Harley’s get a bad rap throughout most of the café racer community which is a shame really, I think it has more to do with their association with the chopper/bobber crowd than any actual mechanical issue. Weight seems to be a popular complaint that is often cited but anyone who’s ridden a café racer converted CB750 will attest that they aren’t lightweight little things, yet they’re almost certainly the most popular motorcycle model for café conversion.
This Harley Café Racer by Italian garage Passion 4 Custom is a great example of what can be achieved with a v-twin and a little patience, the style of the finished bike is a little reminiscent of Shinya Kimura’s work although it’s also quite distinctly Italian. The Harley racing orange fuel tank blends in beautifully with the deep black of the rest of the bike and is a nice nod to Harley-Davidson’s racing heritage.
The clip-on handlebars, custom 2 into 2 exhaust and cropped rear end all give the bike a wonderful, forward leaning sense of purpose. I don’t know about you but I’d very happily park this in my garage.
Via Return of the Café Racers and Passion 4 Custom.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, 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 well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
