“The more you look, the more you see.”
Chris Edwards of Liberty Motorcycles left school at the age of 15 to become a motorcycle mechanic. Since then, he’s worked a wide variety of bikes, even making his way into the paddock as a race mechanic for British Superbike. In 2013, he left the race paddock to open Liberty Motorcycles — a new and used motorcycle dealership.
Believe it or not, Chris actually built this incredible black 1982 BMW R65RT cafe racer in 2014/15. The solid wheels were inspired by a grasstrack bike he owned — a trend that’s become popular again of late. Obviously, Liberty was way ahead of the curve!
Below, we get more details on this Bavarian black beauty.
BMW R80 Cafe Racer: In the Builder’s Words
I have been a motorcycle mechanic since age 15, left school early ?? I have been lucky enough to work with many makes and models of bike — I have even worked up until recently in the race paddock for road racing and BSB (British Superbike)…until 2013, when I opened Liberty Motorcycles. We actually sell new and used bikes, but I wanted to give the cafe racer a try.
I actually built this back in 2014/15 and sold it to a friend of mine…it’s only recently that it’s got attention after being invited down to The Bike Shed…in 2017.
So in the last year we have built up another four bikes — all different — and we are going to release them in two months. I can focus more now on this growing scene as the shop pretty much runs itself now…and I need a job within it lol!
Bike was based on a 1982 BMW R80RT. I had seen that people were building them and getting a lot of press about them! So here was the one i did!
I used a mixture of parts from stock to Roland Sands…more you look, more you see. I got my inspiration from the Vrod and a Confederate Hellcat that we had in for sale.
I got the wheel idea from a grass track bike I bought and just thought wheel covers are great…
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…that’s crazy shit maynard………???…….i like…..and i don’t usually like beemers….
I could imagine crosswinds would play havoc riding this at any speed.
I`d ride the piss out`a that