“Something really big is coming” and “It’s 3.9 meters long” were the only clues that Dirk Oehlerking of Kingston Custom gave us about his latest project. We knew that he had a Royal Enfield Shotgun 650 on the bench after winning last year’s Malle Mile Custom Build Challenge, and we’re well familiar with his work. So that was all the data we needed to fuel our speculation.
Kingston Custom’s Royal Enfield Shotgun 650 has just broken cover, and it’s even wilder than we imagined. Best described as an art deco streamliner, it puts the German artisan’s talent on full display.
Dirk runs the Kingston workshop out of a former forge in Gelsenkirchen, Germany—the perfect setting for the sort of hands-on metalwork that he relishes. Followers of his work will know that machines of this ilk are well inside his wheelhouse. But they might not realize just how analog his process is.
Rather than rely on digital renders or modern techniques like 3D printing, Dirk designed the Royal Enfield’s new bodywork at a 1:1 scale, using giant cardboard cutouts and sculpting foam. Once he had the design locked in, he began fabricating the individual pieces out of 2 mm-thick aluminum.
The amount of time that went into carefully crafting the modular body is staggering. A streamlined nose cone sits up front, fitted with the Shotgun 650’s OEM LED headlight. The nose is supported by a bespoke bracket that’s attached directly to the bike’s reinforced steering neck.
Next is the Royal Enfield’s central fuselage, which sports a number of intricate details. Cut-outs on either side reveal the engine, plus the obnoxiously short handmade exhausts. The foot controls are neatly mounted ‘through’ the bodywork, while a small hatch on the right-hand side makes routine maintenance easier.
Sat atop the bodywork is a central cover that’s bolted down with fasteners that, at a glance, resemble the rivets on aircraft. A set of custom-made handlebars poke through; they’re fitted with the stock controls and grips to maintain some of the bike’s factory details. Just in front of them, Dirk has very cleverly mounted the original Royal Enfield speedo in a classic Bates-style headlight bucket.
An elegant brown suede seat sits further back, where the central and rear sections of the body connect. The bike’s elongated tail section tapers gradually from behind it, terminating in a sharp concave cutout that hosts a 1958 Cadillac taillight.
The space behind the rear wheel isn’t wasted either. It houses a luxurious storage compartment, lined with wood and suede, and kitted with everything a gentleman might need—a mirror, comb, bottle opener, gin, tonic, glasses, cutlery, and an umbrella.
This key detail pays homage to the popular British comic book and film series, Kingsman, after which the bike is named.
As you’d imagine, there’s a lot going on underneath the Royal Enfield’s handsome champagne-gold exterior. For starters, fuel is now housed in a custom-built reservoir that sits in front of the rear wheel. It’s accessible via a vintage-style filler cap, located aft of the seat.
Dirk also traded the Shotgun 650’s upside-down forks for a set of right-side-up units from a Royal Enfield Classic 650, while also borrowing the Classic’s 19F/18R wheels. They were fitted with whitewall tires and the stock Shotgun 650 brakes. Out back, the swingarm was extended by 100 mm, and the rear shocks were ditched in favor of rigid struts.
The front wheel is flanked by a pair of wheel covers that mount directly to the forks, so that they can turn with the wheel and not hamper steering. So although tight U-turns in a parking lot are out of the question with this beautiful behemoth, it is rideable.
Kingston’s Royal Enfield Shotgun 650 also wears chromed bullet turn signals, a vintage Royal Enfield fender badge on the nose, and delicate pin-stripes that complement the bike’s graceful lines.
As we’ve come to expect from Kinston Custom, the Kingsman is both sophisticated and outrageous. The sheer scale of it will arrest your attention, while the myriad details that reveal themselves as you get closer will hold it.
If you’d like to get up close and personal with the Kingsman, Dirk will be showing it off in person at the Bike Shed Show in London this weekend.
And if you’d like a crack at building your own custom Royal Enfield, the good news is that the British marque has once again offered a donor bike to the custom builder that takes gold at this year’s Malle Mile Custom Build Challenge.
Be warned though—you’ll have some pretty big shoes to fill.
Kingston Custom | Facebook | Instagram | Studio images by Mark Riccioni | With thanks to Royal Enfield
