Cafe racers [pics]

[zDollar Bill]

Originally Posted by Speed King

^^ That's at Ralph Waynes, isn't it? ^^

Yes it was, then I brought it to the Mods and Rockers show downtown Kansas City.
They all thought it was a cafe racer.
Of course I had a black X on the headlight, that must have fooled them.
But how did I know I should have told them different?

[Yokomo]

zdollar do you have a pic of # 76? Looks cool!

[zDollar Bill]

Originally Posted by Yokomo

zdollar do you have a pic of # 76? Looks cool!

I do but I don't think it is a Cafe Racer.

[zDollar Bill]

Maybe it is a Cafe Racer, it has a number plate.

[JagLite]

Originally Posted by zDollar Bill

Maybe it is a Cafe Racer, it has a number plate.

It's a STREET TRACKER!

Not a cafe' but nicely done.
Post it on the Flat track & street tracker thread

[zDollar Bill]

[zDollar Bill]

[VietHorse]

Originally Posted by Treasure Islander

Done, Mate....my buddy "He Who Cannot Be Caught' Carl's tricked out ride....sweet!

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

[zDollar Bill]

[zDollar Bill]

[DesmoDog]

Originally Posted by Rob Farmer

Its a standard bike with funny handlebars, the front mudguard taken off and a pair of Harley shocks and silencers. How does that make a cafe racer?

[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...

[TheBakemon]

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

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

[Rob Farmer]

Originally Posted by DesmoDog

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

Yep, it's a cafe racer.

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.

[plugeye]

Originally Posted by Rob Farmer

Its a standard bike with funny handlebars, the front mudguard taken off and a pair of Harley shocks and silencers. How does that make a cafe racer?

you forgot the goofy seat or humped back fender.

[R85/8]

Originally Posted by Rob Farmer

...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.

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. :)