From the seller: “Welcome to the auction of my 1978 BMW R80 project bike.
I bought this in 2016 from in Essex, from the son of the man who’d owned it since 1982. The owner had become too old to ride, so his son had taken over the bike and begun to customise it, before deciding partway through to sell it and buy a car instead. He delivered it by riding it to my house and it was running perfectly at that time. I was happy to buy it as my intention was to continue the custom process and make my ideal version of the R-series cafe racers / trackers that have been a staple of the custom scene for the last decade or so. He had replaced the original rear shocks and subframe with a custom one which had cost a fair bit, removed the rear mudguard and painted lots of the bike black (with average success.) He’d also swapped the handlebars but left the ugly Avon fairing, the front mudguard and the original tank.
I removed the tank and fairing (sold the tank and gave the fairing away) then began stripping the bike’s wiring – nothing relating to the bike’s running, mainly the wires relating to the various lights, indicators, toggle switches etc. Then before getting any further I became very ill, spent most of 2018 learning to walk again, since which time I’ve been medically unable to ride a motorcycle any more. So the bike’s been in storage ever since, where it’s remained dry but neglected until now.”
