I´m Ricardo Gomez, a motorcycle enthusiast for the past 18 years. I enjoy particularly the dual purpose riding and have owned several BMW GS (all my motorcycles except my first) and have travel many miles on and off road of my beautiful Mexico. About 3 years ago I came across several pictures of modified motorcycles (café racers, bobbers, scramblers, etc.) and decided that I would try to design and build one that could capture the essence of the actual GS Bikes along with the modifications that were made on the old days. Been that said it´s obvious that I decided to go for a Scrambler type retro design by the name “R60 GScrambler”, as a mix of the scramblers with the GS spirit.
Having some design experience but none mechanical or modification what so ever, I decided to go step by step. The first obvious thing was to find the donor bike.
My first choice, living in Mexico, was Craiglist San Diego where I found a 74´ R60/6 in good conditions and running. Once the bike was in her new home the next step was to find someone that could help in this titanic adventure. After searching in the web and contacting several “modifiers”, a good friend recommended me with BEMOTO, A small workshop who specializes in restoration of old BMW and Vespa motorcycles. Beto Rivera (the owner) had never done modifications but gladly accepted the challenge. From that day on we worked together in design and functionality to bring this GScrambler to life.
As I had a very good idea of what the design would be like, we decided to do a sketch and work from there.
Is fair to say that the project went slow on the first year. One of the first challenges came when I decided to use a 1150GS headlight to give the bike a GS unique feature. The problem was to make a special housing that would look original. We also spent a while trying to solve the subframe design and trying to find people in Mexico that would convince us that they would deliver with the quality we were searching for. This and other things made this first year a little frustrating as the advance went really slow. By the end of that first year the subframe was done, an old Renthal motocross handlebar was integrated to give the enduro touch, the headlight was ready and the new handmade seat completed the look. You could now have an idea of what it would look like in the future.
In parallel I began to purchase all those modern gadgets that would accompany the retro design such as led rear light, Motogadget turn signals, new rizoma mirrors, new Acewell gauge and other stuff.
Another tough decision was the battery. You can find hundreds of threads, advices, and forums about the pros and cons of smaller batteries (specially gel ones) and after a lot of time I decided for a Shorai lithium battery with an “underneath the engine” case mounting because the design included a “stuff free” space below the seat.
Another doubt was to install those flashy exposed air filters or not. Because of the “off road” nature of the bike, although they look great I couldn’t imagine hitting the dirt and getting those filters really dirty. I mean it´s not that I pretended to use it in off road every day but once in a while why not!!! This is a personal use Motorcycle I intend to use now and then.
In the second year the modifications went faster. Once we finish the main modifications we decided to ride the bike to analyze the design before getting into engine and finishes.
After that we began to disassemble the whole motorcycle to check engine and all parts looking for small or mayor details. Fortunately they were few problems and could move forward to start deciding the finishes that would give the motorcycle the final look (colors and finishes).
I decided that the color (fuel tank and fenders) would be matte gray with the BMW M stripes on the sides. The frame and subframe along with other parts were coated painted with rugged finish to give a more aggressive look. For the wheels I decided to follow the GS style (black ring, natural spokes and natural masses). Some things were cleaned, other sandblasted and other ones galvanized.
Another GS detail was the exhaust pipes. Originally the exhausts are un almost a flat position. We needed to bring them to a 45 degree angle so that it would have the Dual Purpose look. I purchased some short cones that looked just fine but the tips didn´t helped to the look and to water protection. I decided that they needed a Remus or akrapovic style at the end, so we modified them.
Of course we had some provider delays and sometimes returned things because they didn´t fulfill our expectations but at the end they all delivered and met the standards we were looking for.
The final modification due to the high expenses was the suspension. We changed the front springers and rear shocks to guarantee a smooth ride.