K100 CAFE RACER

The Project

After seeing cafe racers all over facebook groups, forums, youtube and more, I couldn't help but start my own project motorcycle. As my canvas, I chose the flying brick: a 1985 BMW K100.

This project started in 2021, and I have slowly chipped away at it over summer and winter breaks. The bike currently sits as seen above. Though a project bike is never truly finished, I have many plans to get this bike to a more finished state. When that'll be? Eventually...

This page is a small showcase of some of the parts I've made and some of the work I've done thus far.

Modifications & Maintenance

First up: frame modification. That is make the frame shorter, and add a more sporty seat, getting the rider over the tank for a better riding position. I welded in some supports for the new seat, long with tabs to relocate the main ECU. I purchased the seat so that was as simple as bonding some studs to it, and bolting it into my modified frame.

Now of course with buying a bike from the 80s you expect to do some heavy maintenance: fluids, seals, etc. So heres the first start after all of that!

Custom Parts

Then I started on some custom parts. I designed and machined a gas cap + flange. I designed this cap to fit directly into the stock gas tank, utilize OEM hardware and utilize the OEM tank seal. The blue seal in the cap is fluorosilicone, a chemical resistant rubber that was easy to cut to size, and seals the cap to the flange. I machined this part on manual and CNC mills and lathes as a part of the BU SIF class.

In an effort to declutter the handle bars, I designed and 3D printed a bracket to relocate the ignition cylinder to the side of the bike.

Loosing the back half of the frame also meant losing the tail and break lights, so I decided to 3D print some custom ones. These just sit straight in the existing frame ends and make use of some cheap semi truck lights with a custom harness.

Some more pictures:

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