You might remember that last year French custom building firm Praem burst onto the scene with its VTR1000 SP1-based SP3. It seems BMW Motorrad France noticed, as it’s commissioned the company to make this astounding retro S1000RR.
Brothers Florent and Sylvain Berneron are the force behind Praem, and they took inspiration from old endurance race bikes and the 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL art car designed by Alexander Calder for the new machine.
While the frame and engine are recognisably S1000RR items, the styling is from another era. There’s a lengthened, aluminium endurance race tank with quick-fill couplings, a visible battery in the tail and endurance-style radiator. The wheels are carbon fibre and made by Rotobox, with carbon-ceramic disc brakes and slick tyres.
All this helps to reduce the bike’s weight by 20kg compared to the normal S1000RR, with the Praem machine coming in at just 184kg complete with a full tank of fuel. Since the titanium Werkes USA exhaust will liberate a few extra horsepower, too, the performance is guaranteed to be right in the 21st century despite the early-80s styling.
Praem’s Sylvain Berneron said: “This new Praem project sees us working again on a BMW and I am very proud. In this kind of approach, it is really important to work freely creatively. Once the outline of the motorcycle was defined, Florent and I were very free to explore a new direction of a 80s racer while using an ultra-modern base.
“The Praem philosophy is to use legendary motorcycles as bases. The BMW S1000RR fills the part in my opinion. It is extraordinary what BMW has managed to do with a powerful engine, perfectly tamed by electronics and hyper-sharpened cycle parts.
“We tried to keep the maximum on-board technology: DTC traction control, DDC electronic suspension, Race ABS, launch control… all while taking the S 1000 RR into another aesthetic universe.”
