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1979 BMW R45 Reworked in Cafe Racer Style, Engine Grows in Size

According to Spanish motorcycle shop Bolt, when starting the process of customizing a bike “the secret to success is choosing correctly which parts to leave, which to change and which to restore.” And by looking at the custom BMW R45 in the gallery below, we can safely say they nailed the recipe, at least with this one.
Bolt 1979 BMW R45 10 photos
Photo: Bolt
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Bolt is one of those European garages (like Blitz or Vagabund) that have made a name for themselves by bringing back to life the motorcycles of old. During their time on the custom scene, the garage has been working on Yamahas, Hondas, and even Ducatis, but BMW remains one of their favorite targets.

The R45 we have here comes all the way from 1979. It is part of a family of two-wheelers that was introduced at about the same time as a sort of scaled-down versions of bigger Motorrads, and was kept into production not that long, just about until the mid-1980s.

True to its secret recipe, Bolt kept most of the original parts of the bike, but reworked them to give them a more modern interpretation: the front axle, the brakes, the electronics, and even the engine are all original. In the case of the powerplant however, work done on it resulted in a bigger displacement that it original had: from 453cc, the size increased to nearly double that, 866cc - we are not given any details on how that was achieved.

New parts added to the motorcycle include the watch, the odometer and rev meter, sourced from KOSO and Motogadget, and of course the seat, made in brown suede to be as unlike the blue paint on the tank as possible.

We are not being told how much this bike cost to be made, but it was interesting enough for someone to buy, as it is no longer listed on the Bolt website as being available.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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