Cafe racers [pics]

I really love the set-up of the Sport1000S, the gas tank, seat and seat cover. Trying to make my CX650 looks like that

[sarcasm]

Flat black? Check.
Clubmans? Check
No front fender? Check.

Yep, it's a cafe racer.

You're probably just confused because it's not a CB350 with the frame cut off at the shock mounts, and there are no checkerboard or "59" graphics on it.[/sarcasm]

Seriously though I've got no issues with it being called a cafe racer, it's more "cafe" than half the stuff I see labeled that way. The term is pretty meaningless at this point anyway. Just like "bobber", "restored", "NOS", "original", etc...

I've drooled at pictures of this bike before. I have big plans to make an xv similar to it.

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Since when did a lack of front mudguard and flat black make a cafe racer? I'm clearly not up with the times.

To be honest I'm not being serious. The whole cafe genre has been hijacked which is fine as it's always good to see evolution but some of these bikes are a mess and are little more than a mish mash of ill fitting parts.

you forgot the goofy seat or humped back fender.

I used to ride cafe racers back in the '60s. To us a cafe racer was a bike with low bars, ie straight (like Vincents), drop (eg Ace bars), or clip ons. Some attempt at rearsets to complete the picture. Fancy seats, tanks and other cosmetics were not as important as getting a megaphone or Goldie exhausts on it. Usually there would have been an attempt at some sort of tuning - usually inept, but if it was loud, then it must be fast. :) Performance, then looks.

But the term was usually slightly derisory.

A lot of the bikes being shown here would not have been regarded as cafe racers - although we would have given our eyeteeth for them because there's a pretty high standard. :)

Pssst, those are stock items there bub...

Good eye there.
Next time I buy a 1965 BSA that has a title and runs for $2000.00,
I should make sure it has all the original parts or correct Cafe parts on it.
The Brits have buyers over here buying up as many of their bikes as they can. They fill up shipping containers and send them home.
Just thought I would grab one before they're gone.
And I did like the looks of it.

My brother used a scrap pile of two CB450s to assemble this bike. He finished the project in October just four days before a bike show at Barber Motorsport's Vintage Days 2012 in Alabama.

He won "Best Modified Stock" in the Cafe Racer Bike Show. Great Job!

Damn right we have. cars as well. You guys are clearly not looking after them well enough so we're taking them home.

The Germans are doing it in the UK with Airheads.

Apart from the headlight brackets I like that. Nice photographs too.

Extremely nice CB450. These (and Suzuki Titans) seem to make beautiful cafe bikes with just the right proportions.

- Mark

I like the CB450 but don't get the tire choice.

When asked about the tires he told me he liked the look. They have "Firestone" molded in the sidewalls and were a horrible PITA to mount and balance. The front fender was raised an inch for clearance while retaining a stock look.

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No NO NO..! Not the Titans! Don't mention them on this thread. At least not until I buy mine for my Cafe Project....

You're going to drive my purchase cost up...



M

I'm sure I'll get a ton of haters slamming my bike, but this is what she has looked like since '97. Currently putting on a GT750 front end and building rearsets (finally). I tried to take the clipons off before riding the bike on a 800 mile or so ride, but the wife said "You can't take those bars off, ride it like it is, ya pansy!"



Let me know if you get one and need anything.

I've had a bunch of Honda 450s, and I enjoyed them, but the Honda 350 and the Titan are the bikes I could never part with...

Why would we hate?! That thing is perfect.