The Harley-Davidson café racer genre is a little corner of the café racer world that I’ve grown very fond of, I love the history of the brand and although the modern offerings aren’t really my cup of tea, they are designed to be customised by their owners and their owners almost always oblige.
I’m not entirely sure how to categorise this motorcycle, it started life as a 1996 Harley-Davidson Sportster however it’s clearly been reworked from tip to tail and it now resembles a sort of rat rod, heavy boardtracker.
You may not have noticed this yet, but take a look at how low down the clip-ons are mounted on this old Norton cafe racer.
Discovered via WideOpenMoto this Kawasaki KZ400 has had the off-road treatment applied front to back, the chunky off road tires, stripped back frame and nicely tidied up rear end give the bike an appealing, post-apolocalypic feel with the distressed tank and engine rounding out the theme quite nicely.
Cafe Racer TV approached both Lossa Engineering and Garage Company before filming season 2 and asked the well-known custom bike builders to collaborate on…
Possibly the most iconic rough-round-the-edges actor of the mid-20th century, he went on to make the Schott Perfecto jacket an icon in it’s own right.
I love a good documentary, especially when it’s about motorcycles and it was made by friends. This fantastic 20 minute film follows the story of Paul Rodden and Larry Murray, two slightly older off-road motorcyclists who regularly go out on the trails with much younger men, and literally leave them in the dust.
Thunderball is one of the better Bond films, the financials agree with me on this as well. It earned $141 million at the box office and if you adjust for inflation, it’s still the highest grossing Bond film ever released.
Kyrgyz by the The Kraus Motor Co. is the kind of motorcycle I’d love to see the US chopper scene producing a lot more of, it’s a fascinating combination of modern and vintage technology with serious emphasis placed on engineering.
The Yamaha XS650 is a bike that gets a lot of love on the custom motorcycle scene, the parallel twin is renowned for reliability and a solid power to weight ratio and so it seems a little strange that most of the customs based on the model have been hardtail chopper/bobbers rather than café racers or flat trackers.
The team at Karnage Kustoms pulled the XS500 to pieces and went over each element, reducing weight and tossing unnecessary elements, the bike is fitted with R-1 rear sets, a stack of cafe racer equipment from Dime City Cycles, the carburettors have been rebuilt and the engine has been thoroughly sorted.
It seems a shame that this clip is only 0:48 seconds long, seeing people skiing down a mountain being pulled by a Porsche 550 Spyder, Porsche 356, assorted Triumphs and other motorcycles is genuinely incredible.
