Project LETHE - 1988 BMW R100 Cafe Racer


Project LETHE - 1988 BMW R100 Cafe Racer

Named after Greek Mythology's river Lethe; the place where those reborn can drink from to forget their past life; just as this old Touring bike will embrace its new life as a Cafe Racer.  


Donor Bike: 1988 BMW R100
Frame: Stripped, cleaned and powder coated
Body: Refinished tank, seat and subframe from Walzwerk, hidden battery box under swing arm
Motor: Complete rebuild for engine and carbs, modified airbox
Exhaust: MCU split headers, Sport-Evolution exhaust kit, HAT TECH muffler
Brakes: Front full brake rebuild, stock rear drum brake
Controls: ABM raceClips, Brembo Brake, Domino Clutch, Walzwerk throttle, Highsider mirror, Biltwell grips
Wheels: Powder coated stock wheels, Michelin road classic tires (110/80-18 front, 130/80-18 rear)
Front Suspension: Shaved fork legs, lowered (3in)
Rear Suspension: YSS Topline 410mm
Electronics: M.unit blue controller, Firepower feather weight battery, M.blaze disc and Highsider turn signals, M.button switches, Motoscope Tiny 

Thank you to:
Ben and Robin at Ben's V-Twins - Letting me use their sandblaster and helping with ordering parts
Melvin at The Rose Factory - TIG welding my questionable fitment to help customize the exhaust 
Brook's Airhead Garage - YouTube channel with a video on every topic Clymer let me down on...
Coating Technologies Inc. - Great powder coating and people
Dan Johnson - Awesome photography and motorcycle hype man














Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NORMA JEAN - 1981 Honda CB750k Cafe Racer

Image
1981 Honda CB750k Cafe Racer "Honda's Stock Cafe Racer" Named after Marilyn Monroe's (Norma Jean is her real name) beauty mark, shared by this bike in the form of a brass plug manufacturing defect in the tank.   Donor Bike : 1981 Honda CB750k Frame : Stripped and cleaned, rear hoop Body : Modified tank, Hawk seat and cowl from Hookie Co, under seat electronics tray, hidden battery box under swing arm, EU sport kit rear sets and control upgrade for foot controls Motor : Complete rebuild for engine and carbs, carbs rejetted for POD filters Exhaust : MAC headers and Spark Performance muffler Brakes : Front dual disc brake upgrade, stock rear drum brake Wheels : EU Comstar rims, Shinko E270 tires (4x19 front, 4.5x18 rear) Front Suspension : 1978 CB750F Forks, widened (192mm) and lowered (3in) Rear Suspension : 330mm YSS Eco-Line, lowered (5mm) Electronics : M.unit blue controller, Rick's reg/rec, Antigravity 12-cell battery, M.blaze disc and pin turn signal
Read more

Finished Engine and Wiring

Image
Finally got around to finishing up the engine.  Used a feeler gauge to measure the gap between the cams and the shims.  Ordered a valve shim tool to push the buckets down.  Used my wife's tweezers to pick out the shims.  Measured them with some calipers to compare them to the spec, which is .06 - .13mm.  You annoyingly have to put them all back in to keep measuring them so the cams dont damage the buckets.  Putting them back is NOT as casual and fun as the online videos make it look... The shims are a pretty tight fit so they kept sliding past the buckets instead of seating.  There was only 1 out of 16 shims that was barely in spec, but none of them were shockingly out of spec  indicating something scary, just normal wear for a 40 yr old engine. I went ahead replaced all 16 shims to land mid spec around .09mm.  To calculate each shim size you subtract your desired gap (.09mm) from your measured gap, add that to the measured shim and then round to the nearest .005mm.  After puttin
Read more