Photographs: Royal Enfield, Cafe Racer Faisal Ali Khan, Motorbeam.com
The concept of Cafe Racers is not new. It has been in existence for almost half a century now. Essentially a British word, the Cafe Racer is both a type of motorcycle and motorcyclist. The concept of Cafe Racer has been very famous even in Germany, Italy and many other European countries.
The Cafe Racer term was used for rockers who used to race from cafe to cafe. This short race saw many having an objective to touch 160 kmph (also known as the ton in mph).
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PIX: The amazing history of the Cafe Racer bikes
Photographs: Creatibe Commons
What are Cafe Racers?
These bikes are heavily modified bikes for speed. The last priority of Cafe Racers is comfort.
These bikes looked a lot like GP race bikes and had a very long fuel tank with a small rearward facing humped seat.
The handlebars were narrow and low allowing the rider to duck in order to reduce air resistance and in turn increase speed.
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PIX: The amazing history of the Cafe Racer bikes
Photographs: Creative Commons
In that era, the most famous Cafe Racer bikes were from Notron Motoyclcles and Triumph.
Cafe Racers had very high power along with low weight resulting in both good handling and high speed. However as time passed (in the 1970s), British made Cafe Racers became less popular with Japanese overtaking them fair and square in both speed and popularity.
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PIX: The amazing history of the Cafe Racer bikes
Photographs: Creative Commons
Usually Cafe Racers were modified versions of existing bikes.
However some companies started to make factory spec Cafe Racers, such as Harley Davidson with the XLCR, Kawasaki with the Z1R, Ducati with the SuperSport and Suzuki with the GS1000S.
Companies like BMW followed too with Cafe Racer version of their bikes.
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PIX: The amazing history of the Cafe Racer bikes
Photographs: Shrawan Raja
Sadly though, they were just aesthetic changes on these machines just to attract the youth and not for speed and handling. From 1980s to early 2000, Cafe Racer started to be less heard off.
The trend of Cafe Racers is however back. Many young buyers are converting their bikes into Cafe Racers, while a lucky few are able to get hold of old Cafe Racers and are restoring them to their past glory.
If you too want to make a Cafe Racer, you just need Rs 50,000 to get going. So what are you waiting for?
Also Read: Get Ahead Biking and Motoring
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