Long before custom-built motorcycles flourished as a market trend, many  brands employed one-off designs as promotional platforms for their  products. In the DCR-017's case, DNA Filters takes it one innovative  step further by designing the whole project around its main produce, the  air filter. 

Founded in 2002 and based in  the outskirts of Athens, Greece, DNA Filters has built itself a strong  brand name by designing and producing air filters for motorcycles, cars,  ATVs and RCs, and by supporting racing teams up to world championship  level. Its palmarès includes a World Endurance Championship with the  French GMT94 Yamaha team, as well as two reddot awards for its filters –  the latest concerning the brand new Leather Top series.   

Both coming from a  strongly motorcycle-biased background, the company's founder and CEO,  Dino Nikolaidis and his son Marios, DNA Motorsport Engineer, conceived  the idea of a café racer custom build during the EICMA 2016. After witnessing the huge wave of customs filling the Italian floor, they decided to design their own one-off bike.   

"I love  older motorcycles; in fact, I was in the market for a new bike to move  around the city, and I ended up buying a Honda CX500 turbo," Marios told  New Atlas.   

"After  seeing all these retro styled motorcycles at the show last year, we  instinctively decided to design our first-ever custom. You know it had  to be a café racer."   

The DCR017 started its life  as a KTM RC8R superbike. It was bought last December and broken down to  its bare parts, as the project took off with a May 2017 deadline and  plans to unveil it at this year's EICMA show.   

After  removing all the parts of the steel trellis frame that were not needed,  such as the supports for fitting KTM's plastic costumes, it was powder  coated in black charcoal and finished with a sand blasting containing  metal particles.   

Then, the  team moved on to fabricate the DCR's signature parts, the fuel tank,  rear cowl and underseat unit. With a manufacturing facility fully  stocked with CNC machines at their disposal and vast experience in 3D  CAD design, the Nikolaidis family team set off to build the motorcycle's  main body from expensive and hard to find aerospace-grade aluminum.

The fuel tank was fabricated  after 400 hours of CNC machining of a 146-kg (322-lb) billet block of  5083 H112 aluminum alloy. The end result is a tank styled after the  two-stroke racers of the 1970s, holding 11 l (2.9 gal) of fuel and  weighing just 3.6 kg (7.9 lb).

The  DCR-017 isn't only meant to look nice, but it has to be fast and light,  hence the choice of an annealed and stress-relieved alloy that allows  for the tank's walls to be as thin as 2 mm. It was finished with a clear  anodizing to protect it from oxidation, leaving the tool paths in plain  view.   

In order to  distinguish the object of DNA's main business, the design incorporates a  central hollow section to house the air filter. It sits on a bottom  plate that secures it on the frame tubes and incorporates the fuel pump  housing.   

In similar fashion, the tail  and underseat units were machined from two solid blocks of the same 5083  H112 alloy, initially weighing 60 kg (132.3 lb) and 24 kg (53 lb) each.

A  very interesting feature of the fuel tank is its tiny cap, machined  from 6062 T651 aluminum alloy and which can be opened only with its own  D-key, tailor-made by DNA from Delrin polymer. This key also doubles as  the motorcycle's main switch, turning on the engine's electrical system  wirelessly using NFC (Near Field Communication) connectivity technology.DNA apparently dedicated a lot of passion to its project and, instead of  fitting off-the-shelf parts on the bike, fabricated most of them  in-house from several types of aluminum alloys. The long list includes  the sub frame, footpegs and rearsets, steering damper brackets,  instrument base, switches, headlight frame, both fenders, supports for  the oil and water cooler, and the harness box. Even several bolts were  created in-house, such as the ones supporting the external transparent  tube that acts as fuel indicator.

As for the V-twin  engine, it was tuned to World Superbike specs with KTM's official race  kit and a custom mapping system developed by DNA, and was fitted with a  special Akrapovic Evo 4 titanium exhaust system specifically tailored  for the DCR-017.   

The air  filter itself is DNA's 2012 reddot-winning Stage 3 MK3 Air Box Kit for  the KTM 990 series, modified for the specific bike's specs and adorned  with a large carved DNA logo on the right side – the one and only  manifestation of the company's insignia on the whole motorcycle.   

For the most  part, the bike runs on the original KTM brake and suspension kit, with  the exception of the rear shock absorber which is another special part,  custom-made by Hyperpro for this project. The fact that the Nikolaidis  family business includes the Akrapovic and Hyperpro dealership in Greece  certainly made things a bit easier in acquiring one-off gear for this  unique café racer.   

Once the DCR-017 was  completed, it was mounted on a Dynojet for the final verdict, which  amounts to 186 hp (138.7 kW) and 133 Nm (98 lb-ft). This power output  may not sound extreme in a world where the average superbike declares at  least 200 hp (149 kW) in stock form, but on a motorcycle whose total  wet weight measures just 162 kg, it makes for an intriguing  power-to-weight ratio and promises a thrilling ride.   

"We have  removed all the electronic safety systems, there's no ABS, no traction  control, so you can imagine that this is quite hard to ride. Few people  have ridden it, and all of them came back with a huge smile on their  face. These reactions prompted us to name the bike as the Brain Eraser.  It's what it does; it erases the concept you had in your mind about fast  motorcycles," says Marios Nikolaidis.

So, what does the future hold for the Brain Eraser? Will it ever become anything more than a showbike?   

"Look, so  far many things have happened quite accidentally. We started designing  air filters as a hobby, a side project if you like, but we couldn't have  imagined back then that it would grow to become our main business.  Similarly, the DCR-017 was decided in the spur of the moment, it was  more the realization of a dream that was sitting in the back of our  minds, rather than a planned move," Dino Nikolaidis told New Atlas.   

"Actually,  so far two people have asked us to build them a DCR-017. I explained to  them that we have no such plans, that it would be extremely expensive,  the amount of work, the parts, I hadn't really given it much thought. I  don't think that it makes any sense for us to start building custom  bikes, yet it's very flattering to have people asking us to make one for  them regardless of price tag. And it's still just the second day after  the unveiling," added Marios.   

Take a look at  the DCR-017 in action, filmed in Elefsina, Greece just before it was  crated and shipped to Milan, Italy for its formal unveiling at the EICMA  2017.  

Source: DNA Filters | Newatlas