Colby Higgins Honda CX500 Cafe Build

CX500 Cafe Racer Build

Industrial designer Colby Higgins transformed a rather beatup Honda CX500 cruiser into this very clean and simple cafe racer. More pictures here at his Coroflot portfolio.

Beautiful Classic Ducati Cafe Racers

Ducati Cafe Racer at Inazuma Caferacer Blog

Absolutely beautiful Ducati cafe racers at one of our favorite motorcycle blogs, Inazuma Caferacer. 

Indian Scout Cafe Racer from Analog Motorcycles

We've been really impressed with the work of designer/builder Tony Prust, proprietor of Analog Motorcycles, as he's developed the last couple of years or so that we've been aware of him and Analog. Now we've just seen this classic, elegant Indian Scout cafe racer at the Bike EXIF blog (one of our all-time favorite motorcycle blogs, by the way). Impressive. Check it out.

Bike EXIF has featured a number of other Tony Prust bikes in the past. I liked this 1971 Triumph 250 based scrambler, it's especially nostalgic for me because my first bike was a 1971 250 in the street model configuration.

How to Build a Cafe Racer

Honda CX500 Cafe Racer

Charles Tregolan is a professional car designer by trade. In his spare time he designs and builds his own bikes. He's written a set of guidelines for cafe racer builders at the Bike EXEF blog.

The guidelines tell the builder how to scale and set the parameters of a cafe racer to give it a professional look; how to size and place the tank relative to the engine and crankcase, how to set the fork distance, where to set the limits of the seat length relative to the rear axle, and so on.

He uses the Honda CX500 cafe racer you see here as a real-world, guiding example. If you have an interest in building, or plan to build a cafe racer, check out his article.


  

Roc City Cafe Racers CB750

Roc City CB750 Cafe Racer

Roc City Cafe Racers owner, Sean Pelletier recently built a CB750 cafe racer for himself. Just saw his post and pics at his Roc City shop blog.

If you're in the market for awesome alloy tanks and seats for a cafe racer build, be sure to take a lot at Roc City's handcrafted offerings at their online store.

Update: A hearty welcome to all readers coming here through WeLoveCafeRacers.com. If you go to our search box to the right below and search for "cafe racer" you will find a lot more posts featuring some very cool bikes and their builders.

Old Empire Motorcycles Honda CB250 Brat Bike, "Vulcan"

OEM Vulcan

The design-and-build crew at Old Empire Motorcycles took a Seventies-era ugly duckling Honda CB250, transformed it into a badass brat-style mashup of bobber and cafe racer and called it "Vulcan."

If you'd asked me back in the Seventies if I ever thought a Honda CB250 could be cool, I would've wondered what planet you were from. Well, after looking at this one I can only say that attitude was just due to my own failure of imagination... this little bike is way cool. And come to think of it, a certain member of my family has a Nighthawk 250, just a later model of the old CB250..... hmmmmm, I see some possibilities...

See more pics of Vulcan at The Bike Shed and at OEM's Vulcan page.

Tip of the Hat to BIKEEXIF blog, where we found this baby.

UPDATE: Just saw this awesome CB250 custom at Silodrome.... the "Much Much Go." Wow. Will post more about it later.

Triumph Thruxton "Steampunk Racer" from Benjie's Cafe Racers

BCR Steampunk Racer Triumph

We found this new steampunk-styled cafe racer by builder Benjie Flibbrboi of Benjie's Cafe Racers (BCR) at Pipeburn blog. The base model is a 2008 Triumph Thruxton.

Pipeburn has a load of pics at the link above. The bike was also just featured at another favorite blog, Return of the Cafe Racers.

We've previously posted about BCR and Benjie here at Cool Stuff. It's great to see that BCR is still going strong, and very cool to see Benjie's work back in the news again. You can follow BCR news and activities here at their blog.

BCR Seat, Tank & Fairing Combo Set

And if you are in the market for beautiful, high quality cafe racer parts and accessories, check out the BCR online parts store. A beautiful example is the steampunk-styled body set pictured to the left here. 

Fifth Annual "The One Motorcycle Show" Portland, OR Feb. 7 - 9

Put it on your calendar: The One Motorcycle Show, 5th annual edition, is just a month away in Portland, OR. No admission charged... The show is FREE, both to attend and to exhibit!

Check out the show's Instagram page for more information and tons of great pics. Also on Facebook.

The One Motorcycle Show is organized by Drake McElroy and his team at See See Motor Coffee in Portland, OR.

 

A Lot of Customs at Shaw Speed & Custom

Shaw Speed & Custom CRXR Cafe Racer

Check out the dozens of beautiful custom Harleys at Shaw Speed & Custom, like the CRXR Sportster based cafe racer pictured here. 

Exesor Motorcycles Honda Cafe Racer

Exesore Honda CB Cafe Racer

We just saw this very cool little Honda cafe racer at BIKEEXIF blog this morning. Christian Schwarzenlander of Exesore in Germany began this build with a 1976 CB250 basket case purchased on eBay for $340. He replaced the CB250 motor with a CB360 motor punched-out to 390cc, and equipped with a hot cam and custom intake manifolds. Check out the BIKEXIF blog post for further details of the many mechanical modifications Christian made.

Regarding the bike's aesthetics, Christian adopted one rule: No chrome. All the metal parts are either nickel-plated, black chrome galvanized, or bare stainless steel.

You can follow Christian's work at the Exesor blog.

BIKEEXIF 2014 Custom Motorcycle Calendar

Apolo XT600 Honda Cafe Racer

Here at Cool Stuff We Like we are big fans of the BIKEEXIF custom motorcycle blog. Chris Hunter and the crew there have just published their 2014 custom bike calendar. It features high-quality customs from around the world, like the Honda XT600-based cafe racer from Spain's Cafe Racer Dreams pictured here.

This calendar would make a great Christmas gift for the motorcycle enthusiast in your family. You can order a copy  by clicking through on the Amazon link below.

(Note: Cool Stuff We Like blog is an Amazon affiliate.)

Ryca Motors Sporster Cafe Racer Kit

Ryca Motors Sportster Cafe Racer Conversion

As we noted in an earlier post today, Ryca Motors has now expanded beyond the Suzuki S40/Savage cafe racer, street tracker, and bobber conversion kits to embrace the Harley Sportster with a Sportster cafe racer conversion kit for 1991 to 2003 models. No welding is required, the conversion can be made with standard hand tools.

The base kit includes:

Fiberglass cafe racer seat
Custom Bassani exhaust
Rearsets
Burly Brand "Stilleto" shocks
Choice of clip-ons or clubman bars
Custom taillight with bracket
Choice of bikini fairing or headlight & gauges lowering kit

An upgraded version of the rearsets is also available.

This is a cool expansion of the Ryca Motors product line, and perhaps next we'll see a Sportster street tracker conversion kit from them.

Iron & Air Magazine, Print & Digital Mag for Lovers of Vintage & Custom Bikes

W650 Home-Built Cafe Featured in Iron & Air

Iron & Air magazine is for lovers of custom bikes with vintage styling. It is available in both print and digital (downloadable) versions, published bimonthly. For a print subscription, you can signup here, or go here for the digital editions. A list of retail sellers who stock the print edition can be seen here.

The Kawasaki W650-based cafe racer we picture how is an example of the kind of bikes featured at Iron & Air. This one was garage-built by a father and his son.

See See Motorcycles of Portland, Oregon

See See Smoking Seagull 1

The crew at See See Motor Coffee Company in Portland, Oregon built this brutally elegant, Yamaha-based cafe racer, the Smoking Seagull 1. We previously featured a See See Motor build, a Honda CR-250-based cafe racer.

The See See Motor Coffee Company is both a custom bike shop and a coffee shop, located at 1642 NE Sandy Blvd. in Portland. Thor Drake of See See is the creator and organizer of The One Motorcycle Show, an annual event that has become a resounding success, pulling attendees and exhibitors from all over the country and beyond.

See See Motor Coffee Company

Check out the gallery of See See bikes here. Check out their Tumbler blog while you're at it.

Burly Brand 883 Sportster Cafe Racer

Burly Brand Sportster Cafe Racer

Bryan Harley has a write-up at the Motorcycle-USA site about this new custom Sporty cafe racer built by David Zelma at Burly Brand. Check it out.

The classic cafe racer style seat you see on this Sporty is a Burly Brand product.

Rockers vs. Mods, Cafe Racers vs. Italian Scooters

RVM 2013 Poster

The "Rockers vs. Mods" festival of bikes, scooters, and music is this coming weekend in Dallas, TX.

A tricked-out 1975 Yamaha RD350 cafe racer, built by Dylan Kilmer of Bellingham, WA, will be raffled off to benefit the Hunger Busters charity. Follow the link to the Yamaha to see and hear it in online video... we'd post it here for you, but it's unavailable for embedding. We've uploaded a still shot below.

Want that RD350 but can't make it to Dallas? You don't have to be present to have a shot at it... You can still buy a ticket online here for $10, so go for it and benefit Hunger Busters!

Hunger Busters offers after-school meals programs that feed hungry kids from underprivileged families. You can find out more about their programs here.

Super Trick RD350 Cafe Racer

Ace Cafe Racer Builder, Steve "Carpy" Carpenter

Carpy's "Road Warrior" Honda Cafe Racer

Steve "Carpy" Carpenter of SoCal-based Nostalgia Cycles specializes in cafe racer builds. Great designs, beautifully executed. His website, www.cb750.com,  has been redesigned recently to show off his work to greater advantage... a lot of great pics of his work there, especially the gallery of cafe racers he's built over the years.

The "Cool and Weird Combined" page  is a gallery of highly unusual vehicles and bicycles that Carpy has collected, like the bicycle pictured here on the left with the six-cylinder Honda engine that apparently acts as a chassis member. Weird, and cool, definitely.

Weird and Cool

Carpy has a fairly extensive product line of cafe racer parts and accessories, such as seats and clubman handlebars. So, if you are building a cafe racer, check out his online parts store.

BikeCraft Spring 2013 Issue on the Newstands Now

Sbay Motor Company "Jerry" Custom

I picked up a copy of the Spring issue of BikeCraft magazine yesterday. As we've come to expect from Dave Edwards and the crew there, it's filled front to back with gorgeous pics of custom bikes of all brands, from mildly customized daily riders to way over the top professional builds, like the Sbay Motor Company's "Jerry" muscle bike you see to the left here.


Also featured was an elegant and refined Sportster-powered cafe racer from Asterisk Custom Cycles of Japan, the "Avanzare."

Asterisk "Avanzare"

Check it out, there's something for every moto fan: bobbers, cafe racers, brat bikes...

Super Rat Motorcycles of Bellingham, Wa

War Crimes

Super Rat motorcycles of Bellingham, WA has been attracting a lot of attention recently, thanks to their innovative customs, like the Triumph Trident cafe racer and War Crimes 1966 Harley XLCH pictured here. War Crimes was featured on the cover of Hot Bike magazine back in July 2011.

Brothers Matt and Carl Bjorklund are the owners of Super Rat, and designers and builders of the bikes. They honed their craft building bikes for themselves, then decided to go professional some years ago.

Trident Cafe Racer & the Super Rat Crew

The brothers have another Triumph Trident project currently in progress, called the Art Deco. Can't wait to see it.

Check out the video below about the making of the Trident Cafe Racer.

"We Love Cafe Racers" Curation Site... Loads of great links

Darizt Design Bike at Pipeburn

WeLoveCafeRacers.com is a great Scoop.it powered digital curation site that collects cafe racer related blog posts and articles from all over the Web. Think of it as an online magazine with limitless sources of curator-selected content. For example, I found a great Pipeburn blog post there about the cool little Kawi KZ200 based cafe racer pictured here.

I also found the elegant Trident cafe racer you see below from Super Rat in Bellingham, WA through a Silodrome blog post there.

Super Rat Trident at Silodrome

If you are looking for anything cafe racer related, put a bookmark on this site. Or, hit the "follow" button there and receive updates via your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn account.

BTW, both Pipeburn and Silodrome are two excellent custom motorcycle oriented blog sites, I like to visit them on a regular basis. Silodrome has a category specifically dedicated to cafe racers.