Is This A Bad Idea – BMW R80/7 Cafe Racer

It was definately a mistake bringing these things to our attention, and just as I’m getting a garage!

I got a quote from kevills for the bike shown by bikebuoy. £8K!
Lovely lovely thing but that’s too rich for me.

It’ll have crap brakes, be uncomfortable, slow and due to its unreliability you’ll never ride it.
Unless you’ve cash to waste, don’t do it – and if you’ve cash to waste, just get yourself a decent m/c instead.
And the fact that none of the m/c’s pictured have number plates…

An R80 is going to be slow? Compared to a modern bike, but not compared to a cage, which is really the point. Plenty enough power to hustle along and zip past cars. Twin disks on my R100 pull up as quickly as anything I’ve ridden. Zero brake downs, 120 mile a day commute in winter, all over Europe, morocco, all over uk etc. My V50 had cracking handling, slow by modern standards, but more fun throwing it in than my Monster.
Really a load of shit what you’ve written, factually incorrect and you’re missing the point. For 30 years.

Come and have a crack on my R12 or my ZB31 and see if you don’t get off grinning from ear to ear.

I love boxers.

I hate the fact that they’re becoming really popular as custom bikes, as I’ll never be able to afford one now.

Ah well.

Urals are stupridly expensive too £10,000 for a new outfit?, no ta.
Some nice Ural customs out there though:

I don’t know much about bikes but I’ve always liked the look of the BSA lightning…

Coolest page ive seen for a while.

Those old style flat trackers/scramblers are The Sex. It is official.

So do it.

If I had space I would be doing so too 🙂

just found this on ebay. looks pretty cool with potential to look even better. plus it’s ‘retro’ and not actually old so might not be too bad to live with. or am i missing the point?

anyway i like it, anyone know any more about them?

Suzuki TU250

Ugggh I bet you ride an sv or a gtr1400 or some boring piece of overpriced commuter junk like that.

I guess so, my last 4 bikes were all ‘commuters’ (doing 100 miles per day) – 2 Triumph 1050’s, a Fazer 1000 and a ZX9Rc1

I’m also old enough to remember proper Rat Bikes (CX500’s and the like), not these weekend-warrior City Trader ones!

🙁 weekend warrior, I like to think not, I ride everyday rain or shine. This is going to be for tinkering and playing with, think of this as my ti Jones 29r, with my other bike being my Alpine 160 do it all bike 😀

🙁 weekend warrior, I like to think not, I ride everyday rain or shine. This is going to be for tinkering and playing with, think of this as my ti Jones 29r, with my other bike being my Alpine 160 do it all bike 😀

I’ve recently been down the line of wanting another Boxer to mess about with AND have fun riding.
Looked at a few oldies, but just so expensive these days- everybody wants to chop them!

Bought a nice 1100s Boxer Cup in the end. Needs a bit of feeling over Winter but hopefully will be a fun, reliable and not to common a bike.

I hate the fact that they’re becoming really popular as custom bikes, as I’ll never be able to afford one now.

I suppose to a degree this is true, but I just think it means you have to accept the challenge and do more if it yourself 🙂 Old banged up but essentially intact bmw’s will never get hugely expensive.

Slightly different flavour – less utilitarian more flat out adrenaline monster.

1965 BSA lightning, 650 odd cc’s – no front brake lol.

And a bmw R75 cafe.

My days that R75 is unbelievable 😆

That R75^^^^

Dear God.

Art….

Poetry..

I wouldnt mind betting you could have a lot of fun with that r75 off road too. Just whack on some dirt tyres and you’re sorted.

Some of these Triumphs are astonishing. Wayyy more expensive, but they are the quintessential british cafe racer/tracker combo I think.

I believe the saying that “You never see a bike parked outside a psychiatrists office” is probably true… and I reckon it works with bicycles too 😉 There’s just something about two wheels..

Lots and lots of late night research, a quick run by the boss and some buy in from others and I’ve decided I’m going to do it. Once in a lifetime experience to build the bike I’ve always wanted to own, it’s not something that I’ll be selling in a long time once it’s complete and thanks to freeridenick for the video Long Live The Kings has really inspired me to go for it as that’s really what it’s about for me. Right, time to find a doner bike!

Do it!

Loving the pics on this thread.

For my sins, I like this:

Hang on, some people do have R80 and not modified them into CR??? What is wrong with people. And as for BR and Druidh can you define better please?

The first photo in Bobba Fatts post what back end is that? looks like a DT175/250/400 very curious.

Go for the build, hope it works out.

For my sins, I like this:

That is stunning…

Do it Lank! And make sure you take lots of pictures! What base bike are you going to start with?

I once rode a R75 endurance racer, I thought it was the single worst handling bike I’d ever ridden and I’ve ridden a lot
It didn’t really suit my style TBH, I tend to use the throttle a lot though corners and this made the thing jack up and squat as the shaft drive torqued up the rear wheel.

Well there is a R80/7 on ebay at the moment not too far from me…

“Nope, I’m a biker and have been for 30 years – old bikes are mostly crap compared to the bikes you can buy now.

If I wanted an ornament, I’d buy a picture and stick it on the wall. “

Therein perhaps lies the difference between a biker and a motorcyclist.

Nice T series Guzzi:

And I remember seeing this Nico Bakker GT750 in Bike magazine about 25 years ago – still stunning, but needs a tidy up.

And one day I shall have a one of Patrick Godet’s Egli framed Vincents:

And a nice Wrenchmonkees CB750:

The lump on that vincent looks huge? Or is it just a small motorcycle?

I once rode a R75 endurance racer, I thought it was the single worst handling bike I’d ever ridden and I’ve ridden a lot

What year? They weren’t exactly the pinnacle of motorcycle development. Sounds like your expectations were somewhat high.

The lump on that vincent looks huge? Or is it just a small motorcycle?

Bit of both really.

It’s got a Fritz Egli designed frame, which basically hangs the engine from a ‘top tube’. Very minimalist and a work of art.

jota180 – Member

I once rode a R75 endurance racer, I thought it was the single worst handling bike I’d ever ridden and I’ve ridden a lot
It didn’t really suit my style TBH, I tend to use the throttle a lot though corners and this made the thing jack up and squat as the shaft drive torqued up the rear wheel.

Old Guzzi’s did the same – I found it OK as long as you got your braking done well before the corner and powered through it.
Never got used to the them trying to fall over when you blipped the throttle at rest though. 🙂

If you start with a modernish base bike that isn’t a BMW for whatever reason… make sure it sounds like this. 😉

To lank45, get it done! I was lucky enough to get an 1150gs recently and love the boxer engine, just something about it. Not fast or Smooth but funky and fun and shed loads of torque. I test rode the 800gs before finding the 1150 and it was a great little bike but the vibes where horrendous and it didn’t do anything for me.
Look up moto werks in holmfirth, they break and recon beemers

I know moto werks as I’m just down the road from them, already been on their site scouring for bits.

I was recalling a conversation last night, it was with my boss, so I came in to work today. Turns out, with him being German and all, that he has a mint original R75/6 in storage in Germany…right tips for brown nosing pleaseeeeeeeeeee

So cool. I want one…

There are some gorgeous bikes on this thread, but that Wrenchmonkees CB750 isn’t among them.

Would love to have the space and time to build a café racer, screw the handling, I just like to tinker with machinery.

…right tips for brown nosing pleaseeeeeeeeeee

Don’t mention the war… 😉

Do it!

It will probably have bad brakes, be slow and uncomfortable but a lot of fun.

I built this Yamaha SR500 last winter. I bought it as an unfinished project off ebay and spent 4 months tinkering.

You can keep your R1s i’m not interested.

Apart from Kevills, where might one begin looking for one of these bikes?
I understand that they’re customs but is there a popular marketplace where second hand ones are sold?

You can keep your R1s i’m not interested.

You’re my new hero, although I would have personnaly used some clip on…

MrSparkle, war was mentioned to him by a colleague, he laughed it off fortunately.

motorhead13, that is a nice build, how much did you end up doing to it? Did you find the work difficult? Looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

wrecker, I found a few companies selling kits for these bikes and a few more being commissions. Alot of details on bikeexif.com, many are drool worth and so far I’m on page 100 :S

That very first pic of the BM carrying the MTB – are there any pix from the other side where you can see the mounting rack?

Been wanting to carry a MTB on my old Firestorm for years, despite the hassle involved. Motorbike acts as family spare car (at least that’s my excuse) so acting as bicycle transport could make it a bit more relevant – it hardly leaves the garage these days since i started working from home.