Written by Andrew Jones
Reviving clapped-out road bikes from sheds and garages is all fine and good, but spare a thought for the old racers of years gone by. More likely to end life upside down than right-side up – and probably on fire – it’s a tough gig to survive without some serious war wounds. So when Spain’s Macco Motors had a customer bring them not one but two BMW R100RS ex-racers, they feared the worst: for the bikes, their budget and their sanity. But what’s a few broke, manically babbling customisers when you have an end result like this, a cafe racer they call the ?Great White?.

?Our customer bought us twin BMW R100s,? say the Macco boys. ?He made a deal and got these two bikes that had been competing in classic races competitions for some years. The bikes had been left in a shed for four years and we had no idea what state they were in.? When Rafa, the customer, told Jose and Tito about his plan to buy these bikes and customise them to ride on Spanish streets, they were more than a little sceptical. Clearly, Rafa had fallen in love with the racing mods done to the bikes: the worked engines, R1 fronts and their overall look. ?But the other one had a broken engine and this one was a completely unknown quantity. His build budget could vary wildly.?
Despite their fears, Jose and Tito had always wanted to build an old BMW sporting a classic fairing, and this seemed to be the perfect bike to make it happen. Experience dictated the one ...