If you are a BMW purist, then you should probably stop reading this now. You see, most of the time we start these stories with “the donor bike was a complete wreck when they found it, you could hardly tell what make of motorcycle it was, it looked like it had been sitting on the bottom of the ocean for the last 30 years”, or something to that effect. Not this time. When the guys at Anvil Motociclette went searching for an airhead donor they eventually found the perfect BMW R100. Maybe a bit too perfect. So perfect that the customer who commissioned the build was hesitant to use it for the project – thinking it might be better to preserve it for history’s sake. After a little bit of persuasion and a detailed sketch of the proposed build, he quickly changed his mind and gave them the green light to get started.
Like most of their builds, the guys started by stripping the bike down and removing all the excess weight that was not needed. The frame was painted in their favourite color – yes, black. They also painted the engine in black, along with the Anvil built exhaust pipes. To achieve the tracker look the client was after, they choose Tomaselli dirt track handlebars, some old english grips and vintage mx pegs.
The tank has a story all to itself. While Marco and Phonz from Anvil were on a road trip far from their home, looking to buy a certain motorbike that didn’t work out. After the sale fell through they decided to do what most men away from home would do and found the local pub. “After entering the bar we noticed on the shelf behind the counter a tank marked by time” says Marco. ‘It still looked like it had a great desire to gallop on a motorcycle”. So after a few beers they asked the owner if they could buy the tank. At first he thought these guys were joking, but after a bit of haggling they left the bar with a Kawasaki H2 750 mach IV fuel tank.
To keep with the dirt tracker theme, they chose Heidenau dual sport tires for the front and back. They also created a custom Anvil headlight, simplified the electrics and handmade a black leather seat.
After the bike was completed and the owner viewed his new ride for the first time, he was speechless. He had no regrets about using the near perfect R100 donor. The bike has been given the appropriate name ‘Bootleg’. Just like old bootleg albums, which were usually the stripped down raw version of the original and most of the time much more hair-raising than the ‘official’ release.
