Airhead dilemma

[lewisjohn]

Do I restore or break ,it's a 1982 police R100,twin shock,wire wheels,twin discs,Brembos Krauser panniers,it's been in a barn for a few years,but not beyond repair.I know there's a market for cafe racer and scrambler project,but there also seems a strong market on eBay for airhead parts.I already have one airhead project which I've nearly finished,and have a Guzzi waiting in the wings.

 

[solidstate100]

Whats the dilemma, its easy! - restore it. Its a diminishing resource, will always be worth more/more saleable restored than as some currently fashionable (soon to be unfashionable) cafe racer/whatever project...

 

[lewisjohn]

Police spec

As you can see in the photo the seat is rather unusual,the standard single seat was replaced with a full length seat by a previous owner who was an upholsterer,the cover is apparently leather,as is the covering on the side panels and the rear of the tank and tank lid.

 

[tuftywhite]

Restore it as was. Too many are getting chopped up.

 

[peepingtom]

If you don't want to put back on the road put up for sale on here. Better chance for the bike than eBay I suspect.

 

[Dogbytes]

Do I restore or break ,it's a 1982 police R100,twin shock,wire wheels,twin discs,Brembos Krauser panniers,it's been in a barn for a few years,but not beyond repair.I know there's a market for cafe racer and scrambler project,but there also seems a strong market on eBay for airhead parts.I already have one airhead project which I've nearly finished,and have a Guzzi waiting in the wings.

Break it or sell it as the basis for a project.

Not everything has to remain as it was when it left the factory - there's this thing called progress, which is why they aren't making them anymore. Besides, those who think they should all be restored to factory original condition will have the joy of watching their machines get rarer and more valuable. Maybe. I'm not seeing the prices of HPNs plummeting to the point where I can afford one.

There are some very nice BMW based custom bikes out there - the Rodney Aguiar R80 and Sébastien Beaupère's R69 to name but two of many.

 

[lewisjohn]

Well I got the bike home,on inspection I've realised it wouldn't take a lot of work to put back on the road as it is,wheel rims are good,engine and gearbox has a bit of furring,not been on the road since 2002.however I do like the idea of a scrambler type with alloy guards trial type tyres and single seat.

 

[Dogbytes]

Go for it. It would be nice to see that.

 

[(RIP) Arkwright]

It looks as though it's got a narrow front hub to put Brembo brakes on spoked wheels, very useful!

It'll make a good proper Cafe Racer.

Quite difficult to do otherwise,DAMHIK!

 

[Kenny]

Agreed....be a healthy mileage to say the least...so cut her up and have a play with her...there's millions of the buggers out there for many years to come !

 

[lewisjohn]

It looks as though it's got a narrow front hub to put Brembo brakes on spoked wheels, very useful!

It'll make a good proper Cafe Racer.

Quite difficult to do otherwise,DAMHIK!

Apparently it's unusual to have the spoked wheels/alloy rims with the Brembo calipers,I read on a forum for ex police bikes that some special escort bikes could have had the spoked wheels with the Brembos.The recorded mileage is around 18500,it's joined my queue of projects,the next of which is going to be my Guzzi 1000 cafe racer,so the airhead will probably become a scrambler of some sort.

 

[Rob Farmer]

The spokes were standard on the tic bikes up until 84. The early cast wheels had a poor reputation and were prone to cracking (you can still exchange them for a new one foc in the states) so bmw sensibly offered the wires on bikes that could have a hard life. I think they were an optional extra on all of the 81-84 bikes.

Geoff deacon (on this site) is the man to talk to. He's a trained bmw mechanic with Leicestershire police. If anybody knows about police bikes it will be Geoff.

 

[lewisjohn]

She runs

I'm off work at the moment,so I thought I'd have a play with the bike ,see if it turned over etc.so I ran a set of jump leads off my ride on mower then checked the oil which looked really clean,when I turned on the petrol taps fuel leaked from the left hand carb so I gave the bowl a little tap to free the float which stopped the leak.Now bearing in mind the bike was last taxed around 2004 and had stale fuel in the tank,amazingly it fired on around the third stab of the button and started after the fifth or six attempt.I ran it for a couple of minutes and it sounded really sweet.
So my thinking is give it a quick clean maintaining a certain patina and use it as it is,perfect winter bike.

 

[Dogbytes]

Result! It'll give you time to decide what to do with it at the same time as having the use (and spotting any deficiencies therein!).