You are looking at the latest creation from Woolie’s Workshop. It’s a late 1970’s BMW R100S café racer build. The R100S is a bit of a legendary bike and it’s hard to cut it up so for this project Woolie set out to make something that’s already working really well work differently. “The inspiration behind this bike was to build something that didn’t look very much like a BMW,” says Woolie. “I tried to change the look of it and to style it around something that was a bit older than the bike was.” Woolie goes on to describe the build. “It’s got a big tank and you’re all stretched out, so you really feel like you’re tucked in behind it.” Compared to the original bike, this build possesses a more aggressive riding position, but it’s still very comfortable to ride and very smooth with great power delivery. The frame has been deconstructed—Woolie removed all the brackets, the sub-frame, and sub-frame mounts and hand built a new chromoly sub-frame. The battery has been relocated under the seat with a 1200-degree heat shield protecting it from the engine. The Rear brake was converted from a disc to a drum. Handmade componentry is pretty much everything on the bike: the foot controls, rear sets, front and rear fenders, seat, tank, brackets, headlight mounts, brackets, and tacks. Our friend Pierre Vallaincourt at Works Performance engineered the rear suspension. The Öhlins forks were shortened and re-valved by Ed Sorbo at Lindemann Engineering. The handlebars, bar mounts, and mirrors come courtesy of all of our partners at Rizoma.
“It’s a fun bike,” Woolie declares. “It’s a bit faster than I actually expected. It’s definitely a one off. There’s only ever going to be one of these.”
