Written by Tim Huber.
Some projects are just meant to be. We can resist all we want, but fate has a funny way of dictating our ultimate outcomes in what we do. Marc from Haseth Motorcycles in Amsterdam recently experienced this first hand. When shopping around for a project donor, Marc came across a used early ?90s BMW R80R, though it was a bit worse for the wear, so he ended up opting for an R60/2 instead. A little down the road after that build was complete, Marc came across the very same R80R, though again passed on it. But when it came time to find another suitable airhead donor, and the R80R popped up for a third time, Marc took it as a sign.

?In short, I was a bit hesitant about this oddball project, but as they say ?when opportunity knocks?,? jokes Marc. Despite its rather shabby appearance, when Marc got the bike up on the bench he was pleasantly surprised to discover things were in much better shape than he?d originally thought. ?The previous builder had actually done a good job from a mechanical point of view. Not like many of the half-assed projects that have been simply pieced together, but the bike was actually properly gone through. This provided me a very nice clean canvas to start the project on,? Marc tells us. 

Marc stripped down the bike and began building it back up, starting with the tank, as it would largely dictate the overall feel and aesthetic of the build. ?There are some beautiful examples out there of skilled people who have successfully pu...