my old 40 year old bmw 80/7 , makover

[moto al]

my friend paul bought an old 1979 bmw 80/7 ,he,s turned it into a cafe racer not my bag , it turns out it used to be my old bike years ago

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[moto al]

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[Jak*]

Whilst your mate has done a good job, I have to ask why? To me it looked better as it was and was a lot more practical. Why people insist on destroying perfectly good motorcycles is beyond me.

[Mickdb1]

I dont agree jak.
Each to their own and what would biking be without someone messing and altering to suit their wants and desires.
I always say you buy "a Bike" then turn it into "your bike"
opinions are like bikes = everyone can be different or some stay the same.
Its Ok for me and nice to se it on the road and not on the heap.

[catcitrus]

There are so many of these chopped down BMs about now--and people seem to think they are worth more without all the nice fairings and luggage. Its ok if the bike was a wreck to start with and the cheapest and easiest way to get it back running was to strip a load of stuff off. The bikes were designed for long distance in all weathers with all the gear. If all you use it for is Sunday cafe hopping then its fine. Not really my cup of tea, but I'm not a purist either--the sole of the original is still there.

[moto al]

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When i had it had a heinrich 35lt pertrol tank ,nowadays , you can pay over £2000 for one .

[daveuprite]

I bet it's nice to see your old bike live on after all these years, even in a completely different form. Personally I wouldn't want a big heavy sluggish engine in a café racer format - there's nothing remotely 'racey' about it. If you want a proper classic café racer look for a nice Laverda Montjuic or similar. But it's surely good that old bikes are still being tinkered with and modified, and kept alive - in whatever way. Chacun a son gout.

I can see the purist argument that classic bikes should be kept original or restored sensitively to concours condition or whatever. But that can be a deadly dull pursuit, consisting mainly of hundreds of hours of looking up part numbers and comparing originality with some right anoraks. For instance the Yamaha 350LC brigade. Back when they were commonplace they were the go-to hooligan bike which you thrashed, tuned and modified. Anyone who kept standard pipes on an LC was a spod. You bought microns and allspeeds, you re-jetted it, you bought new reeds and ported the barrels in your bedroom etc etc. - it was all part of the cult of ownership. Now there are people fussing over the correct olive green colour of brake reservoir gaskets and bollocks like that, and vanning the bike to exhibitions. Yawn. Not my thing at all. It needs riding - hard.

But then you see a totally standard original bike at some show and it's a lovely thing to look at, remembering how they looked in the early 1980s showroom window - and I'm glad that someone has taken the trouble to preserve it... It cuts both ways.

[Flipflop]

I agree with Mickdb1.

I saw an article recently about the single biggest aspect that motorcyclists, of all genres, attach to their hobby/passion and that is...............freedom.
It never ceases to amaze me that so few of them afford this to others.

Great story Al.

[ChrisCole]

This is my R80/7 I bought it partly because I thought so many have been modified getting a fairly standard one in the future is going to get harder and harder. I have fitted a master cylinder on the handle bars, I don't know what BMW were thinking of building R80's with a cable operated brake master cylinder under the petrol tank

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[Richard Simpson Mark II]

The reason was to protect it from tampering/breakage.