Operating out of Paignton, Devon, along the coastal stretch of southwest England affectionately known as the English Riviera, Kevils Speed Shop has been a fixture of the custom scene since founder Kevin Hill opened its doors in 2010. Having cut its teeth on classic BMW airheads with well over 100 builds under its belt, the workshop gained international renown for building bikes for high-profile clients, including preparing Charley Boorman’s BMW R75/5 for an Arctic journey alongside Ewan McGregor.
These days, Kevils operates on an unusual dual model known as Kevil's Kitchen & Speedshop: part custom motorcycle workshop, part street-food eatery serving burgers alongside retro biker culture. "It makes for an unusual combination, but motorcycles and burgers seem to work rather well together," jokes owner Kevin Hill.
As the custom landscape evolved, Kevin shifted his focus from classic airheads toward modern machinery, particularly BMW’s modular R nineT platform. After BMW Motorrad UK invited Kevils to customize an R nineT for its stand at Birmingham’s NEC Motorcycle Live in 2014, the shop went on to build roughly 20 custom R nineTs. That rich pedigree brought a client from the north of England to Devon with a pristine, low-mileage 2019 BMW R nineT Urban G/S and a simple, evocative brief: build a motorcycle inspired by Batman.
Movie and comic book themed custom motorcycles are notoriously difficult to execute. Too often, pop-culture builds devolve into tacky novelty props, heavy on plastic, fragile bodywork, and gimmicks that age poorly and ruin real-world rideability.
Rather than relying on cartoonish graphics or bat logos, Kevin interpreted the prompt through stance, texture, and menace. "I wanted to create a motorcycle that was perfectly at home on the streets of Gotham City," Hill explains. The goal was to preserve the Urban G/S’s everyday usability while retaining the grunt of its 1,170 cc air/oil-cooled boxer twin and giving it a brooding, anti-hero aesthetic. Think Christian Bale’s Dark Knight rather than Adam West.
For the first step in giving the motorcycle its atheistic , Kev installed a proprietary solo-seat conversion. Stripping away the factory rear bodywork radically shortened the bike’s visual footprint, shedding bulk while exposing the rear frame and the Öhlins rear shock. The handmade solo seat was upholstered in diamond-stitched grey leather, creating a slim, floating line that contrasts with the stock fuel tank. A tiny LED tail light was integrated beneath the seat base to keep the rear end clutter-free.
Up front, the factory suspension remains internally stock, but custom fork guards were fitted to give the front end a wider, more muscular silhouette. Clamped between the triple trees sits a compact LED headlight housed within a custom, Bat-inspired nacelle equipped with a protective mesh grille, accompanied by a small auxiliary spot lamp.
To back up the aggressive styling, Kevin discarded the stock airbox in favor of a pair of DNA pod filters. To ensure clean power delivery across the rev range, fueling was remapped using a Rapid Bike Evo module. Exhaust gases now exit via a pair of custom, straight-through pipes, one running down each side of the swingarm, allowing the boxer motor to bark freely.
Unsurprisingly, almost every surface was refinished in black. By mixing matte, satin, and gloss finishes across the engine, frame, and bodywork, Kevin ensured the monochromatic theme retained depth rather than looking flat or washed out.
The build was completed in roughly six weeks, achieved in focused evening stints after Kevin finished long days flipping burgers in the shop’s food truck. The result is a refined, perfectly proportioned daily rider. "It fulfilled the original Batman brief without becoming theatrical, and it retained the reliability and usability expected of a modern BMW," says Hill.
Executing a character-inspired build without falling into tacky pop-culture tropes is a challenge, but Kevils Speed Shop nailed the brief with restraint. By prioritizing rideability, clean proportions, and subtle monochromatic textures, Kevin Hill turned a modern boxer twin into a brooding, street-legal weapon. It may be proof that with a steady supply of burgers, an everyday German adventure-tourer can seamlessly step into the shadows of Gotham.
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