Classic Cafe Racers from Vicente Design at the Kneeslider Blog

Vicente Cafe Racer, photo credit Kneeslider Blog

The Kneedslider blog featured several of Vicente Design's classic cafe racers a while back. We are impressed with the caliber of his designs and his craftsmanship in execution.

We posted a link a week ago to the feature they did about their Triumph Hurricane tribute bike, along with some associated material, including a link to Hurricane designer Craig Vetter's website.

Deus Ex Machina "Boundless Enthusiasm Bike Build-Off"

2010 First Place Winner "Much Much Go" Honda CB250 Custom

We just learned of the Deus Ex Machina custom bike build shop's Boundless Enthusiasm Bike Build-Off. The latest was held this past October, and the team at Deus says it's now officially an annual event that they'll be hosting. The build-off was a distributed, global event held at Deus's shops in four nations: Sydney, Bali, Venice, CA and Milan, Italy. Over 200 bikes were entered.

The first and foremost guiding rule for entrants is, "Create the most with the least." The second and third rules say, respectively, that all entries must run and stop under their own power... "these are motorcycles, not art installations" as the Deus team puts it. The fourth and fifth --- final --- rules are about ingenuity, originality, and creativity in conception and execution, such as use of repurposed parts, handcrafted parts, and so on... it's not about picking items from catalogs. This is the bike build-off for the rest of us, the little guys and gals.

2013 5th Place Finisher, Backyard Customs Honda

The cool Honda CB250 that we alluded to in our previous post, the Much Much Go by Australian industrial designer Nick Eterovic, is pictured above. It took First Place in 2010's build-off. You can see the October build-off's top twenty bikes here. Our favorite is this little Honda cafe racer from Indonesia's Backyard Customs pictured to the left here.

We are very happy to hear that starting with October 2013 build-off Deus is committed to making this an annual event.

"Cafe Racers Today" Motorcycle Blog

Vintage-Styled Honda CB350 Featured at Cafe Racers Today

Today we found another cool blog that focuses on cafe racers, Cafe Racers Today blog at tumblr. The Honda CB350 from Vintage Customs, pictured to the left, is a fine example of the bikes you'll find there. Check it out.

Sucker Punch Sallys Thruxton II Cafe Racer

Sucker Punch Thruxton II

Last year we featured a post about the Sucker Punch Sally's Triumph Thruxton cafe racer. (That build was commissioned by Fender Guitars.) We recently found this new Sucker Punch Triumph Thruxton custom at The Bullitt Blog.

Photo Credit: The Bullitt Blog

Revival Cycles Classic '75 850T Moto Guzzi Cafe Racer

Revival Cycles Moto Guzzi 850T Cafe Racer

We just saw this elegant 1975 Moto Guzzi cafe racer featured at Pipeburn Motorcycles blog. It was built by the crew at Austin's Revival Cycles.

Revival Cycles also has a great line of motorcycle accessories at their online store, such as this retro gauge from Motogadget in Germany.

Classified Moto Movin' On Up

Classified Moto XV920 Cafe Racer

John Ryland and the crew at Classified Moto have recently announced that they are moving out of their suburban garage into an historic building near downtown Richmond, VA. Their new shop will be located in a former cable car stable in the Manchester district of Richmond. Congratulations from us here at Cool Stuff We Like blog... Classified Moto bikes are greatly admired here, and we've featured several of their bikes, such as the Honda KT600 custom they built for Battlestar Galactica and Longmire star, Katie Sackhoff.

BIKEEXIF Custom Motorcycle Blog

If you love custom bikes of any kind --- cafe racers, bobbers, bratstyle, street trackers, choppers, classic, vintage --- or all of the above, you'll want to visit BikeEXIF.com on a regular basis. You'll find quality pictures and editorial content.

BikeEXIF is the creation of Chris Hunter of New Zealand. Chris was formerly the creative director for an advertising agency, so he knows how to design a quality website. In the video embedded below he discusses his vision for the site. Below that we have a link to his new book at Amazon, The Ride: New Custom Motorcycles and their Builders, which was published just this past week.

Seaweed & Gravel Blog and Vintage Bikes

1972 HD Sprint for Sale at Seaweed & Gravel

Seaweed & Gravel is a SoCal based company with an eclectic line of interesting products: vintage and custom bikes, vintage apparel and jewelry, surfboards, boots, bonsai trees, and other things. Check out their cool blog and current and past inventory of vintage and custom bikes.

The Bullitt Cafe Racer Blog

Down & Out Customs Norton Manx Sportster 

Let us bring to your attention the Bullitt Cafe Racer blog. Lots of great posts with pics of cool bikes, custom bike events, supermotard and bike-build videos. Also, the owner is charting the progress of three cafe racer builds he is doing: a contemporary Triumph, a vintage Honda CB, and a classic Yamaha XS.

The Sportster-engined cafe racer pictured here is a recent feature from the Bullitt Blog. Check it out.

SoCal Motorcycle Startup AVA Velocity Works Brings Sixties GP-Styled Cafe Racer to Market

Designer Adrian Van Anz & the Swift 250

Wunderkind designer Adrian Van Anz is the design talent behind AVA Velocity Works, a Los Angeles-based motorcycle startup that is bringing a 250cc cafe racer to market. Van Anz styled the Swift 250, AVA Velocity's first model, to be reminiscent of the Grand Prix roadracers of the Sixties, such as the classic Bultaco 250 TSS.

The Swift 250 is powered by a single-cylinder OHC engine sourced from a Chinese manufacturer. The bikes will be assembled overseas. No word yet on will they will be available for purchase, but if you are interested you can inquire here at the AVA Velocity Works website.

Cycle World magazine had a first-look review back in May, after the Swift 250 was rolled-out for its first public viewing at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering last April.

This is Adrian Van Anz's first foray into motorcycle design, but not his first design effort to be informed by motorcycling's yesteryears; check out his Derringer Cycles gas-engine powered bicycles with styling inspired by early-Twentieth Century boardtrackers.

Tank Moto: New Motorcycle Mag Coming From Geoff of "Return of the Cafe Racers" Blog

Tank Moto Announcement

Geoff of the Return of the Cafe Racers blog --- on of our favorites --- is teaming up with Fuel Magazine to bring Tank Moto, a new, independent motorcycle mag to the marketplace in late May.

Love the Norton... the choice of this bike for the publicity pic tells me I'm gonna like the mag. Looking forward to it.

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

Darizt Design, Handbuilding Custom Bikes in a Shed in Indonesia

We did a post this morning about the WeLoveCafeRacers.com" digital curation site, where we found an article about a sweet little bike from Darizt Design and liked it so much that we featured a pic of it for that post. We'd never heard of Darizt before and decided to look them up. Turns out Darizt Design is housed in a shed on Java island, Indonesia... not the place I'd think of when looking for a builder of unique and arty custom motorcycles.

Darizt is the brainchild of designer Agus Sudariswanto, who majored in art at his university in Indonesia. The company was initially an interior design contractor, but had to shutdown for financial reasons. After some months of unemployment, a friend asked Agus to design and build a custom bike for him, and found his new calling... He is now in progress on his eighteenth bike build.

Here is an excellent article about Darizt here that features an interview with Agus, and lots of great pics of his bikes. See the Darizt Design blog, too... Agus has lots of pics there depicting his builds. Also check out his video story that we've embedded here.

Speed Shop Design's "Beezerker" BSA Custom

Beezerker BSA  

Don't think I've ever seen any custom quite like Chris Flechtner's "Beezerker" BSA custom. It looks like a blend of Art Deco and steampunk design concepts.

Chris Flechtner was the owner, designer, and builder at Speed Shop Design in Seattle, WA when he built Beezerker, but has since taken his skills to Tokyo where he's designing and building bikes. He entered Beezerker in the 2010 AMD World Championship custom bike build competition, where it took fifth place in the freestyle customs category. Everything but the BSA A65 motor and the tires was designed and fabricated by Chris.

Chris is not a typical custom bike builder... besides building custom bikes and cars, he professionally restores priceless samurai swords, having apprenticed under the renowned Tatsuhiko Konno, designs boutique furniture, and has an MFA in design and metal arts from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. His blog is here.

A tip of the hat to the folks at the Return of the Cafe Racers blog, who served up a great post about the Beezerker a couple of years ago... I just stumbled into it today and was so struck by the Beezerker that I had to do a post about it here. If you're a cafe racer fan, visit them on a regular basis... they are one of our favorite bike blogs, and have been on the Cool Stuff We Like bloglist since last year.

As an added bonus, here's a link to a Kneeslider blog post about another of Chris's custom builds, the "Speed Shop Special #6." It's based on a 1978 Ironhead Sportster.

Cafe Racers Japan Documentary Fundraiser of Indiegogo

I stumbled into the website for the Cafe Racers Japan film project while looking around for bratstyle bikes this evening. The director, Christopher Andrew Cooke, describes Cafe Racers Japan as "a documentary exploring the day in the life of Tokyo's cafe racers scene," in which the city itself is an integral part of the story.  He's currently raising funds at Indiegogo, with a goal of $5,000. As of this writing, $850 has been committed.

Check out the trailer below.

Bratstyle Bikes

Bratstyle Yamaha SR400 Streettracker

I've been looking at "bratstyle" bikes from Japan this week. Seems to be a very popular concept in Nippon, and is catching on in some quarters here in the US. I can't really define the style, except to say that it seems to be a kind of mashup of bobber, cafe racer, and streetracker based on low-cost bikes, for example, the Yamaha SR400 and the Honda CB350.

Google around for bratstyle and you'll find a lot of cool bikes that are low-cost, everyday riders... Bratstyle.com is a good place to start, and check out  this post at the Bikers Cafe Blog.

Kaffee Maschine Moto Guzzi Cafe Racer

Kaffee Maschine Guzzi Cafe Racer

My son-in-law just brought to my attention this clean and elegant Moto Guzzi cafer racer from Hamburg, Germany based builder Axel Budde of Kaffee Maschine.

Budde specializes in cafe racers built with Moto Guzzi's classic V2 engine and stock frame. Check out the gallery of beautiful machines here.

If you're here because you love cafe racers, check out Cafe Racer magazine at your local Barnes & Noble bookstore, or follow a link below to Amazon. (Clicking on an Amazon link here and buying does cost you anything extra.)


    

Deus Ex Machina Customs Cafe Racers, Streettrackers & Bobbers

Deus Kawi WS650 Streettracker

In a mere six years, Deus Customs has grown by leaps and bounds, expanding from their first shop in Sydney, Australia to new venues in Bali and Venice, California. Owner Mikey McDonald attributes Deus's quick, outstanding success to the desire of a growing number of riders for simple lightweight and middleweight bikes that are economical daily riders. McDonald and his crew's great sense of style is a huge factor in their success, too.

McDonald is no brand bigot, either... They've built customs with vintage and modern Triumphs, BMWs, vintage and modern Kawasakis, Sportsters, Yamaha SR400 and SR500 thumpers, and more. The Kawasaki WS650 and WS800 does seem to be a particular favorite, however, such as the two examples you see here, a streettracker and a bobber. Well, just follow this link to their gallery of beautiful and stylish bikes to see for yourself.

Deus Moulin Rouge Bobber

An added bonus: The Deus website is very well-designed, just beautifully done, a pleasure to read and look at.

For those of you who prefer your bikes with peddles, check out the stylish Deus bicycles.

"It's Better in the Wind" Cafe Racer Photo-Essay Book

Cafe Racer in the Wind

We just saw this cafe racer photo-essay book for sale at the Dime City Cycles website, It's Better in the Wind by Scott Toepfer. From the excerpted pictures we've seen, it looks to be shot all in black and white film, the old-fashioned way... not digital.

In this book, photographer Scott Toepfer has documented a classic American road trip. See some of our great country's finest spaces from the saddle of a cafe racer.

He also created a short film, which you can read more about here at his website.

Classified Moto Virago Cafe Racers & Customs

Classified Moto XV920 (Photo by Adam Ewing)

Classified Moto of Richmond, VA works wonderous transformations upon the likes of the Yamaha Virago, and other seemingly unlikely machines. I like the way they present themselves and their mission:

Classified Moto is a tiny workshop in Richmond, Virginia (USA) that specializes in affordable alt-moto customs and random creative expressions.

Classified Moto founder John Ryland has an interesting, inspiring story to tell, especially to those of us who have taken the hit in this crummy economy:

Change comes in all sizes. New pair of shoes — small change. New career/business/lease on life — extra large change.

One year ago last week, I got my walking papers from the ad agency where I worked for 11 years. It was like being punched in the face and knocked into the next room. Only the room was full of sweet motorcycles and some of the coolest people I’d never met.

What could have been a disaster of super-sized proportions, instead opened the door for Classified Moto, which might go down in history as the luckiest company on the planet.

From the day I got laid off and set out to make my living in the motosphere, I’ve had something to be psyched about on an almost daily basis — one of our bikes in a magazine, a killer road trip, an email from one of my heroes, a project wrapped. There’s a kind of constant gratification for us at Classified, and we’re trying our best to keep it going.

Interesting thing is, John says he wasn't really all that interested in motorcycle's until just a few years ago.

By the way, the Yamaha XV920 pictured here was created for director Sunny Zhao's experimental film, Reciprocity.

Check out their blog here. Also very interesting is the blog of founder John Ryland. And keep your eyes peeled for a Classified Moto feature at Cafe Racer TV Season 4.

UPDATE: Check out this Vimeo video that features the build of Classified Moto's famous lamp from recycled motorcycle parts.