Café racer

Triton: Triumph engine and Norton Featherbed frame

Café racer (/ˈkæff rsər/ kaff racer) is a term which arose among British motorcycle enthusiasts of the early 1960s, particularly the "Rocker" or ton-up boy subculture or (Ca-phay racer), The term refers to a style of motorcycle that was and is used for fast rides from one "transport café" or coffee bar to another. Motorcycles of this type were also common in Italy, France, and other European countries.

The term was originally coined as an insult towards riders who were seen as playing at being road racers but merely parked outside cafés.

Typical configuration

The café racer is a motorcycle that has been modified for speed and handling rather than comfort. The bodywork and control layout of a café racer typically mimicked the style of a contemporary Grand Prix roadracer, featuring an elongated fuel tank, often with dents to allow the rider's knees to grip the tank, low slung racing handlebars, and a single, rearwardly mounted, humped seat.

One signature trait were low, narrow handlebars that allowed the rider to "tuck in" to reduce wind resistance and offered better control when in that posture. These are referred to as "clip-ons" (two-piece bars that bolt directly to each fork tube), or "clubmans" or "ace bars" (one piece bars that attach to the stock mounting location but drop down and forward). The ergonomics resulting from low bars and the rearward seat often required "rearsets", or rear-set footrests and foot controls, again typical of racing motorcycles of the era. Distinctive half or full race-style fairings were sometimes mounted to the forks or frame.

The bikes had a raw, utilitarian and stripped-down appearance while the engines were tuned for maximum speed. These motorcycles were lean, light and handled road surfaces well. The most defining machine of the heyday of the type was "The Triton", which had a homemade Norton Featherbed frame and Triumph Bonneville engine. It used the most common and fastest racing engine combined with the best handling frame of its day, the Featherbed frame by Norton Motorcycles. Those with less money could opt for a "Tribsa" - the Triumph engine in a BSA frame. Other combinations such as the "Norvin" (a Vincent V-Twin engine in a Featherbed frame) and racing frames by Rickman or Seeley were also adopted for road use.

Café racers and choppers

The café racer has something in common with the chopper or bobber scene in the USA where riders rejected the large transportation-oriented motorcycles of the time. Both took factory produced motorcycles, removed parts deemed unnecessary and made them loud by removing muffler baffles for freer exhaust flow and perhaps to draw a little attention to themselves as well. Both looked to make the standard factory motorcycles faster and lighter, although the difference between the nature of the US and European motorcycles and road systems led to somewhat different results. While the Americans favored a long and low cruiser style of motorcycle for straight line comfort, the Europeans preferred a higher, more nimble and better handling motorcycle suited to the more twisting roads of their nations.

Evolution

1977 Harley-Davidson XLCR

Café racer styling evolved throughout the time of their popularity. By the mid-1970s, Japanese bikes had overtaken British bikes in the marketplace, and the look of real Grand Prix racing bikes had changed. The hand-made, frequently unpainted aluminum racing petrol/gas tanks of the 1960s had evolved into square, narrow, fiberglass tanks. Increasingly, three-cylinder Kawasakis and four-cylinder Hondas and were the basis for café racer conversions. By 1977, a number of manufacturers had taken notice of the café racer boom and were producing factory café racers, most notably the Harley-Davidson XLCR.

In the mid-1970s, riders continued to modify standard production motorcycles into so-called "café racers" by simply equipping them with clubman bars and a small fairing around the headlight. A number of European manufacturers, including Benelli, BMW, Bultaco and Derbi produced factory "café" variants of their standard motorcycles in this manner, without any modifications made to make them faster or more powerful. Eventually the café racer style became just a styling exercise that served no functional purpose and simply made the bike less comfortable to ride; so the trend quickly waned in popularity. Soon afterward, most new sport bikes began featuring integral bodywork from the factory, negating the need or ability to retrofit an aftermarket café fairing.

Subculture

Rockers on café Racers at café, UK.

Rockers were a young and rebellious Rock and Roll counterculture who wanted a fast, personalised and distinctive bike to travel between transport cafés along the newly built arterial motorways in and around British towns and cities. The goal of many was to be able to reach 100 miles per hour (160 km/h)—called simply "the ton"—along such a route where the rider would leave from a café, race to a predetermined point and back to the café before a single song could play on the jukebox, called record-racing. They are remembered as being especially fond of Rockabilly music and their image is now embedded in today's rockabilly culture.

The term café racer is still used to describe motorcycles of a certain style and some motorcyclists still use this term in self-description. The sub-culture continues to evolve with modern café racers taking style elements of the American Greaser, the British Rocker and modern motorcycle rider to create a style all their own. Although slow to catch on, the trend has grown in North America.

Present day

Suzuki S40 customised in a café racer style

Honda CB 400 Four café racer

Classic café racer style has made a comeback recently, thanks largely to the increased interest in vintage motorcycles in general. The baby boomers were responsible for a surge in motorcycle sales in the late 1960s and 1970s, and many of this generation now find themselves with the time and discretionary income to recreate the bikes they had—or wished to have—in their younger years.

A new generation of motorcycle designers and builders are using the style as a fresh alternative to the custom chopper scene. Furthermore, in many parts of the United States, there are large numbers of stock 1970s and 1980s era Japanese motorcycles available for relatively small amounts of money. There is a strong appeal to younger and less wealthy motorcyclists to build a café racer from one of these bikes and end up with a stylish personalised motorcycle at a fraction of the cost of a newer bike.

The scene is now the subject matter of a US based television series hosted by journalist Mike Seate titled Café Racer.

See also

• Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling

Bibliography

• Clay, Mike. (1988) Café Racers: Rockers, Rock 'n' Roll and the Coffee-bar Cult. London: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-677-0
• Walker, Alastair. The Café Racer Phenomenon. 2009 Veloce Publishing ISBN 978-1-84584-264-2
• Walker, Mick. Café Racers of the 1960s: Machines, Riders and Lifestyle: a Pictorial Review. Crowood, 1994 ISBN 1-872004-19-9
• Seate, Mike. Café Racer: The Motorcycle: Featherbeds, clip-ons, rear-sets and the making of a ton-up boy. Parker House, 2008 ISBN 0-9796891-9-8

External links

• Café racer at the Open Directory Project
• Classic Motorcycles at Curlie