Deus Ex Machina has a refreshingly heretical approach to cafe racer building, this bike is one of their latest creations and you can tell at a glance that it’s a signature, antipodean cafe belter.
The team at Deus have a long held love of the Yamaha SR500, it’s a single cylinder Japanese thumper designed in the late 70s, interestingly it was only the second 4-stroke engine design Yamaha had ever developed. They kept the engineering as simple as possible, there’s one valve in and one valve out with a single carburettor and a bullet-proof 5-speed transmission.
With this cafe creation, dubbed the Cherry Cafe, Deus stripped the original bike back to save weight, then painted the frame cherry-red. They added a custom seat, rear cowling and front cowling, then added Tingate clip-on handlebars, a CR round slide carburettor and stainless steel fenders on the front and back.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Editor’s Note: We’re now in touch with Stephen’s family and they have the negatives safely in storage. At the moment it’s just a matter of them finding time to have a look through the boxes. We also picked up two more leads on some other historically important Britten images. If you have any Britten-related images…
“Scramble” is a 1981 film about British motocross by talented amateur filmmaker Syd Pearman. The film offers a fantastic look into the world of weekend warrior motocross riders, including a personal favorite who arrives with his Suzuki loaded on its side in the back of his hatchback. There’s a good amount of racing footage despite…
This Ducati Sport 1000 is the work of AJ Pushkarna, a Systems Engineer by day and custom motorcycle builder by night. AJ has previously built a number of bikes including one of our favourite BMW scrambler customs of all time – a retro R100 dual sport that’s about as close to aesthetically perfect as it’s…
The Curtiss Zeus is a new electric motorcycle from the company formerly known as Confederate Motorcycles. It has a 0-62 mph time of 2.1 seconds, a 140 kW motor (190 bhp), 145 ft lbs of torque, and a range of 280 miles. Curtiss Motorcycles Confederate changed their name to Curtiss in 2017 and announced a…
This trike is a combination of two of America’s great early workhorses – the Harley-Davidson Servi-Car and the Model T Ford. It was built by Sanders Antique Auto Restoration in Rockford, Illinois using an original 1947 Harley-Davidson Servi-Car and a Model T Ford pick bed which was shortened and sectioned to fit the chassis. The Harley-Davidson Servi-Car The Harley-Davidson Servi-Car…
The Meirson Sprint Motor (MSM) V-twin Prototype The Meirson Sprint Motor (MSM) V-twin prototype is an engine that you’ve probably never seen before. Just one was made in 1967 by a talented father and son team in Australia; Clarry and Allan Meirs – the name Meirson is a contraction of “Meirs” and “Son”. The two…
