1973 BMW R60/5 Special

By Phillip Tooth

Josh Withers always loved BMW’s Toaster-style tanks, and who doesn’t love the café look? To fulfill his love of both, he built an R60/5 special perfect for ripping around the streets of Los Angeles.

Based in L.A., Josh is a commercial photographer who specializes in advertising shoots for everything from cars to dog food. Being creative with a camera and a wiz at Photoshop can be satisfying, but he missed working with his hands. “I have a passion for vintage cars, motorcycles and surfboards,” says Josh, who commutes to work on a 1977 R100S. To feed that passion, he decided what he really needed was a project bike.

“I’ve always liked the look of the Toaster-tank BMWs,” says Josh. “So when I heard of a 1973 R60/5 for sale in Santa Fe, N.M., I thought it would be a nice reminder of the four years I spent there.” The fact the Toaster was described as “runs well” and was only $500 probably helped clinch the deal.

Only the beginning
The R60/5 was shipped to his studio in L.A., but Josh soon realized that you don’t get much for $500 these days: “It barely ran. I tried to ride home on it, keeping off the main roads, but it died about five blocks from my house and I had to push it the rest of the way.” It didn’t take him long to work out that the Toaster needed a lot of work to sort it out. “The carbs were a mess and there were too many odd parts on the bike. I found Lucas electric components and bits of wire holding things together — the sort of bodge that would make any BMW purist cringe,” Josh recalls. “My new toy needed a thorough check through, and before I knew it, I had it down to the bare frame.”

That bare frame became an empty canvas where Josh could let his creative juices flow. “My other BMW is more on the stock side,” he says, “so I decided I would build a Toaster café racer. That was four years ago. I didn’t think it was going to take me quite as long as it did!”

Josh says the R60/5 engine was a complete mess, so he parked it under the workbench and bought an engine from a 1979 R100S. “It was more powerful than I needed for a town bike, but when a BMW guru in San Francisco, Dave Gardner, offered to guide me through a complete strip down and rebuild, I decided to go for it,” he says.

Although the R100S had been converted to twin-plug heads for more performance, he decided to set it up with single-plug ignition. “I wanted to get a good feel for the single plugs before I eventually convert to the dual plugs,” Josh explains. “That way I’ll have a solid foundation to gauge the difference.”

As part of the rebuild the flywheel was lightened, and Nikasil barrels and new pistons fitted. Josh originally wanted to keep the 4-speed gearbox with kickstart, but soon realized the kick lever would interfere with rearset linkage. Instead, he opted for a 5-speed transmission from a 1975 /6 somebody had given him as a spare for his daily ride. “Fortunately, the 1971-1984 airheads have many interchangeable parts,” Josh points out.

Cleaning, blasting and spraying
Professional help didn’t run as far as cleaning the engine case. “I used my own elbow grease,” Josh says. The aluminum timing and valve covers were cleaned with a baking soda solution before polishing, and were then sprayed with a heat-dispersion clear coat to finish off the job. One particularly nice detail is that the starter cover on top of the crankcase says “BMW” in aluminum, a feature unique to the 1979 engines. Earlier engines included the model designation, as well, while later models used a black plastic trim.

The 40mm Bing carbs were bead blasted to give a nice finish, and Josh ditched the bulky air box cover to trim some fat and mounted K&N filters straight to the carbs. “I have a friend in New Jersey who works as a machinist for Coca-Cola,” Josh says. “I would send him templates and he would bend and fabricate stainless steel sheet to make a cover for where the airbox used to live. That’s how I got the license plate and tail light bracket made, as well.”

Josh converted the R60’s swingarm to the shorter unit used when the /5 series was first introduced to give a more aggressive look better suited to a café racer. New fork springs came from Progressive, while a pair of Koni Dial-A-Ride shocks look after the back end. Italian rearset pegs were adapted with an Omar rearset linkage to help complete the look.

But then the project almost came to a very unhappy end. Josh sent parts for powder coating but the shop vanished over a weekend. “Crazy huh?” says Josh. “Turns out it was a shady guy trying to avoid his rent and he pulled out all the stops to move a powder-coat booth over night. It took me months to track down my missing components.”

The original BMW fenders were too bulky for the café racer look, so Josh trimmed a few inches of fiberglass off the front guard and “tons” off the rear. Because of his work in advertising he knew a couple of companies who prepare cars for photo shoots. “Those guys painted the fenders and tank for me,” says Josh. That’s probably why the Toaster café racer looks pretty as a picture. Other neat touches are the drilled alloy triple clamp, the clubman handlebars and the custom white speedometer.

Josh chose a Corbin seat and had it made with blue piping to match the paintwork. Both the tail light and turn signals use neat LED lights. The Toaster café racer was finished off with stainless pipes and Norton Commando peashooter silencers. “The bike hardly sounds like a BMW anymore,” laughs Josh. “It has some serious throat to it.”

First ride
But Josh wasn’t too impressed with the first trip on his freshly built café racer: “The first 75 miles on the bike was the worst ride of my life. Turns out that because I assembled the forks on the headstock a couple of years earlier, they remained in their extended position and got stuck.

“In my eagerness to ride the bike I really didn’t notice how stiff the front end was. Then I took it down the highway to do a little engine break-in and I thought my kidneys were going to explode. A friend suggested something was wrong with the forks and sure enough they were seized solid. I took them apart and loosened them up.” Everything has worked smoothly for the last 600 miles.

“Every time I get on this bike and hear the roar from behind as I tear down the street, it gives me the liberating feeling of what riding a motorcycle is all about. Heads turn when people hear the sound of those peashooters and I’m always getting compliments about the café look,” Josh says. “Just the other day I passed a guy on the freeway, only to have him speed up to me, honk his horn and give the thumbs up. It is definitely an attention grabber.”

Josh isn’t done yet. The final drive is geared low for good snap off the line, but he is considering changing it for a higher top end. The bike could use a better front brake. Josh thinks a twin-leading-shoe Fontana or Grimeca would look cool. “When funds allow I want to replace the wheel rims and add chrome spokes, and tweak the rearsets as well,” Josh adds. But for now, he’s just going to enjoy the ride. MC

Omar’s Rearsets
www.rearsets.info

Corbin seats
www.corbin.com

Forks
www.progressivesuspension.com

Photography
www.joshwithers.com