Hey...I've been there for 7 years and never took the time for a post about my basic K100!
It's not a terrible bike, but I like it as it is: simple, efficient, reliable.
I specially  appreciate its neat and balanced design, so often slaughtered by wanabee custom makers...
Here it was when I bought it:

Good average condition for a 40 years bike, a nice patina on the black painted parts, a very thin layer of rust. And, sadly, some very large scratches on the top of the tank. The seller told me it was its cat who made them. Come on, man...you should own a tiger to make such scars!
I first converted it to a light racer, just with the optionnal BMW sport seat and an Ohlins shock.

And a pair of rare case savers, probably french made by Bottelin Dumoulin or Rid Jouvin. In case...
It was suprisingly efficient. I was astonished with its sport abilities, even if I had been riding  Ks for a long time, its lightweight and its manoeuvrability was easily challenging the K1 on mountain roads. The only flaw was the rear suspension sometimes dribbling in optimistic curve preliminaries...mostly solved with first a WP, then an Ohlins.


Then...I sold it to a friend, with the opportunity to receive as a part of payment a BMW R100R (bad idea, it was one of the sadest bike I had). I kept aside the goodies, and kept in mind the idea to make a sport K100 2V one day, that eventually gave birth to the eighties K100 racer some years later.

My friend is the slowest sluggish biker I ever seen. He never stresses its bike and rides veeeeeerrrrrry geeeeeeeently. By the way, he does not only has the same pace, but he actually looks like a sloth with very long arms and legs, no neck and something in its gaze evocating the animal. But he doesn't hang under the engine when riding, phew!
He's so delicate with motorcycles that I'll give him my daughter's hand with no hesitation (if he was not looking like a sloth, of course. Though...they could save money on cradles by hanging the babies on the curtain rods).
Yet he managed to break the gearbox.
On a K100.
I've seen the hardest abuses applied by the less painstaking cops on K's,  but never saw a gearbox intermediate shaft broken. Crusing at 60 km/h...


Well. I bought it back anyway, as he was disappointed about the K100 reliability and I was missing this bike, fixed the gearbox, fitted a new seat, a top box, a Fournales air suspension instead of the Ohlins promoted to the 80S racer, and mounted the optionnal windshield. I wanted to fit also a Telefix stabilizer, but discovered that these first series of K100 forks had stanchions a little bit thicker than the later ones so it won't be possible to fit it.
Then I randomly used it as a commuter bike, perfect for november to april rainy days with slippery roads, when I'm not in a world speed record mood to go to work or when the weather condition do not justify to use the pullman K1100LT.

This bike is easy and natural. That's why I like it: you forget it. It remembers me the experience I had riding a R75/6, just flying above the road, never switching gears, never braking, just cornering left and right and left and right until the tank is empty...

But.
Every time I was sitting on it...the bloody scars were facing me. I tried to hide them under a tank cover. It tore itself. The scars reappeared. (maybe they were not made by a tiger but a sloth afterall, the claws are matching).
So, this week being so warm that I could even not ride a bike, I decided it was a good time for a paint job!
I ordered color matching paint sprays at the local shop, sanded the tank, sprayed,  varnished...and now I have a nice silver K100 with no sloth marks on it.



I like this bike.

jbt, mes félicitations
well done

I like your bike too. It's the same colour & spec as my original K100 - lots of good memories from my early biking career.
Agree that the only fault with the bike was its tendency to set up a front-rear weave/oscillation/nightmare if you hit a bump half way round a fast sweeper. I tried to fix that with a Koni rear shock but that never felt right on the bike. 
As for relaxing, change-less riding, I managed to break the gearchange shaft leaving it stuck in third gear. I rode it for two weeks like that, even including a two hundred mile round trip to the lakes. 'Course, I did end up having to change the clutch .
If ever I see a silver, naked K100 with the correct headlamp nacelle and small fly screen on oohbay, I think 'shall I ?...'

Let's swap mine with your K75 Madass!

jbt. How do you get on with that screen and the standard handlebars? 
I am 5 foot 10 inches tall but found with the screen in the position as yours my helmet was pummelled by the wind. I ended up extending the top screen fixings by 80mm pushing the top of the screen away from me into a more upright position. My helmet is now very much in still air and so much quieter.

I had the same issue with this windscreen. Actually, it provides a stunning protection against cold air and moist, its amazing for such a middle size windscreen.
But it's very noisy and my vision is the same as the one I usually have after ingesting a dozen pints of Guiness. But I pass the tests!
I fitted a windscreen extension on the top of it that improved dramatically the situation.
Then my R1100GS borrowed the extension in order to spare my face from the insects bombing. As I random use the K100, I agreed.

Your idea is brilliant! I'll try it, as I also consider that the angle of the windscreen is a bit excessive backwards and it sometimes bothers me when getting on or off the bike. Thanks for the tip!

About this windscreen angle, it looks like my first K100RT.

My first K, I was 21...

Very efficient and protective, but very noisy!
The LT windscreen, more vertical was much better.
I still have a pair of aftermarket wedges (probably made by Arcueil Motor, as far as I remember) that were designed to modify this angle so the top of the screen was repelled from the nostrils of the rider.

It aint pretty but it works.

Good story. I like the bike aswell. The red seat suits it and the case protectors too. Cheers

happy with the fairing now (i have the standard one intact) i cut the screen down and the sides off 
https://ibb.co/3TDc1wr

As my K100 racer recently received a nice set of PVM wheels, the basic K100 inherited the previous sport 3 spoked wheels that were on it, as it needed a tyre change.
Not so bad... not really period correct, but visually, they fit very well the neat and minimalist look of the bike.

I'll probably remove then the windscreen, the top box, and re install the one seat saddle.

I recently picked up a pair of the 3 spoke wheels for my 84 K100 Sprint.

The bike has gold wheels [not in the best condition] and forks and pinstriping so getting these ones painted same gold to match and new tyres on them and will fit them when the tyres on it wear out.

I too like the clean and simple lines of the 'Basic'.

Several years ago I located a clean, 1985 K100 Basic in Olympia, which the owner had bought new at a long-defunct BMW dealership in Tacoma, Washington. It came with all of the original documents of the sale & follow-up services done. He was nearing 80 years old and his wife insisted he no longer ride. It came with original panniers, and because he had tipped it over in his shed recently, he approached the local dealership and bought an OEM touring screen for it. When I unscrewed the spark plugs to perform a needed service, it dawned on me that they were likely the originals. The bike had barely 19,000 miles on the odometre! There was not a sign of oil residue anywhere. No scratches, very clean and tidy. In about twenty years of ownership, he put less than 1,000 miles per year on the bike. I paid him $1,900 for it. It now resides in Juneau, Alaska with a friend, who although there are barely 55 miles of paved roads all round coastal Juneau, he's got twenty-odd motorbikes he runs and rides regularly. The Basic is one of his favourites and is now ridden near daily, when roads are free of snow. He has been known to ride to work over ice.

Fed up with all the winter gear on my K100, I removed everything but the case saver, and installed the single sport seat, with just a rack on the bottom. I don't need it as a commuter motorcycle, let's it be a... motorcycle.








I'm not sure the side cases holder will remain installed. I scarcely need them, after all.

A short run made me meet again a light and agile bike, with a surprising tonic engine. Would the legend about special camshafts on early K100 be real? I don't know, I'll have to check and compare one day.
But damn, 2nd gear pushes to 130 km/h before red line, and 3 more are still to engage...who needs a K1 with 50 more kg?
The Fournales air shock is perfect. I never noticed anything about rear suspension...
The only concern remaining is about the footrests easily scratching the ground when cornering. After a few runs, it should resolve by itself!

très belle!

L'essence d'un K Bike!

I forgot that LFB looked like that when I first got it... oh well. Ten years in the past now.

jbt wrote:Fed up with all the winter gear on my K100, I removed everything but the case saver, and installed the single sport seat, with just a rack on the bottom. I don't need it as a commuter motorcycle, let's it be a... motorcycle.

I'm not sure the side cases holder will remain installed. I scarcely need them, after all.

A short run made me meet again a light and agile bike, with a surprising tonic engine. Would the legend about special camshafts on early K100 be real? I don't know, I'll have to check and compare one day.
But damn, 2nd gear pushes to 130 km/h before red line, and 3 more are still to engage...who needs a K1 with 50 more kg?
The Fournales air shock is perfect. I never noticed anything about rear suspension...
The only concern remaining is about the footrests easily scratching the ground when cornering. After a few runs, it should resolve by itself!

OK my little bit. The camshafts. So, I have a 1983 K100RS, a 1994 K100 that started naked and has a Sprint fairing and various other changes, and a 1984 K100RT with engine date 32/84.

I got the RT first, it was my second K100, my first being a 1993 K100LT. The RT was very noticeable quicker and livelier. The only obvious different from the LT was the presence of a vacuum sensor from no 1 throttle body. This i9s said to do nothing, but its on all of the earlier Ks and on my three.

A few years later came my 83 K100RS. This told a very different story. In between I had also got a K1100LT but this RS was something else altogether. It had 2 owners before me, each being over 70 when they sold it on and had 29,000 miles when I got it. It also had the engineering screws on the cam cover. It showed itself to be by far the quickest and significantly more economical than any of the others I have. With vacuum lines, caps etc all up to date it left me convinced that these early Ks are significantly different from the later ones. Short of taking camshafts out to compare profiles I can only go on what it feels like.

I have had the injectors out and they were the same.

What are these "engineering screws on the cam cover" you're talking about?

jbt wrote:What are these  "engineering screws on the cam cover" you're talking about?

This could be one.

I've got an '84, unfortunately it doesn't have those two bolts (looks like drainage bolts) like the earlier models do.

Olaf, next time you check the valve clearances on your '83 model, maybe you can get some pics, and the part numbers on the cams.

daveyson wrote:I've got an '84, unfortunately it doesn't have those two bolts (looks like drainage bolts) like the earlier models do.

Olaf, next time you check the valve clearances on your '83 model, maybe you can get some pics, and the part numbers on the cams.

Valve clearances were good but I am aware the cam part nos are the same. Earlier engines were pre unleaded fuel and my understanding is the cam part no remained the same. Someone else here investigated this.

This has happened on some other parts where I had earlier and later parts and the moulded part nos were exactly the same. Clock mounts was one, RS and RT were different but had same part no moulded in.

they are great all round bikes which ever year , however if its performance you crave buy a jap bike 

Looks great! I did the same after a head-on with a deer in the national park. Yes, the performance is so much better as a naked. It's been 11 years now and I'm going back to fully dressed. A change is always good.