Hi All,
I have been riding late model bikes all my life but due to a back injury I hung up my helmet for a few years. The itch never goes away though and I started playing with older bikes. First I bought a super nice BMW R60/5 but it was too nice to modify. I found an ugly but great running 1977 R100/7.
This bike had definitely been beaten with an ugly stick but it runs great. My plan for this bike was just to ride it over the summer to evaluate it and then I would build something cool. I was actually thinking a bobber style bike.
I just could not live with all the farkels so after an evening in the shop, the bike lost close to 75 lbs. Lighter = faster, right?
So here is bike 1.0 and I thought I could live with it for a season...yeah right!
As you know, it is hard to leave things alone. I build hot rods in my other life to I just love to chop, cut and make stuff.
Just to make it a little more exciting, I figured I would just do a quicky budget job on the bike, fix the seat and maybe spray bomb the tank so it looks a little better.
I shortened the rear hoop and I kept part of the stock front pan as it fits well to the tank but I added a new seat pan to fit the rear frame.
Since I don’t have an English wheel…hell, I don’t even have a Swedish wheel !! so I decided to just create the hump with sheet metal and spend some time hammering in to shape.
A little mud, a little primer and we got a pretty good looking tail piece.
Since I got a new rear end I decided to give the tank some attention as well.
The yuge stock battery was located right in the middle of the frame. I would like to open up that area for that minimalistic look.Talk about diet!! The original battery weighs 20 lbs! It is also 17 years old! Maybe time to replace it? The lithium unit on the right is less that half the size and weighs a whopping 3.1 lbs! It is also good for 370 Cold Crank Amps.
The plan was just to put a flat paint on the tank and tail hump but the flat clear came out kind of hazy so with nothing to loose I leaned in to it with a buffer.
Hey, that looks pretty good.
After polishing, Mr. Humpty-Dumpty rump looks pretty good as well.
For those of you that are old enough to remember The Fixx’s song “one thing leads to another…that’s just how it goes…one thing leads to another.
With my new snazzy rear end I could not clutter it up with a fender, tail lite or a license plate so the plate ended up on the axle. The license light will be hidden under the seat.
Now the front fender is all the sudden too big. Also, that stainless bracket is totally overkill. So, bring on the diet program again.
The fender got a good haircut and I removed everything on the bracket that did not look like a bracket.
BMW used carriage bolts coming from the underside of the fender with ugly nuts and threads on full display on top of the fender. I reversed that using polished stainless carriage bolt for a smooth look. Besides, shiny stuff make the bike go faster.
As mentioned earlier, I don’t want to clutter up the rear with a tail light. These are small Harley blinkers. I reworked the inside so it will accept a dual filament bulb. They will be responsible for tail light and stop light function…maybe even double as blinkers to!
Looks like there is a limit on external links in one post? I will add the rest next.
I have been riding late model bikes all my life but due to a back injury I hung up my helmet for a few years. The itch never goes away though and I started playing with older bikes. First I bought a super nice BMW R60/5 but it was too nice to modify. I found an ugly but great running 1977 R100/7.
This bike had definitely been beaten with an ugly stick but it runs great. My plan for this bike was just to ride it over the summer to evaluate it and then I would build something cool. I was actually thinking a bobber style bike.
I just could not live with all the farkels so after an evening in the shop, the bike lost close to 75 lbs. Lighter = faster, right?
So here is bike 1.0 and I thought I could live with it for a season...yeah right!
As you know, it is hard to leave things alone. I build hot rods in my other life to I just love to chop, cut and make stuff.
Just to make it a little more exciting, I figured I would just do a quicky budget job on the bike, fix the seat and maybe spray bomb the tank so it looks a little better.
I shortened the rear hoop and I kept part of the stock front pan as it fits well to the tank but I added a new seat pan to fit the rear frame.
Since I don’t have an English wheel…hell, I don’t even have a Swedish wheel !! so I decided to just create the hump with sheet metal and spend some time hammering in to shape.
A little mud, a little primer and we got a pretty good looking tail piece.
Since I got a new rear end I decided to give the tank some attention as well.
The yuge stock battery was located right in the middle of the frame. I would like to open up that area for that minimalistic look.Talk about diet!! The original battery weighs 20 lbs! It is also 17 years old! Maybe time to replace it? The lithium unit on the right is less that half the size and weighs a whopping 3.1 lbs! It is also good for 370 Cold Crank Amps.
The plan was just to put a flat paint on the tank and tail hump but the flat clear came out kind of hazy so with nothing to loose I leaned in to it with a buffer.
Hey, that looks pretty good.
After polishing, Mr. Humpty-Dumpty rump looks pretty good as well.
For those of you that are old enough to remember The Fixx’s song “one thing leads to another…that’s just how it goes…one thing leads to another.
With my new snazzy rear end I could not clutter it up with a fender, tail lite or a license plate so the plate ended up on the axle. The license light will be hidden under the seat.
Now the front fender is all the sudden too big. Also, that stainless bracket is totally overkill. So, bring on the diet program again.
The fender got a good haircut and I removed everything on the bracket that did not look like a bracket.
BMW used carriage bolts coming from the underside of the fender with ugly nuts and threads on full display on top of the fender. I reversed that using polished stainless carriage bolt for a smooth look. Besides, shiny stuff make the bike go faster.
As mentioned earlier, I don’t want to clutter up the rear with a tail light. These are small Harley blinkers. I reworked the inside so it will accept a dual filament bulb. They will be responsible for tail light and stop light function…maybe even double as blinkers to!
Looks like there is a limit on external links in one post? I will add the rest next.
