Cafe Racer Days BMW R nine T

Chris' BMW R nine T 'Cafe Racer Days'

Chris came to us with a simple brief - source a BMW R9T Roadster and build a stunning cafe racer - and after a few quick chats we found ourselves looking more and more at true classic cafe racers and race bikes from the 50's and 60's for inspiration. We set our sights on designing a bike we could imagine ourselves taking to the Isle of Man TT and giving Geoff Duke, John Surtees or Mike Hailwood a run for their money (maybe!). 

We sourced the bike, a 2015 R9T Roadster, from the guys at CW Motorcycles in Dorset, Adrian made the process very easy and they definitely come recommended.

Chris want to have the pure period aesthetic combined with a practicality and comfort that wouldn't put him off actually using the bike - enter Daedalus Designs and their fantastic 'over the yoke' drop bars. These give the bike the looks of a classic clip on but a much higher riding position - perfect your back and for this build. We refinished the supplied top yoke and standard bottom yoke to match a more period look and also finished the forks in black, dropping in a fresh set of Ohlins Cartridges in the process. To match the front suspension upgrade we poppedan Ohlins rear shock onto the bike but decided to go from yellow to black on the spring. We also had the wheels highly polished and matched the headlight in order to give the bike a true throwback look.

We spent a day splitting the bike and adding our airbox removal kit, making sure to fit the new Daedalus rear LED light kit when building the bike back up again, in turn getting rid of the large number plate hanger that BMW decided was a good idea - also another subtle doth of the cap to a licence plateless (it's a word!) race bike vibe.

Chris had already researched the exhaust and had chosen the Zard Titanium Race System we were stoked to be fitting it - it's one of our favourite exhausts for this bike. If gave a cool classic twin exhaust feel to the build, another box ticked!

I was a little dubious about fitting the RSD cover guards once we had gotten to this stage. The bike looked bang on the original brief and I had concerns that they might look a little too 'blingy' - how wrong I was! The contrast cut effect really brought the bike together, I would never have imagined how well they could have worked. 

Finally we fitted the freshly painted tank, seat hump and Rizoma aluminium front mudguard, all painted in a genuine BMW silver with a classic double pinstripe in homage to the BMW and Norton racers of the time. 

Having now had the opportunity to ride the bike, I'm utterly smitten with it. Generally speaking our builds tend to be very aesthetically led but with this bike, Chris gave us full reign to allow the bike to breathe and run better. Fitting the combo of PCC air box removal kit, DNA filters, Rapid Bike EVO and full Zard system turns this bike into an absolute ripper, like it has just rolled in straight off of the track. We couldn't be happier.