MARK II SERIES / Diamond Atelier














" New positioning

It has been quiet around Diamond Atelier the last couple of months and we understand by the
feedback we received during this time, that people felt left behind on our progress. We received
emails and calls such as “do you still exist?” or “have you gone bankrupt?”. But the temporary
silence was just a side effect to what was really going on.
By the end of 2016 we faced an immense issue. It was not a lack of clients - in fact it was the exact
opposite. The demand for our products outnumbered our possible output many times (it was still
just me (Tom) and my colleague Pablo at the time), which forced us to create long waiting lists for
future projects and eventually declining many commissions we would have loved to accept. Due to
the massive workload we were forced to cancel events and meetings we were going to attend, to
make sure we could cope with the work. As a result, some people perceived us as just acting
overly exclusive, arrogant and cocky. This was the exact opposite of what we wanted.
We understood that the time has come to decide which direction to go from now on. Many custom
bike builders in the scene willingly try to stay small and become experts in their niche, which for the
most part works out very well. But since we started Diamond Atelier a few years ago, we’ve been
doing things differently. Thus we decided to take the risk and expand the company to see how far
we can go.
To make things perfectly clear: We will always produce our unique “DA#” builds. These projects
shape our brand, they are what we live for. They are radical, aggressive and set the bar higher one
notch at a time. Sometimes I come up with concept in my mind and eventually turn it into reality at
3am if necessary. We can never foresee what the exact outcome on our DA# builds will be, since
the best ideas happen spontaneously.
At the same time we felt the urge to significantly increase our efficiency, professionalism and
simply creating more. We began shaping the idea to launch a small series of custom motorcycles.
A small series bike is faster paced in production, suitable for a larger group of people and carrying
less risk regarding the outcome. With our first series we try to make our products more
approachable, thus more people can enjoy the feeling of owning and riding a custom motorcycle.
Our motivation behind this step was simple: We needed to distance ourselves from the current
trend in the scene of having fancy pictures on social media and selling a “desirable lifestyle”
through mediocre products. Instead, we moved to deliberately bringing the best value possible by a
completely different approach.
Our first step to reach our new set goals, expand our skills and further develop Diamond Atelier as
a Custom Motorcycle Brand is called "








The Mark II Series

1


"Donor Bike
The Mark II Series is based on a BMW Monolever 247 frame. Why BMW again? Because we are
experts on the Boxer Airhead base. A series should not include experiments - that’s what our DA#
builds are for, to explore the unknown which we love just as much. But the series is the result of
our vast experience and thus resembles a perfected building process. All bikes we source for our
clients are low milage vehicles. The engines are variable and custom built to each client’s personal
preferences and specifications.
Industrial Quality
Usually when starting a new custom project, the design is the first thing that needs to be worked
out. But this procedure requires a predefined standard, such as a stock donor bike, to base a
design on.
In our case there was no such standard: We started from scratch on the most fundamental pieces
such as the gas tank, frame, forks and wheel set. This doesn’t sound overly spectacular when
considering a one-of custom build, but given that our parts needed to be scaleable and
reproducible to the exact same key figures, this part of the process quickly became the hardest to
tackle.
The idea came up to produce parts industrially. Even though the fixed costs would be immense,
the quality standard (contrary to popular belief!) would rise to an unmatched level in bespoke
motorcycle building and variable costs would decrease, directly reflecting on the costs of the
finished product. Eventually we teamed up with Mr. Jens Buchert, an engineering expert from
Munich who agreed to “translate” our ideas into viable versions for industrial partners in Germany.
Through this partnership we are able to produce what we believe is the highest quality bespoke
motorcycle on a reproducible level on the current market. The materials used are industrial CRP
and GRP for the bodywork and V4A2 for the frame pieces. It’s important to say we don’t just sit
back and relax now - there’s a constant development ongoing during manufacturing.
All-in-one Design
The next chronological step was creating the design.
We knew that we needed to come up with a bike that would appear radical enough to unmistakably
count as a true Diamond Atelier build, but also be well balanced and perfectly proportioned to work
as a blank canvas for the personalization options we offer within the Mark II Series.
Having motorcycle designer Julian Weber on board during the process, who selflessly spent
countless nights creating life-like renderings of THE perfect cafe racer, we finally came up with our
best design up to this day. It features a timeless shape, as well as an aggressive stance and lowslung silhouette in the true Diamond Atelier manner. One could say that the Mark II Series stylewise is a homage to our first ever build, the DA#1. But a never before seen design requires things
such as the bodywork being built entirely from scratch and walking the extra mile with many parts,
such as the levitating rear frame.
It was most important to have all components of the bike work together in the big picture: The
length of the forks combined with the size of the wheel set makes for the perfect stance. The kickup tail section flows with the angle of the gas tank. The single-sided exhaust ranges back as far as
the bodywork - which is exactly to the center of the rear hub. There are tons of details to be found,
many only on a second, third or tenth look.
Performance and Durability
The first thing to say here is: The Mark II Series is not a race-spec bike. But we do care about
increased performance and safety (naturally). The bikes are equipped with completely refurbished
and black anodized 53mm USD forks in combination with double 320mm brake discs rotating in 6
piston Tokico calipers each. The latter connected to an ABM radial brake pump through steelbraided brake lines. To match the front, the rear shock is a fully adjustable Wilbers piece, which is
custom-built to each driver’s specifications. The wheel set is pieced together from three different
bikes out of the BMW family. The hubs are individually painted and cross laced with stainless steel
spokes. The entire set is wrapped in semi slick rubber from either Metzeler or Pirelli. "













2


"When necessary, the engines are completely rebuilt and transmissions together with the shaft
drives are overhauled. The refurbished carbs are re-jetted to work with their respective air filter and
custom free flow exhaust system - both being fully street legal if needed.
The entirely new cutting edge electrical system works with components from Kellermann and
Motogadget as well as some custom goodies solely produced for these specific bikes. And as
always with electronics: the less you see the better.
Even though the Mark II might not necessarily look like the most comfortable motorcycle ever, we
paid a lot of attention to making the seating position enjoyable even on longer trips. The rear sets
and handle bars are fully adjustable, allowing for a more upright posture if needed.
Personalization Options
Building a small series of motorcycles doesn’t mean they all need to look alike such as production
vehicles from OEMs. The most obvious difference is the custom paint job. It forms the character of
the motorcycle like no other feature and makes each and every bike stand out from the crowd.
Dark metallic colors with race-oriented patterns create an edgy and urban feel, whereas lighter
pastel colors tend to have a more old-school vibe to them. Of course every single color is hand
mixed and unique.
Other personalization options often only differ in details, but it’s these details that make it “your
own”. On the four featured bikes, we have three different air intakes (closed filter, pod filter and
velocity stacks), two exhaust systems (two in two and two in one), two speedometers (digital and
analog), two wheel sets (17” and 18”) and two tail options (one seater and two seater). With every
option the bike goes another direction, e.g. the turquoise R80 with 18” wheels and Firestone
Deluxe Champions is a perfect example for a laid back and retro-styled BMW, whereas the uberaggressive purple R100 with 17” wheels and semi slick tires is the complete opposite of a relaxed
cruising bike.

With the Mark II Series I believe we have created a cross between high quality bespoke
motorcycles and reasonable delivery times and pricing (a bike starts at €20.990,-). Thus we hope
to be able to reach more people with our brand and in general spread more Diamond Atelier bikes
around the globe. Even if this project is just an experiment within the strive to improve our skills, it
is a win-win situation for all sides. We gain tons of experience and knowledge from the work with
our new partners and a completely different production approach and in return more people get to
have their own custom motorcycle, which enriches their life even by just a tiny bit. This is what we
try to achieve. "

- Tom Konecny,
   Diamond Atelier - www.diamond-atelier.com

   Photo: Lukas Magerl Photography




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