Marcus Walz made his bones building extreme choppers in the 90s. But as the new wave café racer scene blossomed, the founder of WalzWerk Motorcycles pivoted towards more contemporary custom build styles. WalzWerk now builds around 100 motorcycles a year—and at least 80 of those are classic BMW boxers.
That sort of output demands a steady stream of donor bikes, so the WalzWerk crew is always on the hunt for suitable candidates. “We buy around 120 BMW R80 and R100 Monolever models a year,” says Marcus, “The majority come from relatives, heirs, and survivors—and almost every one of them has a personal, and often tragic, story behind it.”
The history of this 1987 BMW R80 was so compelling that, once he’d heard it, Marcus decided to keep the bike for himself.…