There are plenty of great design stories out there, but few of them involve a Mormon, a Muslim, and social media. And we promise we’re not setting up a groan worthy joke either. Mehmet Doruk Erdem is a Turkish designer and the man who designed the concept for the BMW Alpha. It’s a motorcycle explicitly designed for the Bonneville Salt Flats and taking a shot at the land speed record. For inspiration, Erdem looked to the Great White Shark. Not the first place we would have thought, but once he said it, it made a lot of sense.
About two years later, in Utah, Mark Atkinson’s father posted the design on Atkinson’s Facebook. His interest was piqued and he began building the bike from scratch. As in, solid-block-of-aluminum-for-an-engine scratch. He reached out to Erdem a few times and once Erdem finally got back to him, the two of them began working together to finalize details and design for the Alpha, and what they ended up with was pretty close to Erdem’s original concept. It’s good to see the Internet can be a nice place sometimes.
