Cafe racers [pics]

[Mandello]

Originally Posted by MODNROD

I agree, some of the people who visit this space seem to have very definite rules and regs about what constitutes a "cafe racer", and that's cool for them I guess, but as much as you don't like your Pantah being called a cafe, I don't get it when people point at the clip-ons (on the top of the forks, quite high really), rear-sets and low mirrors that I have on my 1987 Vmax and say "Vmax's don't work as Cafe bikes, what was he thinking?".

What I was thinking, was to make it easier to hang onto while it is making up it's mind around corners, and easier to hang onto when it launches up the street. Kinda like when it was originally done in the 50s/60s to bikes for street-racing, same reasons.

I'd post up one of my bikes as a Cafe, but I've never had a British twin, so I guess it doesn't qualify........

Great photo's here though.

It's your bike, call it what you want.. and if an anorak stranger or two on the internet wants to say you're wrong who cares?

AlexM

[squish]

Originally Posted by Airhead Wrangler

What bothers me the most is that people now refer to any 70's european sport bike as a "cafe racer" because it has a bubble fairing, solo seat, rear sets, and clip-ons. FYI: THESE ------->







...are not "cafe racers." These are just sport bikes. That's what they looked like back then.

There was a time when a sport bikes were derisively called cafe racers, not unlike calling someone a drug store cowboy.
These bikes fit into this mold. It wasn't until the early 90's that the term caferacer started to really come to mean the low bar rear set "naked" bikes specifically rather then sport bikes as a whole. I mean hell there was even an Arlen Ness built bike called the NessCafe.

But for peets sake, post images of what ever you think a caferacer is, and start a new thread debating the merits of the term.

Note this isn't directed at you AW, I just reposted your images as they are the best looking production caferacer/sport bikes of all time.

Here's my not so caferacer caferacer. photo by my friend and fellow inmate
Tink

[killfile]

Originally Posted by Airhead Wrangler

That's not really my intention at all. Now that I read what wrote I guess I wasn't very clear. I'm not being some kind of fascist saying that many of the bikes in here aren't "good enough" to be a cafe racer. I'm just getting pissed that people refer to my old rusty ducati pantah as a cafe racer. I'm not some hipster chasing fads. I just like old sport bikes. Why you gotta ruin it for me and call it a "cafe racer?" Am I obliged to grow a soul patch and only wear vintage leathers and get a goofy hair cut because my bike came from the factory with clip-ons and rear sets? I don't want a cafe racer, just an old sport bike.

I guess I was responding to the other reactions in support of your slightly more narrow definition of cafe racers, which I thought you intended for the thread, rather than your own ride. I didn't read the 'good enough' part of it at all. I am actually digging your ducati pantah resurrection thread, and I applaud you for getting indignant when people call it at cafe racer.

I wish I could afford to buy the old sport bike I want, but everything I've been picking up has been pre-sport bike era, so cafe racer or modified racer it is for me!

[Nolan Woodbury]

It's hard to not come off as snobbish sometimes. Especially if you've been riding and wrenching for a long time. Still, I identify with Airhead's take because -at least historically- he's correct. It's just one guy's opinion, but to me the true spirit of the cafe' racer has to begin as a home brew; an individual expression...even though some of the professional builds features an incredible amount of workmanship and forward-thinking engineering. Sport bikes of the 70s were for the most part, the best technology the manufacturer could mass produce. In the end, it's how we define I guess.

Unlike AW, I'd love to have one in the shed! I honestly have to admit that I'm addicted to the SOHC cafe'. The only criteria is that they must be black...or alloy. Blue, green, white...red...I just turn the page. Again, just me!

To review;

A cafe' racer



Not a cafe' racer

[Padmei]

All good when we start talking about semantics however I dislike seeing 'touring' bikes & 'custom' bikes when I click on here.
Sure the bikes may look good & done really well but in the spirit of cafe racers there has to be some distinction. Not trying to nit pick but there are other threads in which to offer them for viewing.

[NoApes]

Just to be clear, I am not posting a photo of a Caferacer! It was made by a factory, with a faring, and is not alloy or black. So it is not a Caferacer! I am sure Nolan was just kidding, and so am I. Just couldn't pas this one up.

[Ryushin Kan]

Originally Posted by NoApes

Just to be clear, I am not posting a photo of a Caferacer! It was made by a factory, with a faring, and is not alloy or black. So it is not a Caferacer! I am sure Nolan was just kidding, and so am I. Just couldn't pas this one up.

great Velo - as has been said any bike that emulates a racer qualifies to be shown here, I for one want to see the VMax with clip-ons! By the way I rode a triton in the 60's and they were called cafe racers then, cos that what we did! Couldn't afford a real clubmans racer (ride to work in the week, race at weekends) so inverted bars/ace bars or clip-ons and you could imagine you were Hailwood etc.! More the merrier I say....

[MIOB]

[Mandello]

Originally Posted by squish

Here's my not so caferacer caferacer. photo by my friend and fellow inmate
Tink

Nice! Although yours will bring moans and groans from two camps, the caferacer purists and then from the guzzi purists who don't want to see red paint on black-framed sports :p

AlexM

[east high]

Originally Posted by Nolan Woodbury

Thank you for finding my lost bike. Please return it to me at: east high, portland oregon thank you.

[Nolan Woodbury]

More tongue-in-cheek than kidding, although I do believe there is a distinction...

Not kidding about the SOHC addiction in black. Personal taste only. Not a qualifier-

~N

[squish]

Originally Posted by Mandello

Nice! Although yours will bring moans and groans from two camps, the caferacer purists and then from the guzzi purists who don't want to see red paint on black-framed sports :p

AlexM

It's not even a sports it started life as a t3 but the engine backs up its sporty bike not a Caferacer look.

[Mandello]

Originally Posted by squish

It's not even a sports it started life as a t3 but the engine backs up its sporty bike not a Caferacer look.

That's what I was referring to, nice job, I like it!

[lockyv7]

Not to sure what mine is, maybe a touring bike, sometimes, no lots of times a sport bike but i do go for a sunday ride and find a cafe on it.
Not very clean and shiney in this phots as it was raining, but i ride it in the rain or sunshine.

[sakurama]

Originally Posted by RideDualSport.com

The genre has lost what made it an authentic anti-social and rebellious form of self-expression of the working class rider.

I sort of hate to see this whole thing come up but I guess it has to cycle every 10-20 pages. Personally I like seeing what the new interpretation is of a "cafe racer" because I feel the like "classic" definition is really tired. It seems to me that there's a resurgence of riders in their 20's and 30's who have latched onto the idea and are building cool bikes. They're building them in the spirit but not the letter of cafe racers and frankly the letter of cafe bikes is extremely dull at this point. While that black Norton is nice it's really hard to make me excited about another Triumph with an alloy tank and clip ons.

My friend Tim Harney is a good example of a young person building bikes in the spirit of cafe racers - low buck, hand crafted bikes meant to get you around short distances quickly based on older cheaper bikes. There's really not any cheap bikes from the 60's as they're on the top of the bell shaped curve of value - even 70's bikes are getting expensive save for the japanese bikes and that's a lot of what they're using.





When I moved from NYC to Portland I loved that there are so many younger guys building and riding older bikes and they do cool stuff with them. What could be more uncool than a CX500 and yet...



Besides, this is a cafe racer thread on ADVrider where I would hope that people would not get their panties all in a knot about some stupid definition since this is a site about riding and adventure. I'd much rather see a cool interpretation of a cafe bike by someone who actually built it and actually rides it than I would some uptight guy's British bike that is built with a credit card and a catalog, aping the style of bike that they couldn't afford before and that they don't ride now. Boooorrrrrring.



Isn't it ironic that we have these uptight discussions about who is and who is not adhering to the "correct" style of a bunch of rebels from 40 years ago?

Gregor