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Complete Restoration of BMW R75/5 into Cafe Racer

Thanks

I too just got my copy of Hemmings yesterday. Nice job on the 356, nice article too.

Thanks, I think the Hemmings article may be my favorite, it really captured our story. Thanks for following. I hope to make you BMW guys just as proud with our Cafe Racer. Right now we are a little slow because Josh my builder is getting married this weekend. But in a few weeks we will be back at it and have new pictures.

Thanks again for being so kind,
Sincerely,
Shane:whistle
 
R12 Exhaust

We purchased the R12 exhaust for the bike, I think using this old time exhaust with our Cafe Racer is going to be pretty cool. :) We bought the exhaust from Poland from the below website, a Polish exhaust system for my German bike, sounds perfect:

www.oldtimergarage.szn.pl

Thanks,
Shane
 
Exhaust..

Shane, just a word of warning that might affect your plans for the exhaust on your bike. I know of no chrome shop that will chrome a used exhaust system. The oil and carbon inside is impossible to completely clean out and even a miniscule amount of it will ruin the precise chemistry of the solutions in their tanks. Believe me, that stuff is bad expensive!
 
Thanks

Shane, just a word of warning that might affect your plans for the exhaust on your bike. I know of no chrome shop that will chrome a used exhaust system. The oil and carbon inside is impossible to completely clean out and even a miniscule amount of it will ruin the precise chemistry of the solutions in their tanks. Believe me, that stuff is bad expensive!

Thanks for the heads up but this is not a used exhaust, it is a brand new replica of the original. We are also not going to chrome the exhaust, I cannot stand the yellow and blue of chrome pipes after they heat up, so we are going to have them ceramically coated instead, at least that is the plan. I appreciate your input thought, I can't wait to see what it looks like.

Thanks,
Shane
 
snipped:
The problem with modifying a Porsche is the risk of reducing its resale value, something that is not really a factor with an older airhead.

In any event, regardless of anyone's opinion of modding, no one is going to mod a Porsche RS, or a BMW Motosport.

The financial analysis of any project includes cost of acquisition off set by sale price at exit. The problem is how do you calculate the life cycle cost when you include the Pleasure Bennefit from the build and use?

I am enjoying this thread very much.


P.S. I'll bet you even money there is someone out there right now bending a Porsche RS or BMW Motorsport to fit their imagination.
:wave
 
Clutch

Josh did some work stripping the bike down further and he worked a bit on the clutch. I know it does not look like much now but someday my friends, someday. I have been reading everyones comments about market values, costs, resale values, life cycle costs etc. I have been fortunate enough to this point to ignore such things and it is liberating. Don't get me wrong, I look at expenses and a budget when doing the Porsche and now this bike, money is money, but if you take the idea of "getting money back out of the project" out of the equation, it is so much more rewarding. We are able to do things that we want and since I never plan on selling these vehicles the sky is the limit. By the time I am done with them someday and they are passed onto my children, lets hope I have put so many miles on the Porsche and the BMW that they will not be worth anything! :) I truly enjoy the build process, the decisions are very rewarding for me and even though I am doing both restorations with a pen and checkbook instead of a wrench and hammer, at the end of the day, these vehicles are an expression of me and my tastes and character. To me that is what this is all about. Anyone can go the the car lot or bike shop and buy a new bike if they have the funds, but to spend the time and energy putting thought into a project, that is what has captivated me over the 2 years with the Porsche and will keep me busy for at least another year with the BMW. Beside I get to meet alot of very nice people online this way and I have become true friends with people that have followed my projects. I have said it before and I will say it again, at the end of the day all it is in metal, rubber and leather, but it is the people that surround this metal, rubber and leather that make the entire process worth while. I find myself getting a little too philosophical sometimes, please forgive me for all the words and thoughts. So here is another picture to share with everyone.

And again you can follow Josh's antics at www.beemersandbits.com he goes into many of these topics in great detail.

Thanks,
Shane
 

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Your bike

Shane.. I have been following your project closely since your first post (I'm the guy who was worried about your lack of riding experience). Do not let those who would worry you about the cost involved get to you. If it brings you happiness to build this project, then go for it. The cost should not even enter into the equation if you can afford to take this on.

I have been searching high and low for months now for an airhead to restore. I'm retired and living on a railroad pension. While it is quite a bit more than social security, I'm severely limited in my ability to purchase a project bike. All I can hope to buy is a basket case. A running bike is totally beyond my means. I had a friend locate a '71 R-60 yesterday. It is priced very reasonably I think but even so it is currently out of my reach. I wish I could sell some of my other toys to finance this purchase, but alas, I have nothing of value that I can part with. Once I do buy a project bike, I will restore it even if it takes me several years to finish it.

I look forward to your updates and can't wait to see the finished project. From the photo shop projections you have posted, it is gonna be a fantastic ride! Keep up with the great work and make your dream come true! Remember there are probably hundreds of other members like me who wish we could emulate what you are doing! :violin
 
Point of clarification for me: Cost of acquisition + life cycle expense of any kind - sale price at the end = cost of ownership. In rough terms that descrides the definable equation for any bike or car. Yet in a project like this how do you value the imagination pleasure learning and more the owner derives in the process? For me it is priceless and why projects like this are so much fun to tackle or watch in a thread like this.
:thumb
 
To me this is what this is all about...balkiewicz

I didn't do a cafe racer, but I had this bike mechanically restored, and extensively modified, by Dave Anderson of Anderwerks:

213513380_hbVSA-M.jpg


213513608_fMBEn-L.jpg


The feature sheet on the bike was about two pages long. When I sold it, it did cost me money, but I had the bike for 15 years, and the experience was worth it.
 
Don't Think I Don't Know It

Shane.. I have been following your project closely since your first post (I'm the guy who was worried about your lack of riding experience). Do not let those who would worry you about the cost involved get to you. If it brings you happiness to build this project, then go for it. The cost should not even enter into the equation if you can afford to take this on.

I have been searching high and low for months now for an airhead to restore. I'm retired and living on a railroad pension. While it is quite a bit more than social security, I'm severely limited in my ability to purchase a project bike. All I can hope to buy is a basket case. A running bike is totally beyond my means. I had a friend locate a '71 R-60 yesterday. It is priced very reasonably I think but even so it is currently out of my reach. I wish I could sell some of my other toys to finance this purchase, but alas, I have nothing of value that I can part with. Once I do buy a project bike, I will restore it even if it takes me several years to finish it.

I look forward to your updates and can't wait to see the finished project. From the photo shop projections you have posted, it is gonna be a fantastic ride! Keep up with the great work and make your dream come true! Remember there are probably hundreds of other members like me who wish we could emulate what you are doing! :violin

Dear Robin, thanks for following my build. Please understand that I know very much how lucky I am to be able to pull this off, I pinch myself on a daily basis and to be able to do a couple of very cool projects like this for myself and not for anyone else. I think that is why I have been so passionate about the Porsche and now the new BMW project. I have worked very hard over the years, but to be honest so have many others and they are not able to do something like this. If I was taking food of out my families mouths or if they were going without, rest assured these projects would not be on the burner, and please understand if I ever find myself in a financial situation where a car or a bike would need to be sold to take care of my family, they would be gone in a minute. So I try to just enjoy these little projects for what they are and I tell myself every day how lucky I am to be so selfish at this point in my life. I hope you find the bike you want at the price that makes sense. I got both my bikes, we have 2 of them, paid $800 combined for both of them, they are basket cases as you said and definately were not running, but I thought $800 for 2 bikes to make into one bike was a pretty good deal. My little brother Chad paid $19K for a new Harley and not everyone can pull that purchase off either, but my bike will be well, well under that price and it will be unique and mine and that means more to me than anything else. That being said, I also know there are guys out there that can put $1,000,000 down for a Porsche or a collector motorcycle and not blink an eye at an auction. It is all relative. What I think is cool that when my bike is done it will be "one-of-a-kind" and unique to my taste and to me that is priceless.

Thanks,
Shaen
 
I have been searching high and low for months now for an airhead to restore. I'm retired and living on a railroad pension. While it is quite a bit more than social security, I'm severely limited in my ability to purchase a project bike. All I can hope to buy is a basket case. A running bike is totally beyond my means.

Look harder!

When I was working on my project, I ended up buying and parting out three or four Airheads and all of them were bikes that were cosmetically acceptable, complete, perfectly restorable bikes, that I bought for $100 each. Thats right. I paid $100 each, rolled them into my PU truck and brought em home!

The best ones were a 1978 R100 RS complete with fairing and a very cute R60/6 that needed a starter and a carb rebuild. Oh yeah...

All I'm saying is that the deals are out there and you'll get lucky, once you get busy!
 
R12 Pipes Arrived

We got our R12 Exhaust system from Poland today, I am very excited to see how they look on the bike eventually. Not sure how many R75 bikes have ever had R12 Exhaust installed on them, lets hope we can start a trend. :brow

Thanks,
Shane
 

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R12 Mockup

Here is Josh's vision in Photoshop of what the new R12 exhaust we received will look like on the bike. I really like it. Pretty cool to have an exhaust on a bike that was originally made from 1934-1941 on the bike. A little bit of historical significance can never hurt!

Thanks,
Shane
 

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Try flipping the muffler over so that the angle of the exhaust tip reflects theother angles on the bike. As is, it looks kinda odd. Maybe it'll look better but maybe not...

Does it have internal baffles? I wonder how it'll sound?
 
R12 Muffler

Shane, the R12 link shows the muffler flipped. Try it flipped for that historical look! I think your bike will look very cool. And the muffler will look good either way.:brow

Mike
RN, BSN
MOA, ABC, vBMWr, PGR
76 R90/6
93 R100R Legend
 
Welcome Shane; there are a number of Porsche owners here:

1116020911_H58VE-M-1.jpg


As for your project bike, stock airheads are pretty mild machines. I used to have a highly modified R100RS, and it was still a pretty mild machine. If you put short flat handlebars on it, you will lose some bar leverage, compared to a bike with regular handlebars.

But, as mentioned, you should get in lots of seat time on a "smaller" size machine, while you are a building.

P.S. I assume you are registered on the Rennlist? If not, give it a look.

P.P.S. You should put Excellence magazine on to your car. They love outlaws.



How come the BMW bikes , older too, are so mild in power. Didn??t they make bad ass beemer bikes back then? Yeah I haven??t really seen a veteran beemer one wheeling down the road.
 
what stock R75 puts out 60 hp? they'd be lucky to hit 52 or so (the R100s were stock at 62, with the Euro spec motors rated at 70hp).
i am a BIG proponent of starting with something on the smaller, easier to handle side; and see no issues at all starting on a BMW R75. Tame bikes, very predictable power deliver (about as flat a flat torque curve as exists on the planet!), predictable handling. Only big issue in my mind is the (compared to modern bikes) mediocre brakes.

I??d say , go as big as possible on the caferacer , then buy a moped or a 100 cc to learn on , when you graduate those you??ll have a ton of fun with your beautiful cafe racer:thumb
 
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.

I have a /5 , what do you mean these bikes have a problem straight from the factory?
tank-slapper.. is that wobbling?
 
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