and the controls are the simplest that we find. It now has much smaller speedometer and tachometers.”

The ambitious mix of aggressive and classic and the overall simple, clean look is what to me makes this a really interesting build. Colored frames are always going to be a risky move on a custom motorcycle but mixed with the black and steel, it somehow just works. It’s risks like these that are cementing Maria’s place in the custom motorcycle market.

See more of Maria’s Motorcycles on their website here: Maria Riding Company