Cafe Racer Epic Fails

[ged]

Ok, we've jacked Wizz's thread with our excursion into customised "cafe racers", so we can continue the discussion here without burying Wizz's project.....

We were somewhere around here

I'm with JonW. It's hideous.


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Then you probably don't like this as a style either.



I think both are in the same vein. Modernised, lighter, more power, handle better and yet still with the original identity .

They are Hot Rods .

Ok Ozzy, I love that thing! What is it? Late 40's Ford Coupe custom? Awesome. I'll drool over that all day, because it's a very traditional custom treatment little changed since Hot Rod culture bloomed in the late '50's. Chopped roof?, two tone, five spoke mags, slab sides. Beautiful.

And it's precisely the same reason that I think the LC is an abomination.

I've got a bunch of issues with the advent of the current cafe racer/bobber/custom "craze". If I see another wally tosser with wrapped exhausts on an air cooled motor, black painted rims with fat white walled tyres and brown leather slab seat, I'm gunna puke! Honestly.....

All of those elements are inventions of the current hipster custom craze. They have no roots at all in the cafe racer culture of the sixties and effectively take the whole thing completely out of context and morph it into some sort of form over function ( not built to race anywhere) expression of Gen Y's cultural malaise!

Now, some of the stuff posted in JonWs link are very different for the same reason.





And this



The first 2 have very clear references to the classic period, yet still manage to look red hot and entirely modern. Magic.

The third one is different because it's not actually a cafe racer.... It's some sort of street fighter thing (which evolved out of everybody dropping their sports bikes in the 90s and not being able to afford new bodywork) so it's a more modern affectation, but still ridulously unusable! Have you ever ridden a bike with no mudguards? But still, it looks great, especially sitting next to the beautiful young lady.

Fundamentally, when these things are done as a stylistic expression excersise, it tends to overlook the most important element of motorcycle function. Keeping you alive.

Ahhhhh. I feel better already!

[JonW]

Ged, you are my brother from another mother!

[hybrid]

I don't mind the silver one... the rest not my cuppa.

[BRG1200]

The third one is an XR600 completely modified for the rather gorgeous actress leaning on it. Look up Cafe Racer TV on youtube. Not arguing or agreeing on any particular point, just happened to have seen the programme on that one. Not a flattering photo of her, she's actually delicious.

[ged]

No wonder I'm seeing more and more of these things on the road when the movement has its own TV show......

As I say, I think the whole thing is entirely misguided on a whole series of levels, not least of which is hacking up all manner of machines of varying ages in order to transform them into some sort of aesthetic styling excersise, but rendering them either unrideable or unsafe in the process.





If you put Firestone crossplys on your motorcycle, you deserve to fall off at the first roundabout.

Also explains why I can't find any vintage flanged ally rims for the bike I'm building....


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[JonW]

Well according to the thread elsewhere the cops will tell you that any mods render the bike unsafe, and fit only for display. Im thinking of moving my modded bikes into the house and looking at em...

[BRG1200]

I don't really understand the cafe racer scene, it no longer has any spiritual connection to the sixties if it ever had one. I worry about whats being hacked up, but there's no way of stopping some random muppet with a grinder.
Where did this "scene" come from? Who's actually in it? Looking online there seems to be a lot of "sculpture" bikes out there. Must be quite a few.
I used to live in London, occasionally got to the Ace, didn't see this sort of thing there 7 or 8 years ago.

[hybrid]

Where did this "scene" come from? Who's actually in it?

It's blokes like this who are behind it.

[ged]

Bloody hipsters..... Is that you Hybrid? Nice tie.

[hybrid]

haha no.. I'm much older, fatter and much uglier.
However, I'd still rather be me than him, because he's hipster.

[ged]

However, I'd still rather be me than him, because he's hipster.

With a tie like that, you can just imagine what sort of cafe racer he might put together.

The first I saw of the evolution of this whole nightmare was Deus Ex Machina in Sydney. I remember walking through Sydney airport one day about 6 or 7 years ago and seeing a whole shop window in the retail area taken up with cute little cafe racers, which at the time I thought was brilliant, but of course it's since deteriorated into a global phenomena, hell bent on cutting and chopping every old bike in sight.

The Deus guys were at the very least great marketers. I've never been real sure that they had the mechanical skills to match.

[hybrid]

I've seen a few of their bikes and they seem to do a good job.
I can't judge on hacking bikes to bits, because neither of mine are standard.

[JonW]

The third one is an XR600 completely modified for the rather gorgeous actress leaning on it. Look up Cafe Racer TV on youtube. Not arguing or agreeing on any particular point, just happened to have seen the programme on that one. Not a flattering photo of her, she's actually delicious.

This comment peaked my interest so I checked it out, who wouldnt!? I didnt realise that this was actually Katee Sackhoff who was in Battlestar Galatcica (apparently) and also in Longmire if youve seen that. On the Cafe Racer show (s04e01) she seemed like a cool ditzy chick, and even on Longmire you could tell she grew up a bit rough n tumble, probably has brothers lol. I defo didnt recognise her from the pic above, and Ive seen all the Longmire eps lol. Not what id call 'a beauty' as such but shes certainly not horrible or anything, and absolutely the pic above doesnt do her justice.

One thing the builder of this bike said in the episode was that people ask him why he bother to spend the time and money on a 30 year old bike when you could just go out and buy a new one, and he felt that if they if you had to answer the question then there was no point in answering the question. I get that totally, and feel that way about the modded bikes Ive built. A number of my bike mates who ride modern bikes cant understand the coolness factor of being able to integrate different era parts using ones own engineering skills and building a bike how you want it to look, ride and go, rather than accepting what is on offer in the showroom.

So whilst Im not a convert to the cafe racer scene, this kind of bike and its ethos is more my style. I dont want something that looks 60s or 70s and trying too hard, but the post apocalyptic mean look is better in my view, tho im not sure i want one. I build bikes that I believe are more factory in look, with the modern touches well integrated and retaining the original silhouette so you have to look a bit harder to see whats changed as I even use factory style colours on newer parts to retain the original look n feel etc. But the kind of bike above (and Deus as well) is perhaps more akin to what the Triumph triple and a bunch of the big Jap manufacturers are aiming at when they built their more recent bikes, but in their own way... of course.

Anyway, after watching the show I didnt feel like growing a beard and buying a bowtie, but did feel that some of the builders were doing better work than I would have thought (the guzzi subframe build look scary at times tho) as most of the cafe's ive seen in Sydney (look round Newtown etc) look to have been made with an angle grinder and a case of beer over a long weekend by guys who work in advertising (actually the guy building the bike for Katee was an ex advertiser LOL) and really shouldnt be allowed in Bunnings let alone own a bike LOL It seems that some of those guys are more like us that we care to admit as they are having the same challenges the other bike builders/modders like us have and fixing them the same way; look, head scratch, check the net a lot for parts, work it thru and make it work. etc.

Anyway, I dont think I see Katee's bike as a Cafe racer. Its post apocalyptic mad max vibe means its not what I think of as 'cafe', maybe that means I can like this style more... Does that mean the Deus BW200 thing is ok and the SR400/500 isnt? probably.... but I dont want one, I might build one I do like in that vibe if i decide i do like it... dont hold yer breath tho LOL

[ged]

Yeah, I take the points you make there JW and I'm probably being unfair in critisising the mechanical abilities of the Deus guys. They probably wouldn't still be in business if they were crap, but I wonder if they'd still be in business if they weren't such great marketers.... Plenty of sizzle, not a lot of sausage. I have a sneaking suspicion that they have been more than a little responsible for the number of "random muppets with an angle grinder" out there creating these things with little or no understanding of the roots of their enterprise or even the engineering subtleties that underscore the 100 odd year development process that went into the thing there so intent on destroying.

I'm certainly not anti modification by any stretch. I'm butchering 2 Japanese bikes right now! If you can make it work better somehow, go for it. But that's my point. Whitewall cross plys and a leather plank seat aren't improvements, they're entirely (subjective) asthetic affectations designed to impress the next random muppet with an angle grinder - hereinafter RMWAAG, (thanks BRG).

I'm actually old enough to remember the chopper craze of the '70s when similarly, people hacked up old pre war English rigid frames and shoehorned all sorts of unlikely motors into them. In fact over the past 20 odd years of owning and restoring my old Beeza, I ran across countless examples of such tragedies laying useless and forlorn in sheds all over the place. Under the current trajectory, you won't be able to find a Z400 for love nor money in another 20 years, although maybe that's not such a bad thing.

[JonW]

Worry ye not ged, we are still on point, I was just replying to that one comment from a few days back.

Deus... hmm... I agree that they were made by marketing, but thats just what the guys running it wanted. They all have pedigree, and the marketing (t shirts etc) were all Dare Jennings, he ex owner of Mambo IIRC, so had t shirt and advert contacts a plenty. What was interesting is that I was there on day 1 like a few of the guys here and talked to them and their ethos was sound; they had found a niche in the Japan of this type of bike and got together, probably over beers, and decided they all liked the sound of it and wanted to make a little biz out of it. Thats cool, Id like to do that sort of thing with my mates as well, it sounds divine.

The problem was that stock wasnt easy to get and soon the cool old original cafe racers became hard to find and they started to be 20k+ in the showroom there, making the SR4/500 semi-customs (semi as just bolting bits on isnt really a custom) seem affordable but soon the labour, parts from Japan and a rising price for those bikes in Aus plus a younger clientelle meant they had to think cheaper, and the 200s were born. They have a following in Japan and they could get them cheap enough and the parts were there. I think another issue that means you want the simpler mods is that ADR and Engineers. True customs require lots of red tape to be snipped, the bolt on and approve method fixes that, and saves money. I mean, those long swingarms on their 200s... epic fails imho, and surely not cop/blue slip friendly.

So, is Deus all bad, maybe... I quite like the vive their shop and cafe has, but I dont want their bikes or to hang with their buyers, but I think they showed a way to make a small business big if you can find a modern enough bike and a bunch of bolt on extras that people will buy and think they are cool. Its not really custom, its more like buying a semi tailored suit instead of 3 fittings with a tailor your family goes to perhaps.

Maybe I should post another pic of my XT500 'motard and see if we all think its a fail as a design study, its certainly no cafe tho LOL!