Page 99 - Adrenaline DEC

BIKE
You will hopefully recall in a previous edition of the magazine, I covered the growing trend amongst the motorcycling fraternity of what is known as ‘shed builds’ in other words wannabe designers of motorcycles who strip and rebuild old nails into things of beauty!
Well having visited a number of the Bike Shed Shows both in the UK and Europe and this is now a growing trend globally with projects like the Art of Speed show in Kuala Lumpur last month, we (that is my motorcycling neighbour Adrian and I – see dirty weekend article Paddock Life Classic Issue) decided that we would source a bike and build our own Café Racer.
Having scoured E-Bay and Motorcycle Trader for a suitable donor we came upon an old BMW K75s – that appeared to be in great condition for it’s years, well maintained and serviced.
Clutching a fist full of cash amounting to no more than one ‘large’ (£1,000) Adrian (Ade) went off
to secure our candidate bike so we could get underway with a shed build of our own. It turned out that the lovely old chap selling the bike had been riding for a long while and was just a tad too old to ride the BMW anymore and for a 28 years vintage machine it was in staggeringly good condition and clearly his pride and joy. Ade did not have the heart to tell him that we planned to rip it to pieces and build an angry street bike...
I should point out at this stage that neither Ade or I are mechanics but we both have an eye for detail and a strong creative streak and of course I provide the marketing bit required to hopefully make the project work.
Now anyone who knows bikes knows that the BMW K75s is a very good touring bike but it is no looker, if it was at a party, it would be the old fat bird in the corner that no one wanted to dance with, so boy did our bike need a make-over.
While Ade set about pulling the BMW to pieces
and selling off all the bits we did not need back on E-bay, I set up the company, worked up a logo, started work on a web site and basically did all the fluffy PR and social media stuff, as I am not one for really getting my hands dirty but at least I helped give birth to our little bike building business 1.618 Machines.
Having poured over Instagram and Pintrest to see what others had done, we decided on a basic design idea for the K75s that would clearly evolve and realised that all we really needed was the engine, frame, tank and some of the wiring – everything else could go.
Stripped back to all its composite parts, the engine went off to be pulled apart, cleaned and rebuilt. The frame was sent off to be cut at the rear, all the mountings for bodywork we no longer needed would be machined off and then the whole thing sand–blasted and powder-coated. We hired the talents of an upholster to build a new seat and briefed an old friend of mine who is an expert
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