Your complete guide to BMW cafe racer motorcycles, from classic bikes like the R80 to modern-day specials. Here you’ll find everything from traditional airhead cafe racers to the latest builds based on newer models. Discover the parts, seats and performance upgrades that’ll take your own BMW to the next level.
Does anyone remember the BMW R1150R Rockster? It was an attempt by BMW to inject some edginess into their capable but somewhat vanilla R1150R. So they gave it squinting headlights, a wider rear wheel, a hazard tape livery… and an unfortunate name. It was good enough to turn heads and agile enough to be a…
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Every style of custom motorcycle has a clear-cut formula, but we like it best when builders tear up the blueprint and blur the lines. This refined BMW boxer has the clip-ons of a cafe racer and the high pipes of a scrambler, but it still looks just ‘right.’ It’s the work of Oliver and Dominik…
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Most custom builders are low-volume guys. It’s often a sideline to a day job, or part of a wider operation selling parts. But there are a handful of companies that have a veritable production line, and in Europe, one of those is WalzWerk. “We build around 50 of our ‘Schizzo’ BMWs per year, which is…
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A few years ago, building a cafe racer usually meant imbuing it with a sense of nostalgia. But these days, the custom scene is just as much about modernizing older motorcycles. So we’re seeing more and more builds that combine sharp lines and a sense of minimalism, with performance upgrades matched to ‘neo-retro’ looks. This…
Read more »Eastern Spirit Garage is probably Poland’s premier custom workshop. But they focus on quality over quantity, with fewer than a dozen builds…
Read more »We’ve gone global this week, with a brutal BMW K100RS from Poland, a Triumph Scrambler with a desert sled vibe from Italy,…
Read more »Ever heard of analysis paralysis? It happens when you’ve got so many ideas, your project stalls because you can’t make your mind…
Read more »Like many things from the early 90s, the BMW R100R suffers from an identity crisis. BMW released it as a sort of…
Read more »A new limited production BMW R NineT from Germany, a slammed Sportster built by two of Jakarta’s top custom shops, and a…
Read more »There’s a special place in the custom motorcycle scene for motorcycles that eschew practicality, in order to push boundaries. This BMW R…
Read more »A very slick BMW K100 from Lithuania, a funky Honda Monkey from California, and a Harley-Davidson sidecar rig built in Poland—up for…
Read more »There are pros and cons to picking a K-Series BMW as a custom donor. On the up side, Ks are more readily…
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