Hi,

Thank you for welcoming me to the forum. I'm retired and at last catching up with interests and passions which mostly revolve around restoring vintage pre-war cars. What! I hear you cry - this is a 4 wheel enthusiast. Well, not quite. I also have an old and very tired BWM K100 and having restored an unloved Yamaha 125 a couple of years ago in West Africa have decided to hone my engineering skills, such as they are, and take on a cafe racer customisation of the BMW.

I have followed the forum for a few months reading with interest some of the ups and downs of cafe racer conversions and look forward to interacting with you all as I stumble through my own.

Once again thank you.

Derek

WelKome Derek, you've come to the right place for all things K!

Welcome from down under, lots of info here just ask

An old K is just a car on two wheels.

Thank you for the welcome and I look forward to updating with progress in the months ahead

Welcome Derek, from just up the road in Bristol.
Whilst not a great fan of cafe racers (each to their own), I'm always available to try and help where I can.

Don't know if your tired old K100 was running or not, but if it's not too late, it is often a good idea to get them running again in the as-designed (if not in a pretty state) configuration before you start to hack and chop and modify (especially the electrics). That way, at least you know everything was OK before you started. Might save much anguish and hair puling out later on at the end of your project...

Thank you Born Again,

That was my first thought. However the pppr K has been badly neglected for at least 12 years; left outside uncovered at the mercy of the elements. The trim was cracked and falling off, the fuel pump was seized; tank full of water and the throttle bodies were seized and the plug lead perished. Even one of the plug insulators has crumbled to dust. If that wasn’t bad enough the electrics has been randomly disconnected and some attemp to remove an aftermarket alarm/immobiliser had been made. In fact with the exception of the engine and gearbox most moving parts moved no more.

So I took the brave maybe foolish decision to go ahead and take her apart labelling as I went. When the workshop is completed then I will strip her right down and get dirty.

Wish me luck lol

Ol’man

ol'man wrote:Thank you Born Again,

That was my first thought. However the pppr K has been badly neglected for at least 12 years; left outside uncovered at the mercy of the elements. The trim was cracked and falling off, the fuel pump was seized; tank full of water and the throttle bodies were seized and the plug lead perished. Even one of the plug insulators has crumbled to dust. If that wasn’t bad enough the electrics has been randomly disconnected and some attemp to remove an aftermarket alarm/immobiliser had been made. In fact with the exception of the engine and gearbox most moving parts moved no more.

So I took the brave maybe foolish decision to go ahead and take her apart labelling as I went. When the workshop is completed then I will strip her right down and get dirty.

Wish me luck lol

Ol’man

From your description this project sounds like a very large up hill battle! You may want to consider finding a K in better condition to start with.
I too am not a big cafe fan but like just about anything that is motorcycle so good luck and have fun with it.
And welcome!

ol'man wrote:Thank you Born Again,

That was my first thought. However the pppr K has been badly neglected for at least 12 years; left outside uncovered at the mercy of the elements. The trim was cracked and falling off, the fuel pump was seized; tank full of water and the throttle bodies were seized and the plug lead perished. Even one of the plug insulators has crumbled to dust. If that wasn’t bad enough the electrics has been randomly disconnected and some attemp to remove an aftermarket alarm/immobiliser had been made. In fact with the exception of the engine and gearbox most moving parts moved no more.

So I took the brave maybe foolish decision to go ahead and take her apart labelling as I went. When the workshop is completed then I will strip her right down and get dirty.

Wish me luck lol

Ol’man

Wow - that is quite some neglected state you found her in. She does sound like an ideal cafe project though - to restore her to design would be an equally challenging project and would cost a pretty penny too. Labelling parts is an excellent idea - taking photos is a wise move too. It's amazing how something that looks obvious when you remove it, becomes a complete mystery when you come to put it back a few days, weeks, months...years later!

I wish you well with the project - please give me a shout if you think I can help (or commiserate).

Never label bits and place them in zip lock bags so that you can put them in a "safe"place. When I rebuilt my orange bike it was a number of months between strip down and rebuild. I could not find my "safe"place until after I bought more fasteners as replacements. Good luck.