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| Café racers |
This is not intended as a complete history, rather a look at the
highpoints in the café scene which is timely because in recent years, it
seems that the term “Café Racer” can be applied to any old motorcycle
that has been spray-painted black and fitted with pipe wrap. However,
motorcycle enthusiasts who raced each other from café to café were the
true Café Racers in the UK during the 1960s. The most famous of which
is the Ace Café, in London, which is still in existence today.
There is also a suggestion that the term Café Racer was created as
the riders were only pretending to be racers as, instead of using their
modified bikes, they just parked them outside cafes to show off.
It may also be part of motorcycle folklore too, but it is rumored
that these riders would apparently select a record on a café’s jukebox
and then race each other to a predetermined place, with the objective of
getting back before the record finished. This would then prove their
bike was capable of hitting 100 mph.
Predominantly most of the early Café Racers were British bikes –
Triumph, BSA, AJS, Norton etc and none of them were particularly quick.
But, the objective of most of the riders at the time was to try and
achieve the ton – or 100 mph. If you could demonstrate your bike was
capable of going at that speed or faster you could call yourself a
member of The Ton Up Club.
To get anywhere near the magic 100 mph, riders at the time needed to
heavily modify their bikes. Fortunately in the 1960s the British
motorcycle industry was still alive and kicking and there was a big
British presence in motorcycle racing. Consequently, there were a lot of
aftermarket parts for the Café Racers to choose from to upgrade their
bikes.
It was, though, an expensive hobby, so over time as a rider added
more and more parts the traditional Café Racer motorcycle, the look that
we know today started to evolve.
Ostensibly for a bike to be a Café Racer it had to have a combination
of some of these things: clip-on bars, swept back pipes, a racing seat,
large carburetors, and a fiberglass or aluminum gas tank.
Fundamentally a Café Racer had to be light and powerful and able to
achieve 100 mph. They often looked like stripped-down racers with
anything that was considered superfluous or unnecessary or heavy taken
off the bike.
As it was modified for handling and speed, a Café Racer often meant it was really not that comfortable to ride.
Other features that were adopted to make a bike a Café Racer included
an elongated fuel tank (similar to Grand Prix racers of the 1960s)
often with concave depressions to allow the rider’s knees to grip the
tank, low-slung clip on bars and a single seat with a faired-in rear
end.
Those narrow bars allowed the rider to ‘tuck in’, or to lie almost
flat on the tank when riding for lesser wind resistance and a true Café
Racer often had rear-set footrests and foot controls, which was again
typical of racing motorcycles from that era.
Some owners took their bikes to even higher levels and designed and
built their own fairings mounted on the bike’s forks or frame.
One of the best types of Café Racers from this era was actually a
combination of two bikes. Enthusiasts who could afford it would use a
Norton Featherbed frame and a Triumph Bonneville engine to get a fast,
nice handling bike called a “Triton.” If your budget was a bit
stretched, you’d still take the Triumph engine but use a BSA frame
creating a “Tribsa.” There were other options too with Vincent engines
used in the Norton frame with the bike called a “Norvin.”
Big budget Café Racers would also take a Rickman or Seeley racing
frame, used in Grand Prix bikes, and adapted it to make a road racer.
As the Japanese manufacturers started to gain a foot hold in Europe
and the rest of the world in the early 1970s, there were some great
Japanese Café Racers created too, but the true pioneers of the café
racer movement were the British bike owners of the 1960s.
Which would you have rather had to race: a Triton, Tribsa or a Norvin?
First appeared in rideapart.com
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