Building Your Own Beemer

Building Your Own Beemer

SWISS MOTORCYCLE CHASSIS whiz Fritz Egli has commenced production of his BMW K100 frame kit, launched last year. The beautifully made chrome-moly backbone frame employs Egli's own 38mm fork and a White Power shock, though it retains a standard BMW swingarm.

Dry weight is said to be 441 pounds, a significant reduction from the standard Kl’s claimed dry weight of 538 pounds.

Though some of Egli’s customers prefer to keep the bike’s engine in stock form, a range of performance equipment for the K100 engine is available from Egli, and a full hopup allows the engine to deliver a claimed 118 horsepower at 9200 rpm. BMW’s horsepower figure for the K100 is 82 at 8000 rpm.

Seven out of the first batch of 10 Egli-BMWs already have been sold, all fitted with the K100 eight-valve engine. However, Egli plans to build a further batch of 10 this winter, and these will be fitted with the 16valve K1 power unit. Egli says the potential of this engine, which develops a claimed 100 horsepower in standard form, will be liberated with the aid of some tuning, but declined to suggest what the Kl’s final horsepower number might be.

The K100 version of the EgliBMW starts at about $8100 for a rolling chassis and rises to about $ 1 5,000 for a complete bike with a new, stock K100 motor.

—Alan Cathcart