Analog Motorcycles R75/5 DS

There are a lot of aircooled BMW twins out there now as they’re becoming one of the most popular platforms to work on in the custom scene, providing a cost-effective, reliable base with genuine heritage and character that can be turned into just about anything and look the part convincingly as brat, cafe or scrambler. It’s a pretty good start in these cash-strapped times, but that doesn’t always mean compromise. Many of these builds just ooze class and quality by keeping it simple.

This 1972 R75 was built by Analog Motorcycles, run by Tony Prust out of Gurnee, around 40 miles from Chicago. The bike was commissioned by a previous customer who had asked Tony to look out for an airhead to build into something cool he could use as a daily ride, but also to take his wife out on. The brief was to make sure it retained its two-up riding option, ditch the large heavy exhaust, make it utilitarian and functional, and of course – be eye catching. Job done.

“We started with sorting out all the electrical and having speedo/tach rebuilt. Along with the electrical upgrade we switched out all the signals with some smaller replacements on all 4 corners, new tidy taillight and a custom made battery tray. We then moved to the seat.”

“The budget didn’t  allow for a full frame-up custom so we made a seat pan that fit the stock frame and wrapped it in custom stitched chocolate brown upholstery by Art at Rod’s Designs to match the grips I picked up from Dime City Cycles.”

“My thoughts from the beginning were to make this bike have a bit of a scrambler feel so added the scrambler bars and replaced the suspension with a set of adjustable Gazi shocks. Also mounted some Shinko dual sport tires to freshly powder coated wheels.”

“I took an old KZ750 front fender and bobbed and modified it to fit the stock front mount. The paint was a color that I had been toying with for another build and thought it would work well on this one.”

“I figured the BMW purist may hate it but when I ordered the Clymer Manual to sort out the wiring the cover picture on the manual was a very similar painted airhead that leads me to believe it may have been a stock color.”[BikeShed] Paint was by Kiel

“I had the traditional pin stripes put on in black and brown to keep the BMW feel. Picked a few more random bits to powder coat black. And to finish up the build we ditched the heavy mufflers and added some shorter, lighter and wide-open mufflers. We also added short 3” baffles at the end of the stock header and lastly added the Bike EXIF readers favorite “pipe wrap” to stay within budget.  ”

The overall vibe of the bike is understated cool. Some non-bikers might think she was an old restored classic, but those of us in the know will appreciate the balance between timelessness and modern-retro touches, like minimalist tail, shortie fender, pipe-wrap, flat brat style seat , brown grips and under-slung mini-mirrors.

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