Complete Restoration of BMW R75/5 into Cafe Racer

[balkowitsch]

Just picked myself up a Headlight Guard, Josh has one on his bike and I think it is a nice touch. I have to say I am pleasantly pleased with the price of parts for the bike versus the car, ha ha.

Thanks,
Shane

[balkowitsch]

I figured out how to post some pictures so I thought I would post some so we all know our starting place. I actually have purchased two bikes with Josh's guidance. One is Foundation bike as I call it, the bike that we will use as the maine bike to build upon, the other bike is a Parts Bike. The Parts bike cost me $600 and the Foundation bike cost me $400, go figure, what a steal. Hope you guys agree. We will be making once complete bike from the two. Other extra parts will be sold along the way.

This is the Foundation Bike,

thanks,
Shane

[balkowitsch]

Here is the Parts Bike, it was a funny story, Josh was picking up the parts bike from the seller, loading it into his vehicle (see below) and a car pulled up and this guy yelled out the window "is that a R75/5 BMW?", Josh said "It sure is", he said "Do you want to buy another?", Josh said sure, loaded the parts bike up and then this other guy took Josh to see what would turn out to be our Foundation bike, Josh says it was destiny. What are the chances? The guy we purchased this parts bike from was was Jim Fixel for Reedley, California.

Thanks,
Shane

[balkowitsch]

Craig Schmidt from Fiberglass Specialites is fabricating a seat cowl for the bike. We will be able to hide the battery under the seat which is pretty cool, "less is more".

http://www.boxercafe.com/

He is also doing our front fender for us. He was aware of Josh and his bike before we contacted him so he is being so kind to give these parts for my bike extra attention.

Thanks,
Shane

[mymindsok]

Sir.... YOU are the one who needs to get real!!! Was your first bike a 750 anything?

Yes. The first bike I rode was an R60/2. The first bike I owned myself was a Norton 750 Atlas that I successfully street raced. When that bike was new, it was considered to be very fast and mine sure was!

My first Airhead of my own was an R75/5 . That was a very nice bike but not quite enough bike to cause fear in small kids and animals. Yep! That old Norton tried to kill me several times but the Airheads have been a piece of cake!

Oh.... And I didn't grow up dodging cows. I learned to ride right there in the city, as did all of my friends. I did lose a friend when his /5 went into a tank-slapper on a down hill right curve but those bikes had problems straight from the factory. Once the front ends were straightened out, the bikes were great.

[balkowitsch]

Yes. The first bike I rode was an R60/2. The first bike I owned myself was a Norton 750 Atlas that I successfully street raced. When that bike was new, it was considered to be very fast and mine sure was!

My first Airhead of my own was an R75/5 . That was a very nice bike but not quite enough bike to cause fear in small kids and animals.

Yep! That old Norton tried to kill me several times but the Airheads have been a piece of cake!

Thanks again, one of the main reasons I want to get a bike is because my brother Chad has a bike, and I would like to go on rides with him, he never had one before, he is 36 years old, they have this really good ABATE class here in town that he took and he had never driven a bike before, got his license and went to the Harley dealer and drove away with a brand new Super Glide that weighs about 700lbs. Had no experience on a bike, never drove earlier in life, wanted a bike, took the class and his first bike was a Harley. In fact, he says he enjoyed the class so much, he is going to signup with me and take it again. I understand that a modified vintage BMW will not drive or run like a modern bike, that is what I think I will love about the experience. When you drive my Porsche, you know you are driving a vintage car, it is just wonderful. Again, I appreciate everyones concerns but I do not think I am getting over my head and I will take it slow.

Thanks,
Shane

[RINTY]

...I am having conversations with Pete Stout...balkowitsch

I'm looking forward to reading the article. Well done!

Also, Vanzen is one of our resident cafe racer builders. Here's one of his threads:

http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthre...ght=cafe+racer

Some of the photos have expired, but his website is:

http://www.rockerboxer.com/garage.html

[jstrube]

Just tried to go to Josh's blog & it didn't get there...

[balkowitsch]

Just tried to go to Josh's blog & it didn't get there...

I am sorry, maybe I copied and pasted the wrong link, I have updated it and it is below, I think it is working now:

http://www.beemersandbits.com

Thanks,
Shane

[Walking Eagle]

GREAT THREAD, and thanks for sharing.

I'd never ridden a Harley or any other large machine before buying one of the first-ever Road Kings back in '94, (after paying +$3,000 over-list-- YIKES!), then riding 30-miles home through Seattle traffic. (Not recommended.)

Despite the weight, and strictly IMHO, a Harley is one of the easiest bikes to ride that there is. . .VERY low center-of-mass, and smoooooth on throttle and clutch. This fact, coupled with a low-seat height, may account for the relatively large number of women riders on Harleys.

Curiously, LOW SPEED maneuvering on something like a cafe-racer (or an R100RS) may be the biggest challenge for a newby. . .once the wheels get all gyroscope-y at speed, almost anybody can keep it upright (unless you hit something!). Dropping a beauty like this new bike is akin to dropping a Ming vase. The message: Handle with care, which you intend to do. Dry your hands before handling the Ming; buy a Standard bike (NOT a Cruiser), and start learning. LOTS of good riders out there on Craigslist, on the cheap.

Shane sounds like a very prudent man, and has shown the good sense to come to this forum. Given his chosen profession, he's tougher than a nickel steak, and can most likely handle a new moto, no sweat. That said, depending on the ergos of this to-be cafe-racer, and depending on Shane's inseam, that first ride is going to be a "first" experience.

Lads, these are just my thoughts, and alternative advice is the essence of this site. Just don't expect me to defend my position. All good.

BTW, "philosophical" is a rather large branch on the motorcycle family tree, so no apology needed. Non-riders think we're ALL crazy, and they're mostly right which tends to create a unique bond: it's a LIFE wish, baby, and nobody gets out alive.

The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called yourself. -R. Pirsig-

Walking Eagle

[balkowitsch]

I did not share that Josh my builder is an excellent photographer by day and knows his way around Photoshop very well, here is a rendering he did of his bike, with my proposed paint scheme, the bike is going to be the same classic Porsche silver and have a white race stripe as well just like the car, the first Porsche ever in 1948 was in this color, the car was known as K45-286, I got the color from a curator at the Porsche museum and thought it would go good on the bike, the Photoshope rendering is not exactly accurate but gives us an idea as to what Silver will look like on a similar bike. It is not our goal to duplicate his bike completely, we are just using his previous wonderful creation as a visual aid to what we are going to do with my bike.

Thanks,
Shane

[balkowitsch]

Here is another mockup.

[sgborgstrom]

I think you are off to a good start, the basic design is clean and simple. Very nice.

One comment/observation: In typical "cafe-racer" fashion you've removed the classic aluminum airbox which has left a rather large hole in the middle of your bike. If you were dealing with one of the later model black plastic boxes I'd understand getting rid of it, but (IMO) that lovely bit of sculpted aluminum is an inherent part of the design of the boxer engine.

Not my project so do what you want, ditching the airbox is just one of those things I've never understood about the C-R aesthetic.

[kmkahuna]

Shane, looks like you're just starting as I did last year with my restoration project.
It took me awhile to figure out that I can post as many as 20 pictures on one entry by using photobucket.com as my source: Problem is that you have to go through a few more steps:
1) upload all your pictures to photobucket, or a similar website that allows you to share photos (Shutterfly does not do this!).
2) Click on the "direct link" button on your pictures
3) hit the "picture" button on the post menu above (that little shortcut that looks like a mountain and a sun). and paste the shortcut into your post.

I always would go back and preview my post too, to see where the picture ends up on the final post: you can tell us exactly what you're faced with this way..

Us forum readers LOVE pictures! It really helps understand your journey, or your problem, or whatnot...

Good luck!
K

[balkowitsch]

I think you are off to a good start, the basic design is clean and simple. Very nice.

One comment/observation: In typical "cafe-racer" fashion you've removed the classic aluminum airbox which has left a rather large hole in the middle of your bike. If you were dealing with one of the later model black plastic boxes I'd understand getting rid of it, but (IMO) that lovely bit of sculpted aluminum is an inherent part of the design of the boxer engine.

Not my project so do what you want, ditching the airbox is just one of those things I've never understood about the C-R aesthetic.

Thanks for the compliment and the observation. I see what you mean and I think it is a scenario that less is more but that may not always be the case. I do like the look of the sportier K&N air filter. I appreciate your input and will give it some thought, please continue to follow and chime in whenever you want.

Another cool thing happened yesterday, Bill Hamilton, my restorer of my Porsche has always been an avid motorcycle driver, in fact he is certified in Texas to teach their training course, anyway, he got rid of his bike a while back and needed another and take a look below at what he picked up! Never owned a BMW before but he said he got to thinking about my bike and the fact that he has worked on the 356 German Air Cooled cars for over 40 years, it made sense to go with BMW, I could not be more excited.

Thanks,
Shane