https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J08Tp54rAms
I think 'cafe racer' needs to be defined. These arty farty drug addled poofter yumpies have usurped the meaning.
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"A motorcycle is a bicycle with a pandemonium attachment and is designed for the especial use of mechanical geniuses, daredevils and lunatics." - George Fitch Atlanta Constitution, 1916
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Oh fer......
Clearly those are mostly varyingly mental customs and nothing to do with traditional Cafe Racers.
Most of it is some kind of sculpture with form over function, there's a few there that look pretty sketchy as machines to ride at speed!
I agree, we could really do with a new terminology. No problem at all with people making stuff as mild or crazy as they like but "cafe racer" no longer applies.
(I'd like to take that guys computer simulated voice software off him).
Clearly those are mostly varyingly mental customs and nothing to do with traditional Cafe Racers.
Most of it is some kind of sculpture with form over function, there's a few there that look pretty sketchy as machines to ride at speed!
I agree, we could really do with a new terminology. No problem at all with people making stuff as mild or crazy as they like but "cafe racer" no longer applies.
(I'd like to take that guys computer simulated voice software off him).
Ex UK, now in Adelaide. LC250/350. DT175. Shed full of sh1t in the vague form of dismantled rusty RD’s and RZ’s.
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I got about 2mins into it, the voice did my head in... 
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I made it to the girder forked 900SS and I wasn't sure wether to laugh or barf..... Girder forked SS. 'Ken clown.
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Hipster Customs would be more accurate than cafe racers, maybe we could help those afflicted with the transition via Hipster Racers? ;-)
Ex UK, now in Adelaide. LC250/350. DT175. Shed full of sh1t in the vague form of dismantled rusty RD’s and RZ’s.
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Meh...."cafe racer" is just a couple of words when you look at the technical side of how some of those bikes have been built.
Some really nice engineering & "hard yards" have gone into these builds,which I can appreciate.
Honestly Id own quiet a few of those bikes cause they look like fun to ride around on & isnt that what its all about?
Some really nice engineering & "hard yards" have gone into these builds,which I can appreciate.
Honestly Id own quiet a few of those bikes cause they look like fun to ride around on & isnt that what its all about?
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hmmm. don't know that I can agree with you there LB....L.B. wrote:Meh...."cafe racer" is just a couple of words when you look at the technical side of how some of those bikes have been built.
Some really nice engineering & "hard yards" have gone into these builds,which I can appreciate.
Honestly Id own quiet a few of those bikes cause they look like fun to ride around on & isnt that what its all about?
Just my (humble) opinion, but....True, Café Racer is just a couple of words, but it comes loaded with a very rich history stretching back to the 50s, centred around making improvements to the performance and rideability of production motorcycles. I think the point that I, and a few other old timers would make is that many of these things would struggle to justify the claim to making any improvement other than subjective aesthetics. In fact, many of them are demonstrably retrograde and even unsafe!
its worth remembering how many people have died over the past 100 odd years trialling revolutionary engineering ideas that didn't really cut it..... Motorcycle design and safety have evolved as they have for really good reasons.
If I could make myself sit through that whole video (and I find it so blasphemous, that I cant
), I think almost every one of them demonstrates some element of design or function that makes it inferior to the original production cycle starting point. they might look great (subjectively), but some of them represent some pretty ordinary understanding of physics and motorcycle design. Sure, that is dependant on its intended use, but my point would be that many of them would be out of their depth at WOT on a stretch of decent road. You might be fine getting from one café in Glebe to another café in Newtown, but anything beyond that would be stretching the design brief. Even then, negotiating roundabouts with a 3" stretched swingarm would be well, interesting. 
Like really, the Ducati with a girder front end and silly trellis swingarm is just a dangerous abomination. Girders disappeared straight after the war because they were a pretty hopeless design concept for anything other than bicycles. Putting them on a 180kg, 80 HP modern motorcycle is a recipe for disaster! Stuffing a TZ 4LS front brake on it, is just stupid! If he genuinely had to use that brake in a real road emergency, (en route between cafes
) I guarantee those forks would drop their bundle and flex out of shape permanently, if not collapse, with potentially disastrous results. They're just not intended for that sort of weight and loading, let alone their capacity in terms of springing and damping and controlling the performance potential of an 80HP projectile. Honestly, I could go through that line of bikes and pick genuine safety and performance issues with almost every one of them, whether it be tyre selection, ergonomics, braking, noise and just generally, design shortcomings.
Ultimately, the aesthetics are a very subjective thing, but their objective elements of performance and safety are not subjective at all, and if you value aesthetics over performance/safety then that's fine, but you can understand why others feel it necessary to heap scorn and derision on many of their efforts. Cheers.