This really is not a rags to racer story, but more of a jem to jewelry story that started over twenty years ago. This represents the Part 1 of the journey as I tear down and morph this BMW R80 into a cafe racer of my dreams.
During the time my wife and I were struggling through undergrad and graduate school, my wife said the only way I would get back into motorcycle riding was with my next wife and so the story went for about two and half decades.



Two hours later I was the proud owner of not “just a 1983 BMW R80RT”, but a third owner, full maintenance history, already had the top end work done, carbs rebuilt, purrs like a kitten, oil tight, and you can put 100 miles on this on the way back from your motorcycle driving test no problem 1983 BMW R80RT. The previous owner talked to me for over a hour about all the maintenance schedules he followed in such passionate detail that a German engineer would get teary-eyed. The $1900 flew out of my pocket - it was a steal about $3000 under book value, but the owner just wanted the bike to go to a good home.



INITIAL ISSUES
Initial issues were really around understanding the R-series BMW itself and its idiosyncrasies including how all the crush washers seal and the capacities. For example I was attempting to chase down leaks at my shifter input and the rear hub which was covered in oil after replacing my rear tire and rear transmission, shaft and hub fluids. The culprit was a barely out of balance rear TKC 80 tire which at around 60 MPH would vibrate just enough to shake oil out of the hub’s vent hole and vibrate oil out of the shifter input seal. With the wheel balanced the problem resolved itself even after topping off the oil levels. Another leak was resolved with understanding the right torque to keep the seals intact and leak-free. The $40 Clymer Manual was expensive, but the most important tool you can purchase when working on any bike. For the most part, these older carbureted bikes are both simple and frustrating at times with most issues caused by either rushing or overthinking the issue.
PLANNING THE UPGRADES
My style of building guns has been to have all the parts and then start the build. I absolutely loathe having to do partial upgrades one little bit at a time, tearing things down again and again. Some folks love this, but that level of patience escapes me. My preference with any build has always has been to prevent tearing everything down multiple times - usually this prevents a lot of damage and replacement along the way of finishes and fasteners.
If you have a new current bike, it is easy to just say you want to upgrade the muffler, or swap out some lighting. On an old bike one part swap typically has a cascading impact to many other components. Electronics upgrades are a good example of this. Old bikes tend to drain batteries much quicker than newer LED lite bikes thanks to the old high current incandescent lights and thirty year old electronics, but adding LED lights usually means adding extra resisters or even requiring an entire electrical upgrade. While doing that same exercise stripping down a fairing equipped 1983 BMW R80RT, requires all the blinkers to have additional LED conversion blinker resistors, all new new signals with mounts, and potentially all new wiring.
As builder, if you are going this care then a complete Motogadget m-unit electrical system upgrade is smart to improve reliability & looks while increasing features to a very modern level in the process, but requires a full rewire of the bike.
To further clean up looks, most builders opt for a tiny Antigravity lithium battery pack. These tiny battery replacements are about 1/10th the weight of OEM batteries and less than ¼ the size all while being easy to tuck out of sight. Upgrading to lithium batteries also has a cascading requirement to upgrade the rectifier so the new Lithium battery does not get overcharged. These old bikes are money pits, so be prepared.
SAFETY FIRST

To keep the distracted driven thing to a minimum and also provide for music and the ability to communicate with other riders I choose to add a Sena SMH-10 Bluetooth Headset. For just over $150 it is an excellent add on which I think adds a margin of safety from a communication perspective.
UPGRADES - MAJORPANDMEIC.COM BADLANDS CAFE RACER






The Motogadget m-Units are actually cheap considering all the deliver including the most reliable vintage bike possible. Motogadget also has a full line of premium quality custom level mirrors, high output LED signals, tachometers and speedometers all of which I included in this build. If you do go this route, I highly recommend buying the Motogadget wiring kit as well as it is a spectacular time saver and not a bad deal for all that color coded wiring.
For my build, I used the Motogadget m-Unit Blue, bar end LED signals, bar end mirrors, rubber grips, and a retro vintage style Motorscope Speedster speedometer to greatly clean up the electrics, reduced the overall power consumption, and delivered a super clean customer look. The bar and LED signals are particularly trick in that they are directionally designed to optimize super bright light output to everyone except the rider. The rider just sees a subdued flash. Revival Cycles super bright $15 LED Supernova Turn Signal & Brake Lights rear brake and indicators we used at the rear. Paired with the Motogadget m-Unit these tiny ¾-inch combo LED indicators deliver brake, fade-in/fade-out, flash emergency braking, left and right signals all in a tiny super clean design that is annoyingly bright and sure to get and keep drivers attention - a super custom but huge safety upgrade.
The stock 7-inch BMW headlight is a huge but was built with 30+ year old technology and needed an LED upgrade. The ugly headlight bucket is attached via an even uglier mount hidden under the fairing. I removed the OEM headlight mount and used EMGO fork mounted aluminum headlight bucket mounts and swapped out the stock headlight and bucket with a HogWorkz 7” LEO Halomaker and new Bikemaster headlight bucket. This added a bit of modern look to this otherwise classic themed build and drops the overall current draw by about 40%.
The Midwest is either blisteringly hot or cold much of the rideable season so I did add Symtec Heat Demon Heated Grips. Sure the goal is to reduce current draw, but these on low setting are not a huge draw on the electrical system and are typically only used on longer rides when the charging system is humming along anyway. Probably the best money spent on this entire build.
The Motogadget Motoscope Tiny Speedometer packs an accurate digitally controlled and calibrated stepper motor speedo, integrated warning, turn and signal lights all in a tiny 2-inch wide speedo. Again the Motogadet Multi-Conductor Cable is recommended for simplified hookup. One missing component was a tachometer which was fulfilled with a Motogadget Motoscope Mini which was tucked under the handlebar controls. At only 2.32" L x 0.85" W x 0.51" H, the Motoscope Mini can disappear on the big all while offering full digital speedo, tach, clock, trip & total odometer, trip timing, and rev limit warning. I do tend to wind up this R80 into the lively redline and needed insight into where I am precisely in my rev range.
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All those gauges into one little 2-inch gauge in Oshmo billet beauty Clamp |

The Oshmo rear sets are a true work of art with curves that minimic the curves of the BMW and come complete with billet polished shifter input and connecting linkage. There are a variety of imported BMW R-series rear sets, but these are simply stunning.
To get the lowered look of a cafe racer without wrist breaking discomfort, I chose high-rise Tarozzi clip ons for “the look” while preserving the comfort of a low-rise straight handlebar. The Tarozzi multi-mount setup delivers class leading mounting flexibility with complete adjustability. The mounts were machine polished to match the Oshmo billet top triple clamp.
Racing style Monza gas caps have been a fixture of cafe racer builds mainly due to their long history as the style of gas caps used in aircraft and then racing. The style dates back the 1930s and is neither light nor the worlds best gas cap, but it is crazy cool looking and prevents a lot of refueling scratching to expensive paint jobs. The OEM BMW cap is also notoriously failure prone often locking itself in place. Having had a few issues already with my cap, a replacement was due. There are the many BMW compatible versions, some cheap and some solid billet. This version is the $180 later version which installed historically backwards, just to be a smart ass. Triumph recently introduced a faux Monza cap on a new bike installed backward allegedly to improve safety in accidents and Monza induced scrotum ripping (Google it). The direction of the Monza cap is a conversation piece.
ENGINE, BRAKES & EXHAUST - The engine was in great shape with the exception of a tune up, but I upgraded to re-pop vintage peanut style valve covers from Bob’s BMW which I machine mirror polished along with new exhaust nuts. The factory exhaust was wrapped with black titanium 2-inch wrap, secured with stainless wrap ties, and tipped with chrome Dime City Cycles Norton Commando 19.5-inch exhaust. The $160 peashooter style muffler set is inexpensive, but deliver the delightful grumble from the BMW that we love paired with great looks.
The front brake rotors are still in good condition, but brake pads were upgraded to EBC High Performance Brake pads for the duel disks and the rear drum. This upgrade delivered a sizeable increase in stopping power with just a brake pad swap. Apex cycle Shop makes a billet aluminum brake reservoir cover that updated the look of the integrated factory hand controls just a bit. The reality of the dual front disk and rear drum is that the rear does very little unless you are literally standing on the rear brake pedal. The rear brake is better with new drum shoes, but I wanted a lot better brake bit up front than what a dual piston caliber can offer. Currently I am working to retrofit a set of used R1100RT Brembo four piston calipers to further increase braking performance and will post how that works out.
SUSPENSION UPGRADES - The thirty-five year old front suspension was in delightfully great condition thanks to the previous owner’s meticulous maintenance, but I really wanted a vintage look bike with modern suspension. The seals were good, the shocks were smooth, and there were no leaks. The easy route was just a simple shock fluid swap which was done shortly after purchase, but if a builder wants a more modern and advanced race suspension feel, aftermarket suspension upgrades are available.
It used to be that you were stuck with whatever front fork setup the bike came with but now, we have other options to upgrade the existing valving to modern compression and damping levels. My plan is to use RaceTech Gold Valves which are one company that offers a stock suspension Gold Valve upgrade insert which adds adjustable compression and dampening to a stock BMW R80 front shocks. The RaceTech upgrade delivers nearly the same performance as a new advanced fork. Instead of a $3000 Suzuki GSXR front shock swap, as is often done, a builder can drop about $700 for a complete front fork upgrade with RaceTech including upgraded progressive springs, seals, valving, refinishing and anodizing the fork stanchions - in essence a new fork set. As the build progresses, the fork will go to Racetech.

PAINT & FINISHING TOUCHES - The next steps after all the components were fitted and needed mounting tabs were added, removing any extra OEM factory tabs were ground off to clean up the frame, the frame will get powder coated. Yes, it is a pain in the butt to strip the frame and replace all the bearings, reassemble and re-wire but there is nothing else that transforms a bike like a strip and powder coat. In the case of this old BMW’s which has a few areas which have been brush painted over the years, powder coat will be a substantial upgrade to the finish.
Stay Tuned for Part 2
1 comment:
Congratulations with a cool build! Glad you found my wiring diagram useful :)
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