BMW R65 Cafe Racer - From tat to tatts to triumph!

Firstly, confession time. I did not personally butcher a stock European-import BMW R45 into a raw Cafe Racer, as I would never have been so adventurous and ruthless to embark on such a daring journey. The R45 never made it to our shores as an off-the-shelf ride and is therefore extremely rare, if not unheard of. The R45 is basically a full R65 with sleeved-down barrels and a lower-geared final drive. After riding this version, I can understand why it was not among the chosen few and was basically useless for the Australian market.

Twenty five years after the R45 arrived in our sunburnt country, two brave souls in not-so-sunburnt Launceston decided that this oddity would be a suitable canvas for a trendy, avant garde boulevard racer, so they embarked on a journey of discovery. . . and butchery.

Ever so carefully, the Tassie duo trashed the stock front guard, battery box, sidecovers, starter motor, battery, seat, footpegs, rear fairing, exhaust, air cleaners, indicators, tail light, rear guard, instrument cowling, ignition switch, and air filter housing. Their misled hope was to make it lighter in order to overcome its distinct lack of horsepower and cubic centimetres. I suspect that it may have been much more effective for the creators to have gone on a diet. The exhaust went 2-1 into a stainless muffler off a KTM, creating a very unique and Ducati-ish note. Powdercoated black wheels were a big cosmetic improvement of the original bare alloy look.

After their labours, these epic travellers come engineering artists rode it as an R45. Despite their courageous efforts, they were so unimpressed with its limp-wristed power that they sold their beloved project.

The next owner chose a journey of tattoos. Not a wise choice, it seems, as following all the blood and pain, he could not pay the bill for his artistically improved skin. The solution for the inked owner was to offer the R45 as payment.
Then it came the turn for yours truly to enter this forlorn story of woe. I met up with the tattooist on a 1% biker run and he mentioned that the R45 was for sale. I went with baited breath to investigate and, like an adolescent fool, fell in love with this little beauty. My first intention was to race the bike in classic events in Tasmania.

As I rode it home, I immediately noticed its wonderful lack of anything resembling horsepower. The ATC front brake was like the brake lever on the billycart of my childhood. I can't imagine why many of our German cousins did not end up dead trying to stop a machine with stoppers such as these. Underpowered and with woeful brakes, it didn't present well, but man oh man was its handling a joy! It was from here that I tumbled headlong into a journey of discovery which lasted nearly two years.

Firstly, I replaced the electric leg and battery, to help it live without breaking my leg. Then I discovered that the barrels were lined with some esoteric creation known as "Nikasil". To the uninitiated (like I was), this is a very hard-wearing bore lining which BMW decided was the go for their engines. It's tough, but cannot be rebored, so new pistons were the order of the day. I acquired a pair of R65 barrels, and with new rings I tried again. The barrels did not match the R45 crankcases, so they had to be machined ever so slightly to match. I discovered this when its lifeblood dribbled all over the garage floor seconds after starting it. I started it again and then the pistons hit the heads, but only on one side - figure that one out! At this point I was almost ready to find the nearest bridge to launch this machine into Hades or whatever the Germanic version of hell is. But I relented, deciding instead to see Merv Grey, an icon of engine machining in Launceston. He was able to machine the cylinder heads so the pistons did not collide with them like some nuclear physics experiment designed to test chaos theory. It worked, but the compression was so high that it "pinged" (pre-ignited) like a heavy metal concert's VU meters. Hmmm, back to the workshop.

A set of second-hand R65 heads from the US cured the pings, but the R45 diff (final drive) was so low geared that I might as well have thrown away two of the gears in the 'box. Again I faced a dilemma - trash the project or persevere? I chose the latter and sourced an R65 diff, once again from the land of Uncle Sam. With the R65 engine and transmission goodies all in place, I finally had a bike that was worth riding. It pulls like an R65, handles like a young racehorse and looks a treat. By then, my dream of racing it had evaporated. Basically, it was too nice a bike to endure the further modifications needed for track life, hence it remained in the "real world".

Things like clip-on bars, fuel tank chequering and exposed gauges tick all the usual 'café racer' boxes. The custom-made ducktail was already on the bike when I bought it, but I modified it and added some finishing touches, like the little bullet-style indicators, as seen on Harleys during the 80s & 90s.

All this effort goes to show that an out-of-the-box R45 from the land we flattened in my grandfather's day was a lemon-flavoured dud. But I think I've shown that with some radical surgery and a bucketload of perseverance, you can create a yellow trippy thing that is worth all the suffering!
Chris Brooks.

With other projects and future challenges in mind, Chris has chosen to sell his unique custom. Asking price is a very reasonable $6,200 ono.