1980 BMW R80/7 Café Racer

Here's a encore bike from one Mark Byfield. He's an owner/builder that caused quite a stir with his first bike, an faired '85 R80 that would easily make our all-time top 10 list. This time he's shaken things up a bit and gone with, erm, another R80. But has he ended up in a similar place? Hells no - for here we see not a beautiful, bare-bones faired racer but instead a caffed-out daily rider with a padded seat, a toaster tank, and some very exxy-looking front brakes. Mark seems to have a knack for making a lot out of a little cash and a large, overflowing bucket of DIY skills. Don't you just hate him?

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BMW R100 Tracker - Fuel Bespoke Motorcycles

It's always a Good Friday when we receive fine photographs of great bikes in the Pipeburn inbox. Like this recently completed beemer flat-tracker from our friend Karles over at Fuel Bespoke Motorcycles in Spain. Karles is also the man behind Scram Africa and has a serious passion for classic flat trackers and scramblers. It's been almost a year since we posted Karles first bike, another BMW R100 tracker which was also a tribute to the flat trackers of old. After several months of hard work Karles is extremely happy with his latest project. "It has been a great challenge to complete the bike and a way to improve and continue learning in this addictive world of customization" he says. I have a soft spot for airheads and flat trackers, so for me this is the perfect combination.

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1974 BMW R75 - Krautmotors Street Tracker

When it comes to finding inspiration on building a custom motorcycle, most people search the internet, look in magazines or pray to a higher being to give them a brilliant idea. Not Rolf Reick from Germany. He was inspired by people telling him he couldn't do what he always wanted to do — build a BMW using an old frame and a new engine. "I guess the overall motivation was that people told me it just wasn't possible to build it like that" says Rolf. Rolf is a product designer and head of a private school for product design. Besides that he works as a freelance designer and also owns a clothing label called Krautmotors. So between doing all those things we have no idea how he has time to build so many amazing bikes. Like this one-of-a-kind 'BMW Frankenstein' Street Tracker... 

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1983 BMW R65 "Veille École"

Here's something you may or may not know, depending on your own, personal level of smart-ass-ed-ness. The current BMW logo has been developed over many generations of refinement to the point it's at today - the familiar circle divided into blue and white quadrants. But do you know where it started? Here's where; as a white spinning propellor against a blue sky. That's right, a propellor. Motorcycles were essentially a sideline for the company after the treaty of Versailles banned Germany from making arms in 1918. Talk about making the best out of a poor lot. So almost 100 years later we find ourselves in Sydney with a Frenchman pondering just how to trick up his '83 R65. Then in a moment of divine inspiration, he realises exactly what he should do. Behold the world's first BMW motorbike decorated in the colours of the French Airforce. Vive la différence!

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Ian Barry's Top 10 Bikes

One of our supporters and co-founder of LA’s Falcon Motorcycles recently shared his all time favorite two-wheeled machines with Architectural Digest. We guessed some of you might not be reading Architectural Digest every day, so for those that missed it, enjoy. Words by Ian Barry himself.

1923 Brough Superior SS80 “Old Bill”

Nicknamed “Old Bill” after a cartoon character popular during World War I, this was the personal sprint bike of George Brough, the founder of Brough Superior in Nottingham, England. Brough was a consummate showman who dubbed his handiwork “the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles,” and in this modified version of his SS80, he put his machine where his mouth was. This bike will be an influence in the creation of the Vespertine Falcon.

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1985 BMW R80 Café Racer

As a hobby you've got admit that motorbikes are, all things considered, relatively cheap. It's heartening that in this day and age you can still rock on up to your local Ducati store and buy an Italian two-wheeled Ferrari for a lot less than US$20,000. In fact the advertised price for Ducati's top-of-the-line 1198 SP racer in North America is only a smidge under US$22,000. In the scheme of things, that's a silly small price. A 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia would cost you ten times that amount, and I doubt that any of us would be willing to choose a single car over 10 new bikes - let alone 40+ second hand or vintage bikes.

Which brings us rather neatly to this little gem, aka Mark Byfield's cafe'd 1985 BMW R80. With nothing but a bunch of hard work and a cash outlay of less than five Aussie grand, he's managed to create a bike that looks like a million bucks and which rocks our boat a lot more vigorously than any four-wheeled Italian poseur-mobile ever could.

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Interview: Karles Vives - Fuel Bespoke Motorcycles

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You've probably never heard of Karles Vives. He is not famous in the motorcycling world and up until 6 months ago he had never attempted to build a bike. That all changed when he picked up a 1982 BMW R100 and Jeremy Churchill’s 'BMW 2-Valve Twins' book and decided to turn a tired old beemer that was drowning in panniers and a chunky fairing into the classic styled scrambler of his dreams. When we spotted this bike, it got our attention like a red rag to a bull and wanted to find out more about this Spaniard and his classy German scrambler he affectionately calls 'Scram'.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background? 

Hi, my name is Karles Vives and I live and work in Barcelona, Spain. I’ve been working as graphic designer and creative director for more than 15 years, but my passion for motorbikes started 20 years ago when I purchased my first motorbike. It was an all red Vespa Primavera 125 that I used to call “the red Baron” :-). Many more followed that first one, from custom to trails, sportbikes, or nakeds, until I got the current BMW GS 1150 Adventure one. I love everything related to “vintage culture”, from photography to music, design or fashion.

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1979 BMW R100/7 Blitz Street Tracker

A couple of months ago we featured a beautifully shot video of some French gentleman from Blitz Motorcycles in Paris cruising the country roads of France. The video caused quite a commotion with most people liking it, but we also had our fair share of haters — but as they say in France, "such is life." Well, hopefully their latest creation, this rough and raw BMW street tracker will show you that these guys aren't a "bunch of douche bag hipsters" but actually a group of quite talented builders putting out some really impressive bikes.

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Pipeburn Lost and Found

Check out the Guzzi above. Amazing, huh? We found it last week while doing our usual rounds of the web. We've done just about everything we can to find out a little more about it, but short of photocopying flyers and sticking them to local telegraph poles we've pretty much exhausted all possibilities. Sadly, we're faced with such hot bike tragedies every week here at Pipeburn; really sweet machines that we'd post on the blog in a second if it weren't for the fact that we just can't track down any further info or images on them. So they go into our lost and found folder, never to see the light of day. Until now. If anyone out there knows ANYTHING about these bikes, please feel free to email us and get these rides out of the lost and found and into a post on Pipeburn*.

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