Cafe Racer Thread

[MotoSook]

[QUOTE=Hugh R;3568978]Just saw this thread. Here's mine, an original cafe racer. Except this one isn't a poser. Check out my signature. Its unrestored original.


QUOTE]

Wow. Where does one come about owing such a machinery? You don't just walk onto a used car lot in the midwest and find such a thing...Love to hear your story on it.

[SLO-BOB]

Jeff, the Sportster is perfect for such a project. However, imo, it would be a shame to change such a clean looking old Sporty. That said-



cafe sporster link-

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2007/10/22/harley-davidson-sportster-cafe-racer-by-hogbitz/

[SLO-BOB]

awesome Zero (Harley) cafe-

[Hugh R]

I inherited from my Dad about 30 years ago. He bought it in 1935 from the guy that raced it for the factory. In 1930, Rudge placed 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th at the World Cup at the Isle of Man, this is the sixth place bike. Its was my Dad's daily driver through the 30's and 40's. Since it didn't have a generator (or is that gererator?) he hooked a batter and a light onto it to drive at night. I still have the battery case and headlight which were none stock. It runs believe it or not. I took it up to the All British Bike Meet in San Jose in April of last year and it actually won "Best Road Racer" and "Oldest Bike". I put oil/gas and air in the tires and several guys pushed and it started right up. I new it would start because I made sure of that a few days before. In fact after several years of non-use (OK, ten years). I pushed it down my driveway and it actually fired up the second I dumped the compression release. It doesn't have a kick starter. Its a 500 cc single with a four valve head. As a Grand Prix Ulster, it came with a factory guarantee of 100 mph. If you look at the 2nd pic you can see the holes in the side of the tank where the factory converted it from hand-suicide shift to a foot shift. It sas a manual spark advance as one of the levers on the handlebars because they hadn't invented mechanical timing advance yet. The lower front fend support is actually a kickstand and I owned the bike for a number of years until I figured that out. The foot brake contols the front and rear brakes, and can be biased. Its a dry sump engine. There is an active club in England, of which I'm a member.

[SLO-BOB]

Jeff - can't have too many bikes. Leave yours stock and get the facory version 77xlcr-

[Jeff Higgins]

Funny, when I first started riding Sportsters (I went through three between my 16th and 19th birthdays before sticking with the one in the photo) I had a couple of chances to buy XLCR's. They were dirt cheap then and nobody wanted them. I held out for a "real" Sportster. One of my room mates had one, and was actually kind of ashamed he couldn't afford a "real" Sportster. Just amazing... The best bike H-D was building at the time, and absolutely rejected by us bunch of knuckleheads.

Anyway, thanks for the links, guys. I'll check them out. This might be kind of fun... If I go anywhere with this, you can bet I'll stash all of the origninal parts that come off. I still have the original seat, bars, big ugly plastic gauges, crappy old Bendix carb, and everything else I have removed or replaced over the years. Someday this old pig might actually be worth something... In the meantime, I'll keep having fun with it.

[MotoSook]

Thanks for the story Hugh. Great history!

[Hugh R]

Souk,

Is that yours? That's very cool

[MotoSook]

Hugh, that's not mine. It's a KZ400. Here's the thread I found it in:

http://www.armbell.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3429&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=42ca1ac7c5a70c4e5c3c7fc05c8818b4&mforum=kz400

[dd74]

I'm really digging this thread. The bikes are gorgeous; they're the sort of stuff a road cyclist likes.

So I have a question: if I wanted to build a cafe racer, where do I start? What's a good bike to start with? Four stroke? Two stroke? A modern motorcycle or something older?

[Jim Bremner]

Slo-bob


anymore info on that silver bike?

[SLO-BOB]

DD74 - That's the cool thing about Cafe racers. You can start with pretty much anything. Check out that KZ Souk posted. Beautiful and who'd a thunk it? Naturally, there are some bikes that lend to the conversion more readily. Check out the Benjies site -

http://www.benjiescaferacer.com/home.html

that will give you an idea as to what bikes have parts (somewhat) available. The Honda CBs are a natural as they are plentiful, cheap, and reliable. I have 2bikes I'm considering a conversion on - the 66 CB160 pictured above which is a very common cafe base, and a 75 CL360. Not as common but parts are available and I think the upswept pipes will look very cool straight and wrapped.

Jim - Do you mean the Borile?

http://www.caferace.com/borile.html

[MotoSook]

Bob's right, David. You can start with most any old bike (obviously a chopper won't be easy w/o cutting frame. etc). Old standard bikes are good starts. Then just strip it, slap some clip-ons on the thing (or something that makes you ride forward and low), cut the pipes (make it loud) then go get some old leathers . CB's are probably most common cafe racers since there are lots of shops making stuff for them...(a chicken and egg thing really). They don't have to be big bikes to be fun. I've had an 80cc and a 250cc motorcycles before, and I probably had more fun tearing around on those.

[SLO-BOB]

Originally Posted by Souk

They don't have to be big bikes to be fun. I've had an 80cc and a 250cc motorcycles before, and I probably had more fun tearing around on those.

Right on! My CB160 is one of the funnest bikes I've ever owned, and one of the smallest. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but it's addicting. I'm 6'-5" and my wife says I look like an idiot on it. Know what? I don't care. I'm not alone either. There's tons of big guys riding around on little bikes.

cb160 cafe racers on the track-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_o07_Hg53U

[chewie]

some cool cafe's in here - i think i'm gonna get a project on the go

btw - heres the real candy cane


one of my favs



and one more...



probably been listed on this thread, but i mostly just looked at the pics so here it is again, if its again??

more @ http://indian.no/
click on caferacers - theres a good half hour to spend there

[Hard-Deck]

Not a cafe racer, but it's mine. Scratch built inspired by a 1910 H-D with a Whizzer Engine.

[CJFusco]

Ok, I have the bug, big time. I want a Triumph Bonnie soooo bad....

[techweenie]

My own photo isn't scanned, just an old Polaroid, but I had one of these for awhile back in the mid-90s...

The original factory 'cafe racer.'

[ERH]

My TD 2B is living in my parents basement. I need to collect it and rebuild the engine..... another winter project.

I don't have any digital pictures of mine but a representative example borrowed off the web(picture is of a 3 but you get the idea):



Ed

[CJFusco]

Something like this would do nicely: